Digital graphics evaluation pro forma

Use this template to help you evaluate your project.
You should give specific details about your work.
You should provide both written and visual examples to explain your project.
You should find areas to praise in your work. Be specific about why you think they are
good or why you are proud of them.
You should also find areas that could be improved. Look for areas that you could make
better if you went back to them. Be specific about what you would improve.
Add additional slides as you need to. Don’t be restricted by what is here.
Any blank slides should be deleted before submission.

Does your final product reflect your original
intentions?
• My completed children’s book reflects almost all of my planning, most notably the content depicted within my draft script, final script, flat plans and
moodboards. My initial intentions during pre-production were to create a comic book, with a series of sequential panels representing multiple scenes
that take place within the story; I desired to juxtapose these scenes so that I could provide a great deal of content for the customer to interact with. I
was confident that this could have been accomplished by providing a strong sense of variety within these individual scenes, including different camera
angles and shots (e.g. extreme long shot, close-up and medium shot) as well as a wide range of characters within my story. I had also intended to
include only small areas of text on each page; these will have been represented within speech or thought bubbles to depict the speech of characters.
Another aspect I desired to add to my comic book were small areas of text positioned in boxes at the top of some of the boxes; the text would
represent the time of day e.g. 7:00 AM and 7:30 AM, create an implication of time passing and even suggest that the main character (the young boy)
within my story is wandering around the village all morning with no real intentions. Originally, I had decided to create a story that revolved around a
young boy who is sent into town to buy some food for his parents. The boy would forget why he was sent into town and encounters a wide range of
people as he wanders around aimlessly for hours. I intended to imply that the character does not know how to interact with other people, and instead
repeats everything that is said to him directly. As a result, the boy ends up insulting everyone he encounters by shouting the phrases used towards him
during previous confrontations, and every person insulted by the boy also uses a specific phrase towards him, forcing him to repeat that particular
phrase upon encountering something which either offends or surprises him. Throughout the story, the boy would always find himself shouting certain
phrases at the wrong person; each person he encounters is clearly shown to be at a disadvantage in particular. For example, a homeless person lashes
out at the boy when the boy repeats the words ‘there’s nothing for you!’ which were used against himself during the previous encounter. Another good
example is the scene in which the boy shouts ‘…the Lord bless you!’ whilst in the presence of a family who are struggling to find water (the boy heard
this quote at a church service which he came across previously). The manner of this storyline, as depicted in my comic book, was influenced by the
English tale ‘Stupid’s Cries’ from WorldofTales.com. ‘Stupid’s Cries’ also revolves around a young boy who is sent into town to buy food, only to forget
why he was sent out and repeat phrases that are uttered by other people. The boy always appears to encounter people who are very likely to be
offended by the phrase that he has been forced to repeat by the person he previously encountered. For example, the boy comes across a farmer who is
sowing wheat and shouts ‘Pray God send no more!’ at the top of his voice. The farmer beats him and tries to correct him, shouting ‘Pray God send
plenty more!’ Throughout this story, the boy is beaten up repeatedly by the people he insults until he comes across a house, ‘one side of which was on
fire’. The boy shouts ‘the one side gives good light, I wish the other did’ (this phrase was uttered by a man who only had one eye). As a result, the boy is
accused of starting the fire and sentenced to death. During my planning, I understood that a conclusion of this kind would be highly disturbing for a
children’s book, especially because of the implication of a child being murdered even though he didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. This can also
be highly unsettling for even mature readers to think about. For my children’s book, I decided to create a different version of ‘Stupid’s Cries’ (which is
no longer covered by copyright law). My own story would include entirely different characters and phrases, as well as a different setting i.e. Stupid’s
Cries was clearly based many years ago due to the manner of the phrases used e.g. ‘a dog and a cat agoing to be hung!’. My own story would be set in
modern times, with more coherent phrases included on the pages., as opposed to the setting of ‘Stupid’s Cries’ which takes place in the remote past.
My story would also include a few significant differences to the original tale; the village in which the boy lives is isolated, sitting within a seemingly
endless, dark, barren and foreboding wasteland.

