Illustration and Visual Narrative: Project 3 & Final Project - Webtoon & Motion Comic

4.6.2021 - 12.7.2021 (Week 10 - Week 14)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
COM61304 Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 3 & Final Project : Webtoon & Motion Comic

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INSTRUCTIONS

PRACTICAL

1. Visual Research

I read a lot of mangas and comics since I was in primary school, I guess I was influenced by my older sister. I am pretty selective on buying one though, I always look at the art style of the manga first and then secondly, the story. Most of the time, I just read the other titles from the same artists whom art styles I like. Yep, it is a pretty big deal to me. I cannot seem to enjoy the story when I do not like the character design and all. Some of my favourite mangas are GALS!, Delicious!, Miiko and Mint Na Bokura. These were all created by different artists with different characteristics. I love all of them equally so there is no possible way to actually say which is better than which. Since I have mentioned about my favourite mangas, I wanted to do a visual research based on those.

#1 GALS! by Mihona Fuji

fig 1.1 reference #1

In my opinion, Mihona Fuji is not only a comic artist but she is lowkey a fashion designer in disguise. There will not be enough space for me to tell how amazing she designed her character clothing from top to bottom and from scene to scene. All the effort of details she poured into it is just crazy. I cannot lie that I kept on falling in love with her work everytime I re-read them.

#2 Delicious! by Yui Ayumi

fig 1.2 reference #2

If I say that Mihona Fuji is a fashion designer in disguise, Yui Ayumi is a pastry chef. This manga is about a girl named Nonohara Ringo who cannot cook at all but pretend to be professional at it so she can be the host partner of her celebrity crush in a cooking show. At the end of each volume, Yui Ayumi included some cooking recipes we can follow at home. I am obsessed with these recipes and I just know that she really love to illustrate food.

#3 Miiko by Ono Eriko

fig 1.3 reference #3

I am pretty sure every girls read this as a kid, and still wait for the new volume to come out until now! Miiko by Ono Eriko is one of the most famous manga in my country. It is a light-weighted manga about a 10 year-old cheerful, clumsy and innocent girl surrounded by her family and friends. I love all the "dumb" expressions the artist created hahahah, it inspired me a lot on delivering funny scenes.

#4 Mint Na Bokura by Wataru Yoshizumi

fig 1.4 reference #4

I have read this one multiple times, and still laugh a lot at some of the scenes. This manga has the best comedy in between, period. I really like how the artist carried her narrative throughout the entire series. Looking at the panels, I think Mint Na Bokura uses the simplest structure compared to others. 

I do prefer reading traditional mangas rather than digital, not a type of person that likes reading on a phone screen for a long period of time. But there is one Webtoon that I used to follow and pretty sure most of you already know this series, The Secret of Angel.

#5 The Secret of Angel by Yaoi

fig 1.5 reference #5

This is the first time I am reading a Korean comic. It is obvious that the illustrations are not as good as the Japanese ones I usually read. I used to follow the series because the plot is interesting, but I do not think that I made until the half of it. After all, it was probably the only Webtoon that I have ever read so I might just use this as my reference.

2. Idea Exploration

I wrote this script back in late 2019 and did not do anything with it. The storyline is pretty good so why don't I turn it into a Webtoon instead? 

fig 2.1 storyline

I am only showing the climax "scene 8" because this is where I want to focus on. The original script is pretty long so I will simplify it for this project. The story is about a high school guy who happened to see a bunch of bubble texts on people's heads where actually those bubble texts are just his own thoughts of what people think of him because he is so worried that his presentation will not go well as expected.

The "bubble texts" idea will be hard to apply if I am making it as a comic since there will be speech bubbles as well to present the dialogues between the characters. Well, I thought of a short film when writing this so I have to change that specific concept to make it work.

3. Idea Visualization

I really had no idea on how to make a Webtoon comic. I do not even know how do panels work even though I have read so many mangas in my whole life and that made me anxious. Have you ever feel afraid of being unable to make something that yourself are going to like? It is exactly how I felt.

