Assignment 7 - Visual narrative
Brief synopsis:
- Group project
- To design and prepare a story book for children(Ages 6 to 9)
- No fixed storyline. To be explore by individual team
- Number of pages min 12 pages with not more than 900 words for copy (story)
- Prepare design document
- book size: 7 x 8.5 inches
This will be the final assignment for this module, nevertheless the most weightage (30%) as compared to the rest. We were only given 3 days to ponder on the story line and development of full rough sketches. Due to time conflict among the group members, we only managed to meet up during the weekend to brainstorm and come up with the sketches.
We headed to the national library to do some research on existing children story books. To our surprised, children story books are more complicating and interesting as compared to our generation. The brainstorming process was indeed time consuming and tedious. As the initial ideology on what we perceived how children story book should be like is being challenged. Therefore it would be a challenge to come out with a story which is captivating for the children. After half a day spent in the library observing children and listening to one of the story telling sessions, we came to a conclusion.
- Most of the time, parents are the one selecting books for their younger children to read
- Younger children tend to be more inclined towards fairy and frictional/adventurous stories.
- Those children who chose the book on their own are mostly older than 9 yrs old.
- Children are more attracted to the drawings initially as compared to the text.
With these observations, we set off with the mindset to target children of the age group, 6 to 9 yrs old. Since parents tend to chose story books for this target audience. We tried to think along the line to integrate morale into the storyline so as to enable the parents to pick up our storybook for their children. In order to capture the kids' attention, we intend to use simple pictures in order for the kids to better relate. From here, we came up with a few storyline:
An adventure journey of a little boy
This little boy set off to explore the world and he had encountered many incidents and events which widen his horizon.
The obstacles
This story is about an old granny who met lots of obstacles along the journey. However no matter how tough it goes, she is determined to find a solution to resolve the problems. In the end, she managed to clear the obstacles even thou she had encountered many backset.
John and the old turtle
John was trying to cross a river with his pet but the river current was too rush and he does not have any transport to bring them over. He saw the big old turtle and wondered if the old turtle is willing to bring them across. However, the old turtle is only willing to do so if John completed 3 difficult tasks. While doing these tasks, john was severely injured, he felt very demoralized. However, he never gave up till the end and he finally managed to complete all the tasks.
The Adventure of Greyie
There was a lonely stone named greyie, he hoped to be able to see the world and not to be lonely anymore. One day, he had a dream, whereby he encountered a few incidents which made him realized that he should be contented with what he had.
Final Choice:
After some discussion, we decided to settle on the story, The Adventure of Greyie. The reason why we chose this is because, we felt that nowadays most of the parents are busy working and neglected their children. These children will tend to feel lonely and wish to have some companion. Slowly they will mix with bad companion which affects their studies. So we hoped to portray this feeling within this story. Through the dream encounters of Greyie, makes the children to realize that often there are things which they take for granted.
Storyline:
Finally we managed to settle on a story and is time for us to think of the details for the storyline. After few amendments, we decided to use the following storyline.
Once upon a time, there is a stone, name Greyie, who feels bored and lonely. He hopes to be able to go on an exciting journey. At that night, he looks at the stars and wishes that he can leave the place and able to explore the world. He kept thinking about it and feels tired after a while. (zzzzzZZZZZ)
He saw a man walking toward him. He was very happy and excited. (hoping that he can leave the place) As the man get closer who is a stone collector, put his collector bag on the ground. He reached his hand to picked up greyie and dropped him into his bag. To Greyie surprised, he saw many other stones and he feels very happy. He made a lot of new friends and start talking to them. The stone collector continued his journey to collect more stone. He found a few beautiful stones near a river. He was too excited that he dropped his bag onto the ground near the river. Most of the stones fell out of the bag and unlucky, only greyie was being rolled into the river. The stone collector didn’t notice it. Greyie was being carried away by the heavy river current flow. As being carried away, he was being banged and knocked by some objects. He was seriously injured and bruised. Finally, he arrived on a riverbed.
He meets a fairy who happened to be resting at the riverbed. The fairy saw greyie had bruised all around him and felt sorry for him, so she decided to give greyie the ability to communicate for five days. Greyie was very thankful to the fairy who gave him an ability to talk. He was so happy that his voice can be heard by other. A boy happened to pass by the riverbed; he saw greyie and picked him up.
Greyie communicate with the boy and hope that he can bring him anywhere he goes, so that he will be able to explore the world. The boy was shock that the stone can talk at first and he found it interesting too. Therefore, he replied with a “yes” and greyie was very happy and thought that he will have a very good experience journey with the boy. The boy put greyie on to his study desk (with one unbalanced leg) and starts talking with greyie. Greyie thought that he was very lucky that the boy always keep him accompany almost everyday. After five day, the stone lost its ability to communicate and the boy stop talking with him. Greyie was being ignored and put under the unbalanced table’s desk leg.