Original Intentions (CONT.)
• This concept of isolation also relates to the fact that the main character is also an isolated individual; aside from his
parents, everyone seems to despise him because of his behaviour. I had also made a significant alteration to the ending
of the story to ensure that it is more suitable for younger readers; instead of the boy paying the price for his behaviour,
he simply becomes tired of the fact that he is neglected by everyone, without even understanding why people hate
him so much. The character decides to leave his home village and wander out into the surrounding wasteland, clearly
depressed. He eventually becomes lost and frightened, but he is found by his parents and taken back home. However,
the boy is implied to have not learnt his lesson and his parents have apparently forgotten the events of the previous
day. Once again, the boy is sent into the village to buy food, only to encounter another villager who he insults. The
story ends with the impression that the boy will go through the exact same ordeal of getting neglected by people every
day. My final product almost mirrors my planning exactly, although there are a few minor changes including specific
details I was hoping to provide to some of my locations, most notably the wasteland and the town; the latter location
simply included two illustrations of a house, a bench, a road and a hotdog stand. The reason why I didn’t provide as
much detail as I initially intended was because of the fact that I had limited time to produce my children’s book. My
final product also lacks a few small scenes that I had planned to include; the scene involving the family around the well
was originally planned to include two shots (a high angle shot of the bottom of the well and a low-angle shot of the
family looking down the well). During the production of my comic book, I found it increasingly difficult to create images
of this kind using the ‘rotoscope’ technique on Photoshop, so I didn’t include the low and high angle shots in the end. I
also didn’t include the text illustrating the passage of time between scenes e.g. 9:00 AM and 9:10 AM because I felt
that this technique was quite unnecessary; the passage of time within my story was quite obvious. My final script also
matches the course of the story almost exactly, the quotes I put into my scripts were the ones that I decided to use in
my final product. During my planning, I had also desired to employ the ‘rotoscope’ technique which is the technique I
ended up utilizing during production to construct visually intriguing illustrations of locations and characters,
particularly shots of the main character.

How well have you constructed your
images?
• During this project, I have managed to create multiple images, all of which graphically depict specific aspects of
the village and the surrounding wasteland (the story’s setting), as well as shots of the main character and the
people he encounters during his travels. I have been able to construct these images using the ‘rotoscope’
technique which involves positioning different shapes (e.g. circles, rectangles and triangles) over a real-life
image obtained from Google. After placing these shapes over the image obtained, I altered them using the
‘Warp’ tool so that they reflected the shape of certain aspects of the image I was drawing over e.g. facial
features, hairstyle and clothing. As a result, I successfully achieved an almost accurate depiction of a real-life
individual and location. To ensure that I was able to accomplish this, I was required to be patient and pay
attention to specific details in the image. Creating illustrations of almost every detail in images I obtained from
Google clearly had a positive impact on the visual quality of my final images shown in the comic book. My final
images are highly detailed; a good example is the image of the well as shown below. I have constructed
wooden fencing, areas of grass and a pavement, as well as the front view for a house. To provide things like
colour and saturation to the shapes I created, I selected the ‘Colour Overlay’ option in ‘Blending Options’ and
chose a hue I thought would look convincing in regard to the appearance of things like grass, gravel, wood etc.
In my opinion, the use of many different colours in my image has not only enabled me to provide contrast, but
has also given my book a visual appearance which could be intriguing, especially for young children. The reason
for this is because there is lots of colour on the pages and this has the potential to draw the reader’s attention
to specific aspects of the locations shown. Because there is a great deal of content in my book, I was required
to draw and warp shapes repeatedly so that I could construct accurate depictions of a wide range of locations,
as well as characters and arm and leg movements. To make my characters look more appealing, I used shapes
to draw facial features and expressions (including eyes, eyebrows, noses and mouths). This has resulted in most
of my characters looking like actual living people rather than just illustrations, therefore the reader might be
able to relate to the characters easily.

