The Great Narritive

Home

Hello and welcome to my narrative web site this project focused on creating a short story and turn it into multiple forms as seen in this web site. I had to use some new programs introduced to me to me such as animate and illustrator to complete the work on this site. On this web site you will see the full process of creating a one minute long animation and i can assure you it was very hard work. Though it was hard I also had lots of fun creating the contents of this web site, I also was able to learn a lot from this unit. I am now more proficient in animate and illustrator with new skills learned during this unit such as linear perspective and how to use the bone tool in animate. I hope you enjoy the contents as much as I did.

Story

For this assignment we had to create a flash fiction using 500 words or less and have it be a completed story. I drew inspiration from WW1 to tell my story, I originally thought about having it be on the christmas truce but opted for it to be at the end of the war. I chose WW1 because of the history behind it and how to show that war is hell and that most soldiers just wanted peace and for the war to be over but showing it through the main characters want of the flower on the battlefield.

The Great Flower

The strange whistling sound from the sky, the horrific screams, and the smell of rot. They were all horrible and unnecessary in the eyes of James, he had always been a pacifist but now he was in the middle of the worst war ever: WW1. The war had raged across Europe for several years, but an end was in sight. The Germans were losing but James was still stuck here, on the front lines. He and his unit had been based in the trenches for months and the casualties were starting to take their toll on everyone, especially James. Today is the 10th of November, 1918.

Slouched over sitting on one of the many benches in one of the trenches staring blankly with his brown eyes across to the other side of the cramped and muddy trench. As James sat tranquilly amongst the yelling and the falling bombs, his commanding officer ran by but stopped suddenly. The officer took his rifle and put it in his hands and pulled him from his small hovil and gave him a pair of binoculars. James reluctantly surveyed no man’s land. He saw the barb wire, the mud, and the impact craters, nothing new in this never-ending slaughter.

His eyes then came across something new a bright object among the brown and the grey of the clouds. A bright red flower in the middle of no man's land, slowly his face molded into a confused expression. Nothing could survive in no man's land it had been shelled for weeks months even, it was impossible. His face contorted in to deep thought his posture released into an open and accepting, he then was brought out by a quick snap. He was torn. He wanted the flower, but he had a family to get back to. The moon had now come out and was hitting the flower it had color unlike anything else in the grey of no man's land. He made up his mind, he wanted the flower.

He started to climb out of the trench his hands slipping in the mud from the sides of the trench. He then felt a sharp tug on the back of his uniform and he fell hard and fast to the ground. His body made a huge splash in the mud, which k soaked his back in mud and water. The man who pulled him down looked at him incredulously. After the exchange of looks he moved down the trench, James then resumed his climb, finally finding himself standing in no man's land. Bullets whizzed by his head and he fell to the ground in search of safety.

He then spent all night crawling through the mud and barbed wire. James's hand was finally inches away from the flower. He reach out and picked it. He stood up and the bullets resumed firing, one catching the flower and obliterating it in a poof of pink. His eyes widened. He look toward the trenches with anger. But before he could speak, the sun broke over the horizon and the church bells rang loud through the trenches.

THis is a screenshot of a protools session that was used to creat my audio file for my flash fiction.

Illustration

For this assignment we had to take a comic book style and create it in illustrator. We started with a drawn out version of the comic book and then took the rising action sequence of the whole thing and put it into illustrator. Now we didn’t just start drawing in illustrator we first drew a grid in our small detailing note books that we then transferred onto a piece of large paper and drew the comic book panels and illustrations in the large scale paper in pencil. We then burnished (which is a tool that you can dig an outline onto cardboard) onto and art board similar to cardboard. We then added color and took a picture of it and put the picture into illustrator for a reference photo. We then drew it in illustrator as seen in the picture below.

In this assignment we had to create a comic book of a rising action sequence from a short story that we wrote in english class. Mine was a story about an world war one soldier who hates conflict fighting in the trenches when his commanding officer gives him some binoculars to scan nomans land (A piece of land between trenches) in which he sees the most beautiful flower. The flower appeals to his peace loving side and represents his internal conflict of wanting the war to be over. In the unseen parts of the story he tries to make his way to the flower and obtain it. He eventually gets the flower and the war ends thus ending his internal conflict over the war.

During this project I learn a lot about illustrator and how to use it in advanced ways which in the future will allow me to express myself in a more precise way. Of cose with growth and progress comes some amount of struggle and the struggles I had throughout this project were not to harsh I often knew how to find and do most of the technical skills. The parts I had trouble with were the outside distractions of talking to friends which I had to just block out and focus on working. I also had to deal with my own internal harassment of how my work looked because I think that I am a horrible drawer and some joking insults sometimes got to me. I keeped working through them though and got mostly comment about how good it looked which boosted my self confidence. That still doesn't mean I wouldn't change anything, I would definitely change the scenes I chose to portray if I had a better understanding of what was required at the start of the project. I am still proud of this project though and think that the best part for me was just learning how easy illustrator came to me and was happy it did. I have learned much from this project like how to manage time well with deadlines and I think I can carry that over to other pieces of my life. This project has made me look at other art with an understanding of the whole process and how hard it is to create art.

I had fun creating all elements and learnd lots of new skill when making my comic in illustrator

Animatic

Thubnail of graphic novle — Click image above
to view my Graphic Novel

For this unit we had to start with a short story that we wrote in english we then turned that into a graphic novel. We then scanned this into the computer to serve as a storyboard for our animatic which we then turned into an animation.

An animatic is an outline that captures the feeling of what the animation is going to be like, it usually consists of rough sketches of what is happening in a scene and what the movement of the camera is going to be.

During this unit I learned a lot about how adobe animate works and how to use it. I also learned a lot about the process of making an animation coming up with a story then sketching an outline of the animation with still images to get a feel of the animation help me visualise the final product. Then finally do the animation to bring all of the pieces together into the visual for the flash fiction.

Animation

Below is the finished product of all the other works combining the short story with the illustrations and the animatic to have a completed animation. Using illustrations imported from illustrator into animate and using tools we learned such as the bone tool and motion tweens we put this animation together. ENJOY!

During this unit I learned a lot about how adobe animate works and how to use it. I also learned a lot about the process of making an animation and how to adapt a story into an animation.