All of a sudden, greyie woke up with lot of sweat. Greyie finally realize that “What seems to be a good thing could also be your hardest experience in your life”.
Grid Layout:
After drafting of the storyline, we moved on to the layouts for the storybook. We came up with 3 layouts which will be used.
1st layout:
We have divded the page into two sections. Within each section, it has been sub divided into two sections. The bigger portion within the frame is for picture and smaller portion for text.
2nd layout:
This layout has divided the page into two portions. The above portion will be for text and lower portion for picture.
3rd layout:
Exactly the same division layout 2 for both text and picture frames. Just that now picture will be on the top and ext below.
If you have noticed, all the 3 layouts have something in common.
- All of them were given margin to act as breathing space. This is to enable space allowance for binding and also not to let the audience fall out of the page while reading the text.
- At the top and bottom of the page, we have added a small row for Title and page number.
Full Sketches:
We worked on the sketches based on these three layouts.
Scene 1
Once upon a time, there is a stone, name Greyie, who feels bored and lonely who hopes to be able to go on an exciting journey. At that night, he looks at the stars and wishes that he can leave the place and able to explore the world.
Scene 2:
He kept thinking about it and feels tired after a while. (zzzzzZZZZZ)
Scene 3:
He saw a man walking toward him. He was very happy and excited. (Hoping that he can leave the place) As the man get closer who is a stone collector, put his collector bag on the ground.
Scene 4 and 5 combined into a page :
Scene 4 text : The stone collector reached his hand to pick up greyie and dropped him into his bag.
Scene 5 text: To Greyie surprised, he saw many other stones and he feels very happy. He made a lot of new friends and started talking to them.
Scene 6:
The stone collector continued his journey to collect more stone. He found a few beautiful stones near a river.
Scene 7 and 8 combined into a layout:
Scene 7 text: He was too excited that he dropped his bag onto the ground near the river. Most of the stones fell out of the bag and unlucky, only greyie was being rolled into the river. The stone collector didn’t notice it.
Scene 8 text: Greyie was being carried away by the heavy river current flow. As being carried away, he was being banged and knocked by some objects.
Scene 9:
He was seriously injured and bruised. Finally, he arrived on a riverbed. He met a fairy who happened to be resting at the riverbed. The fairy saw greyie had bruised all around him and felt sorry for him, so she decided to give greyie the ability to communicate for five days.
Scene 10 and 11 combined into a layout:
Scene 10 text: Greyie was very thankful to the fairy who gave him an ability to talk. He was so happy that his voice can be heard by other. A boy happened to pass by the riverbed; he saw greyie and picked him up.
Scene 11 text: Greyie communicate with the boy and hope that he can bring him anywhere he goes, so that he will be able to explore the world. The boy was shock that the stone can talk at first and he found it interesting too. Therefore, he replied with a “yes” and brings him back to his house.
Scene 12:
Greyie was very happy and thought that he will have a very good experience journey with the boy. The boy put greyie on to his study desk with one unbalanced leg and starts talking with greyie. Greyie thought that he was very lucky that the boy always keep him accompany almost everyday.
Scene 13:
After five days, the stone loses it ability to communicate and the boy stop talking with him. Greyie was being ignored and put under the unbalanced table’s desk leg.
Scene 14:
All of a sudden, greyie woke up with lot of sweat.
Scene 15:
Greyie finally realize that “What seems to be a good thing could also be your hardest experience in your life”.
Comments given by the class:
- The story line is not captivating enough, not much twist involved
- Inappropriate usage of the dream within the storyline. Should replaced with some adventure stories instead.
- Stone to act as the main character will not be able to attract the children. Not cute and interesting enough for them.
- Too many actors involved in order to transport the stone form a place to another place. (Too many focus, should reduce the number of actors.)
After analyzing the above 3 grid layouts, we decided to use Figure 1.3 as the final layout throughout our storybook. Since our target audience is children from 6 to 9 years old. It will be easier for them to comprehend the data flow using this layout. The reason why we choose Figure 1.3 rather than 1.2 is because We want the children to notice the pictures first.
Since this is a children storybook and we want to portray a cute image. Hence we are looking for fonts with cute and round characteristics. Consequently, we thought of using Ceri Liney for the Title and Comic Sans for the body and dialogue text. The rest of the texts are not very suitable as they are either too bold or too cursive which is difficult for reading.
For colour scheme, we thought of using the combination of pastel and warm colours to reflect on the appropriate moods. 
The initial visual style we had do not portray the cuteness enough
Therefore we came out with another version of the drawing . 
We had tried out various ways for colouring. Initially we thought of using pencil colours but somehow the outcome is not what we desired. So we tried using combination of both Digital,water pencil colouring and wax crayon. However, the outcome is not as good as using digital. Tentatively, based on the colour prototypes we had, our group thought of using digital for this storybook. The above shown digitize picture will not be our final outcome, we will do some tweak and testing to achieve a better effect.