How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• The use of both text and images within a children’s book can be considered advantageous for the sole reason that it provides readers with increased
aspects to interact with, thus making the book more enjoyable to read. During my own analysis of existing children’s books, most notably ‘The Selfish
Crocodile’ by Faustin Charles, I found that areas of text are combined with large images that take up the entirety of a page (or two whole pages) with
the most likely purpose being to provide a summary of what each image is trying to communicate. I also found that the areas of text were fairly small;
there was never too much text on each page and there weren’t any words or phrases which would be deemed as too complicated for younger readers
to understand. Another possible reason for this is so that the reader can focus only on the images without too much text to distract them. In ‘The Selfish
Crocodile’ the text is positioned on the corners of each image in black, lower case lettering. The decision to position the text in this manner might have
been influenced by the fact that younger viewers would be more interested in the visual quality of the images; to ensure the reader can focus on the
images, the text is black and thus doesn’t provide any connotation, nor does it have the potential to attract the eye of the reader because it is a dull
colour. To ensure that the reader can focus solely on the flow of action taking place within my comic book, I have not included too much text in each
box. Because I have done a comic book, I have not included phrases such as ‘Once upon a time…’ or ‘they lived happily ever after’. The only text that
appears within my book is shown in speech bubbles; this indicates my use of graphic conventions within my book. In regard to this specific convention, I
have created a coherent impression of speech; each bubble shown throughout the comic indicates words that are spoken aloud by the characters. In
two instances, I have also used a ‘thought bubble’ to convey the subjective thoughts of characters i.e. personal emotions. In one of these thought
bubbles, I placed a picture (a screenshot of a previous event within the story) within it in order to communicate the fact that the main character is
recalling a past event that he has experienced. I understand that although speech and thought bubbles are common conventions of comic books, it is
quite rare for a speech bubble to feature an image instead of text. To further emphasize on the fact that a main character is speaking, I have used the
Shape Tool to draw an open mouth on each character. In addition to this, I have used the ‘Warp Tool’ to alter the posture of each character so that an
impression is created of the characters leaning forwards as they speak; I have also drawn an extended arm for the main character with the illustration
of a hand and a finger pointing in a certain direction. This provides even more emphasis on the fact that the character is speaking, and also
communicates the fact that something has drawn the attention of the main character. To make it obvious that the characters are shouting at the top of
their voices, I have constructed enlarged shapes to create an impression of the character’s mouths being wide open. To support this further, I placed
explanation marks at the end of the text shown in the speech bubble; the text was shown in big, bold capital lettering as well. There were areas of the
story in which the characters are shown raising their voices (for example, when the police officer tries to stop the scuffle between the family of four) as
well as reacting to pain (the scene where one of the villagers drops a basket of fruit he was carrying onto his foot). Another technique I used to anchor
text to my images is the incorporation of specific uses of onomatopoeia e.g. BOOM!, WHACK!, THUD! or WHAM! which do well to represent the
severity of the main character hitting the floor, as well as scenes depicting the ‘Ball of Violence’. To further emphasize the fact that a fight is taking
place, I added these uses of onomatopoeia to imply the main character getting struck multiple times by the other character(s) who are shown to be
reacting in anger towards him.

Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Prior to the beginning of production, I completed a planning booklet which I used to communicate my own ideas in regard to the type of book I
desired to create, as well as the resources that would be required to ensure I successfully complete the production of my book e.g. Google
Images and DSLR camera. It was a good idea to consider things like the skills I would need for the project (most notably skill on Photoshop) and
whether or not the content of my book would be suitable for young audiences e.g. children aged 10 or below. In my planning booklet, I stated
that the intended audience for my book would be males aged 5-11 years; I also stated that the book would appeal to the ‘Achiever’
Psychographic, as well as those who live in the countryside. The main reason why I assumed this was my audience is because I had decided that I
was going to include specific themes in my comic book e.g. violence, tension and suspense (especially in regard to the scene in which the main
character leaves his village and heads out into the wasteland which is represented as dangerous territory). Such themes are commonly found in
books which fall into the thriller or action genres. These genres tend to appeal to males who commonly prefer themes of action as opposed to
female audiences who may prefer romance. The reason why I stated that my book would apply to an age group in particular (5-11 years) is
because certain themes in the book might be unsuitable for younger children/might not be understood by younger children. At the age of five
years old and above, children would be more likely to understand the concept of my book. Another reason why I chose this age group is because
the main character is a child and the readers will be able to relate to him easily, especially because of the fact that he is troublesome and doesn’t
understand the consequences of his actions; the character is shown to be quite naïve and children might be able to learn something from the
story. Also, at this age, children might not require an adult to read them the story; because I have created a comic book, it would be difficult for
an adult to read it to their child due to its structure. The reason why I stated that my book would also appeal to Achievers is because the attitude
of the character reflects the characteristics of Achievers who desire to be noticed and have a unique personality; sure enough, the main
character draws attention to himself, albeit unintentionally, throughout the story. Lastly, in my planning documentation I had also stated that
the book would appeal to those who live in the countryside because my story takes place in an isolated location with a small amount of people
living within it. People who live in the countryside might be able to relate to my story due to the presence of familiar aspects e.g. fields and
houses with no tall buildings or similar structures present (although there is a church in the village in my story). The content of my book should
not be deemed as too violent or disturbing in any way; I have not included things like blood or bruising on the face or arms of the main character
in the scenes following the beatings he receives from other people. Instead, I have created an impression of the character being covered in
streaks of dirt to imply that a struggle has taken place. Although there is violence in my book, this is shown in a comedic manner through the
‘Ball of Violence’ and instances of characters going ‘OOF!’ or ‘OW!’ either during or after being beaten. There is no graphic violence shown on
the pages; fighting is simply illustrated through a cloud of dust on the ground, with the heads, legs and arms of the characters occasionally
sticking out. The use of the ‘Ball of Violence’ effectively conveys the fact that the main character is getting beaten up without actually showing
the violence through arm and leg movements. There is no strong language or any offensive phrases e.g. ‘Shut Up’ present in my comic book,
therefore it should be suitable for children at the aforementioned age group to read.