Firstly, I need to decide on which software I am going to use to illustrate the whole comic. Here are some articles I look up to:

1. What software do webtoon artists use?

2. Clip Studio - Webtoon from ideas to completed story

Since I am only familiar with Procreate, I did a research on "is it possible to make a Webtoon with Procreate?" lmao. Then I found this tutorial video by Drawn by Yannan on how she used to make her Webtoon using Procreate before moving to Clip Studio. She said it was a "nightmare" to do it with this mobile application but it is not impossible. That made me more anxious but do I even have options? No. I still illustrate in Adobe Illustrator like a robot so I am not going to take that risk right now.

fig 3.1 the tutorial video by Drawn by Yannan

3.1 Character design and development

Let me tell you a bit about my characters. I decided to bring my original characters back instead of creating a new one. They were all created when I was maybe 12 year old? 

This is Momoka Honda, a pink haired girl who is always in pigtails. She is very clumsy and innocent. And based on what I illustrated back then, she is obsessed with the stars (well I think the creator does).

fig 3.1.1 Momoka, 2014

I tried to re-illustrate Momoka and simplified her uniform.

fig 3.1.2 Momoka, 2021

And this is Momoka's best friend, Mizuki Sato. She originally owns a aqua coloured hair but I use grey instead for this comic to avoid too many blues colliding. Also for their uniform, I did not realize that I switched the colours at first hahahah.

fig 3.1.3 Mizuki, 2014

3.2 Making a storyboard

I started creating the storyboard using Procreate Pocket on my phone but then I gave up. The screen is too small and my eyes could burn if I work further.

fig 3.2.1 storyboard 1st attempt 7/7/21

Later on, I decided to borrow my mom's iPad. I downloaded Procreate and re-sketch my storyboard. Damn, illustrating on an iPad really do be hitting  different, I also want to own one so bad >< 

fig 3.2.2 storyboard 2nd attempt 8/7/21

3.3 Line art

I actually did the line art and colouring together continously because I am impatient but this is the final "line art only" preview. As you can see I cut out some of the scenes because I just realized that I have too many panels which exceeded the maximum number of panel in the assignment requirements.

fig 3.3.1 line art 9/7/21

3.4 Colouring & adding shadows

Moving on, I created a new colour palette which I named as Softié later on hahahah. I am going to use these colours for the whole comic to create harmony. 

fig 3.4.1 colour palette 9/7/21

The whole colouring process took me so freaking long because I colour all of them manually without the fill in bucket tool to get this effortless brush texture look.

fig 3.4.2 applying colours and adding shadows 9/7/21

3.5 Re-arranging and & adding texts / speech bubbles

I export everything and re-arrange them in Adobe Illustrator with the required canvas size for each panel. Then, I add all the necessary texts and speech bubbles.

fig 3.5.1 adding texts & speech bubbles 11/7/21

fig 3.5.2 final comic panels preview in Illustrator 11/7/21

fig 3.5.3 final comic panels.pdf 11/7/21

Click here to read my published Webtoon

I decided to name the Webtoon series as "Life Coach Momoka". If I might continue the episodes, I will try my best to always deliver a useful message in each for the readers to perform better in life and become better individuals. In this first episode, it is about how bad overthinking could affect us. Did you realize that 90% of our problems came from our own thoughts? I want this series to be relatable, feel good and entertaining at the same time. Hopefully I did express it well enough!

3.6 Animating

Last but not least, turning my Webtoon into a motion comic. I used Keynote to compose and animate everything. There are 16 different clip in total. 

fig 3.6.1 animating in Keynote 11/7/21

I combined them together into one video and added some transitions in between using Final Cut Pro. I also added some background noises and sound effects just to make the animation more fun to watch.

fig 3.6.2 combining all the clips in Final Cut Pro 11/7/21

fig 3.6.1 final motion comic.mp4 12/7/21

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REFLECTION

This is probably the most challenging exercise from the entire semester. Not only it was one of the hardest, it also took me the longest to finish the entire project. Well, the lecturers have gave me so much time do it but I just cannot help but procrastinate. I attempted on creating my own manga when I was in primary school and had the audacity to sell them in a bazaar in my town which is so silly to think about. The good thing is no one ended up buying it lmao. Overall, I have learnt so many things from this project and I wanted to thank Miss Anis for giving me an extra time to finish it. I did not sleep for 48 hours and felt like my heart almost jumped off its place. Hopefully it was worth it though! The next time I procrastinate I will send myself a death threat for sure.