What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• During the production of my comic book, I employed a wide range of different techniques in order to ensure the creation of locations, characters, facial
expressions and speech bubbles was successful and that these aspects reflected almost professional standards by the time of their completion. To
create accurate illustrations of real-life individuals, I used the ‘rotoscope technique’ which is defined as obtaining real-life images and drawing over
them to create the appearance of a cartoon location, character etc. Much of the images I used for rotoscoping were obtained via Google Images; each
one represented a real-life person, object or location. It was important that I only used real-life images for my production and not cartoon images of any
kind; the reason for this is because cartoon images have already been created by someone else, possibly with the exact same technique (rotoscope).
Therefore, the quality of my book will have been hindered if I drew over a cartoon image from Google because I will have acted in way that could have
been considered unfair. I am pleased with the manner in which I used the rotoscoping technique to create cartoon images for my comic book; I was
able to accomplish this through use of the Custom Shape Tool in Photoshop. This option enabled me to select different kinds of shape e.g. circles,
rectangles and triangles. I was also able to choose from a multitude of other shapes e.g. arrows, exclamation marks, tree leaves and clouds of dust.
These additional shapes allowed me to provide accurate illustrations of things like trees, one-way signs, debris (for the wasteland) etc. I consider the
use of the Custom Shape Tool advantageous because it ensured that I didn’t have to spend too much time drawing over images of tree leaves.
Therefore, the production of specific environments (particularly the road which the main character stands in the middle of) wasn’t too time-consuming
and I was able to create the environments I needed quickly and easily. The tool was also beneficial because I was able to provide greater detail to my
environments, thus enhancing their visual quality. After drawing the shapes, I selected the ‘Free Transform’ option to alter the size of them; this option
also enabled me to change the size of images I obtained from Google if I wasn’t satisfied with the way they looked i.e. sometimes the images would take
up the entirety of the Photoshop workspace as soon as I dragged them on from the desktop. Because I was rotoscoping real-life images, I had to alter
the shapes I drew even further so that they outlined specific aspects of the images I had obtained from Google e.g. facial features, arms, legs and shoes.
I was able to accomplish this through use of the warp tool, which enabled me to change the shape of a rectangle, circle etc. by altering its edges so that
they appeared as uneven. Altering the shapes in the manner also allowed me to obtain an impression of creases in the clothing of characters,
particularly in the sleeves of hoodies (in regard to the main character). I also utilized the ‘Perspective’ and ‘Distort’ Tools to create the illusion of a road
or grass on the side of the pavement in my environments. The use of these tools, as shown in the images on the next slide, enabled me to achieve the
impression of the main character standing in the middle of a road which disappears over the brow of a hill, rather than the main character stood on a
grey rectangle which wouldn’t have been convincing for the reader. The use of these tools also allowed me to alter the posture of the main character so
that he looked as if he was leaning forwards or backwards (in my opinion, this does well to give the impression of the character keening in pain or
recoiling in terror upon being confronted by other characters. I was able to create shots of the main character by rotoscoping pictures which I took
myself outside of lessons; these images depicted myself posing in different ways (stood against the wall or in the middle of the corridor). These images I
took represented shots of the main character within the comic book, and the use of the rotoscope technique enabled me to create accurate cartoon
depictions of myself. I am quite pleased with the visual appearance of these cartoon images because they mirror actual mannerisms of people e.g.
placing hands inside pockets or leaning against a wall whilst waiting for something. Therefore, it is likely that people who read my comic book will be
able to relate to the main character in this regard.

Techniques (CONT.)
• Other techniques I have used during production include alteration of the shapes I drew using the tools found in the ‘Blending Options’ toolbar, most
notably the Bevel and Emboss tool, Colour Overlay tool and Satin tool. The use of these tools enabled me to enhance the appearance of the shapes I
created, as well as ensure that the shapes accurately depicted things like objects, materials and aspects of the environments I was creating. Prior to the
beginning of production, I desired to provide as much detail as possible to my environments to ensure that they would look visually pleasing, and the
use of ‘Blending Options’ allowed me to accomplish this successfully. During the construction of every environment, object and character, I spent a fair
amount of time enhancing the appearance of every shape I drew; for example, I was able to add lots of colour to my images using the ‘Colour Overlay’
tool. I took great care whilst colourizing different shapes in accordance to what I was constructing e.g. grass, wood or stone. When it came to providing
colour to things like houses within my images, I used different tones for the walls, roofs, doors and windows to ensure that the reader can differentiate
between the aspects of the houses. If there was more than one image of a house, I would change the colour of the walls to provide contrasting effect,
as well as to establish the fact that the same house isn’t present around the whole village in my story. I also felt that the alteration of colour in regard to
the structures in the village was a good way to provide a sense of variety within my images, thus readers are provided with increased aspects to interact
with, most notably children who are more likely to want a lot of aspects to study within a book consisting of images. I am very pleased with the fact that
I have employed more advanced techniques during production to make some of my locations look as real as possible; prior to the creation of my comic
book, I have had experience on Photoshop and this also made the creation of my images more straightforward because I was familiar with the program.
Some of my environments, most notably the alleyway, clearly feature a significant amount of detail, specifically in regard to things like brickwork. To
accomplish the appearance of brickwork, I used the Filter Gallery in Photoshop to select a specific texture e.g. Mosaic Tiles, Patchwork and Stained Glass
which would go over the shape of a rectangle in the background. I selected the ‘Patchwork’ texture, which took the appearance of brickwork that can
be seen on the walls of houses and other structures in real life. I consider the use of the Filter Gallery as highly beneficial because it enables me to
provide certain aspects to my environments which make them look real and also saves a lot of time and effort. If I didn’t utilize the Filter Gallery, I might
have been required to draw squares, duplicate them 80-90 times and arrange them all together. This process might have hindered the overall
appearance of my comic book because I might not have been able to finish it without making it appear rushed. I am pleased with the visual quality of
some of my locations as a result of using the Filter Gallery, and it very likely that people who read my book will be able to relate to the locations
depicted because they almost look real. Another technique I employed during production is the Lens Flare, which I used to create a strong impression of
the sun. However, I didn’t include this in the locations which were set during the day in my story. Instead, I used the Lens Flare for the ‘Wasteland’ that
surrounds the village. When the wasteland is introduced in the story, it is set at night-time and I wanted to provide a dark and dreary atmosphere for
the location, as well as communicate the danger the main character is in when he wanders out of the village. This is the reason why I desired for the
character to leave the village during the night in my story. In addition to this, I was able to provide dark tones and shadows to the location to further
communicate the menacing atmosphere of the wasteland. Because my story represents cartoon locations and characters, there is a great deal of
exaggeration when it comes to depicting things that aren’t real. A good example of this in my story is the apparent presence of the sun in the night sky,
even though it usually sets in the evening in real-life. This creates the impression that there is no sky above the wasteland, or that the sky simply
disappears in the evening. In my opinion, this technique helps to establish the fact that my story takes place in an entirely different plane of existence
rather than our own.

What do you like about how your final
product looks?
• I think that I have done well to create a significant amount of visually intriguing comic art that encompasses eleven pages and
88 juxtaposed panels in total (with eight panels per page). There are a wide range of aspects that I am particularly impressed
with, most notably the detailed environments, the presence of lifelike characters, and the continuous, uninterrupted flow of
action which is clearly shown within my story. The wide range of cartoon illustrations of myself all provide an accurate depiction
of a normal person, thus increasing the chances of my product appealing to the audience (which is children aged 5- 11 years),
primarily due to the fact that they will be able to relate to the character which looks almost like a real person, with significant
focus on creases in the grey hoodie he is wearing, as well as the two different coloured shirts he wears underneath it (which are
blue and red) and his facial expressions. I am pleased with the overall process of creating the main character for my children’s
book; this process involved getting someone else to take pictures of myself stood against the wall, walking across the corridor,
sitting on the stairs and standing still in the middle of the corridor. After importing these photos, I opened each one in
Photoshop and rotoscoped them so that I was successfully able to construct almost accurate cartoon versions of myself; the
manner in which I posed within my photos would provide the basis for specific shots of the main character during specific
scenes e.g. the character walking past a house, lying in bed, stood in the middle of the road and leaning against the wall to
listen to the teacher shouting at her class in the first confrontation scene (on Page 2). I am impressed with the visual
appearance of my overall main character, as well as the manner in which he is positioned in relation to specific shots within the
panels. A good example of this is the shot on Page 1 that depicts the character sitting up in bed and hitting his alarm clock after
becoming irritated by it. It clearly looks as though the character is actually lying in bed as opposed to the appearance of a
simple illustration depicting half a body positioned against the image of the bed within the illustration of the main character’s
bedroom.
• Another aspect that I am really pleased with is the visual quality and style of the multiple environments that appear throughout
the story, including the kitchen within the main character’s house, the interior of the church, the race track and the shots of the
wasteland. The environments are highly detailed and bear many similarities to real-life locations, thus allowing for the reader to
relate to the aspects of my book. I was able to create these environments via the exact same technique that was employed for
the shots of the main character; for example, some of the environments I constructed were actual locations located just outside
of York. Specific locations I photographed outside of lessons included the church and the York Racecourse (which are both
located not too far from the college). Using the rotoscope technique, I was able to create cartoon illustrations of these locations
on Photoshop. I am also impressed with the overall quantity regarding the content of my children’s book. I have spent a
significant amount of time (almost five weeks) attempting to create an almost-professional looking comic book which contains
a lot of detail, as well as multiple scenes and contrasting characters. I think that the overall length of my book (11 pages) could
potentially provide customers with a lot to interact with.

What do you dislike about how your
final product looks?
• I believe that some aspects of my children’s book could potentially be improved. Some of the shots of the main
character are of a very low quality and this could have a negative impact on the overall appearance of my book,
because there are some illustrations of the protagonist which look visually intriguing and others seem quite
cheap i.e. achieved with very little effort. I quite dislike the method I employed to hide any instances of poor
quality regarding the shots of the primary character; this method mainly involved altering the
Brightness/Contrast, Levels etc. of some of the shots within the panels. A good example of the manner in which
I attempted to hide low quality illustrations can be found on Page 1. In one of the panels, the main character is
depicted as yawning, and although it is not very clear, the image was pixelated due to the fact that I took a
screenshot of the illustration from Photoshop during production. However, I was able to provide a dark tone to
the main character’s bedroom in all the individual panels which depict the character sleeping; this helps to
create a strong impression of a lack of light within the room, and therefore establish the fact the sun has not
fully come up yet and that the blinds are shut.
• Another aspect that I quite dislike is the quality of the supporting characters within my story; as shown within
my comic book, I have attempted to make them appear as real as possible, however I was unable to provide
specific emotions to the characters. A good example of this can be found on Page 9 in which the main
character’s parents take their son back home. My original intentions were to depict the character’s mother
kneeling in front of him and telling him ‘not to go wandering off again’ with a worried look on her face. Instead,
it looks almost as if the character’s mother has no emotion whatsoever. In my opinion, this could potentially
hinder the quality of my children’s book. Also, I think that the usage of onomatopoeia within my comic book
could be improved, specifically in regard to the size of the text. During the scene involving the fight between
the main character and the family, the ‘Ball of Violence’ which I provided is somewhat difficult to see because
specific phrases e.g. BOOM, BANG and OW are obstructing it due to being too large. I could improve this by
reducing the size of these pieces of text so that the ‘Ball of Violence’ is a lot easier to see.

Why did you include the content you
used?
• My comic book primarily consists of images, with occasional areas of text present; these areas of text solely represent
speech from characters which is shown in speech or thought bubbles throughout the story. The main reason why I
created a great deal of images to go in my comic book is because young children are more likely to be intrigued by the
pictures shown within a book, especially pictures that have lots of colour present in them. It is very likely that
significant amounts of text on the pages of a children’s book would bore younger readers who also might not yet be
able to understand specific phrases. Text in significant quantities also has the potential to overwhelm young children,
thus distracting them from enjoying the book they are reading. During my previous analysis of existing children’s books,
I found only small quantities of text on the pages; these areas of text sometimes illustrated speech from characters or
established the emotions of characters. A good example of a book which features small quantities of text on each page
(i.e. only one or two small sentences) is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ which was illustrated and written by Eric Carle.
Within this book, only small phrases have been used; they are not complicated in any way whatsoever, in which case
children might not be able to relate to the story at all, simply because they are unable to read it. In my own comic
book, I have only used small areas of text because I understood that children would be more interested in the images
of the book, as well as the visual quality shown within them. As shown within my images, I have provided a significant
amount of visual effects, most notably the ‘Lens Flare’. I have employed this technique multiple times within my comic
book; it was used to represent the sun shining in the night sky above the wasteland during the scene in which the main
character leaves his village, and two of them can be seen within the illustration of the kitchen in the main character’s
house. These represent the lights on the ceiling of the kitchen and do well to provide an intriguing effect to the image
of the kitchen. The main reason why I included this effect is so that my work could appear as even more visually
intriguing to the customer and also provide increased aspects for the audience to study within my comic book. I also
think that this effect does well to make my illustrations look real; therefore, audiences are very likely to be able to
relate to my book. Within my images, I have clearly provided a wide range of colour which enhances the appearance of
the scenes that take place, as opposed to the appearance of my book if black and white were the only colours used.
The colours which are shown within my comic book are quite positive; for example, the colour green symbolizes nature
and wellbeing and this colour is very prominent within my book because it represents things like trees and grass. The
reason why I included the colour green in my comic book is so that I could provide contrasting effect in regard to the
nature of the wasteland (which is represented as dry and barren) and the areas of green that are found in the village. I
also assumed that this could help to establish the fact that the village is a place of safety as opposed to the wasteland
that surrounds it.

What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
• My comic book could do well to evoke emotion within the reader, primarily due to the core themes of isolation,
confusion and neglect. Although my children’s book represents these themes in a comedic manner, a grim
atmosphere is present as well. There are a few scenes which depict the primary character either walking or
stood under a dark, grey sky and the scene in which the main character leaves his village and wanders far out
into the wasteland that surrounds his village could potentially communicate a strong sense of danger and
foreboding. The images of the wasteland that I have constructed feature a barren landscape and dunes which
lie under a pitch black sky; the aspects of the landscape are coloured in dark shades of pink and red, with dark
tones and shadows acting as the predominant elements within the location. I chose these colours because they
do not have a particular connotation; instead, they could evoke fear due to being combined with dark tones.
These tones were accomplished through alteration of ‘Levels’ as well as ‘Brightness and Contrast’. The use of
dark and foreboding tones in this manner has not only successfully enabled me to convey the fact that the
landscape surrounding the village in my children’s book is a menacing and perilous place, but also creates the
impression of the village being the only safe place in the story. The manner in which I have designed some of
my characters could also evoke emotion within the audience, specifically in regard to the presence of dirt on
the limbs/faces of the characters, the emotions of the characters and also the facial expressions of some
characters. A good example of how my characters could evoke emotion can be found on Page 8, in which the
main character insults a man who is wearing a suit and has only one eye. The appearance of the character’s
facial features isn’t too disturbing, however the implication as to what caused it could be quite unsettling for
more sensitive readers. This particular character is then shown to be crying after the main character insults
him; this is clearly shown through the illustration of the character raising an arm towards his face and shedding
a tear. In my opinion, this does well to provide an accurate impression of reality i.e. some people are more
sensitive than others and tend to get upset very easily rather than lash out in retaliation. To create an
impression of anger, I have designed much of the characters in specific ways; two or three characters are shown
to have red-coloured faces (to imply that the character is enraged) and others are shown to be gritting their
teeth in anger.

Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to
be able to interpret them.
At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a
magazine is written in.
At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that
we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas.
We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to
understand when looking at others.
We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different
forms.
14Creative Media Production 2012

Audience Responses
What is this?
This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in
snow and with a red ribbon on.
Our cultural understanding allows us to
interpret its meaning.
To us, in British society, it means
Christmas, presents and family.
This is because we share a cultural
knowledge.

Audience Responses
There are many other signs and symbols
that we attach meaning to.
A leather jacket can imply rebellion.
A sports car can imply wealth and power.
A cross can represent religion.

Audience Responses
Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world
over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in.
What that car means however, can be very different depending on your
cultural background.

What representations can be found in your work?
• There are many representations within the comic book I have created. Because the primary setting for my children’s book is a
village with a wide range of people residing there, there are bound to be different genders, age groups and social groups. In my
opinion, this provides a strong sense of variety to my story and also gives the reader more aspects to interact with; for example,
those who come across my book should find that they can relate to the characters depicted within the story. There is a specific
representation of both males and females within the story; most of the villagers encountered by the primary character (who is
also a male) are males, with only three females becoming involved in a confrontation with the character (the teacher, along with
the mother and daughter of the family in two different scenes). The fact that the people who are shown walking around the
village in my story are mostly males could hint at the fact that, stereotypically speaking, males tend to be workers with their
primary responsibility being to go out and earn money so that their families can benefit, whereas females are known to stay at
home so that they assume the role of caring for their children. This is the reason why no females are shown to be walking
around in the streets; instead, they are implied to be staying at home. The only instance in which females are shown to be
outside of their homes is during the scene in which a family of four are forced to leave their home to find water, indicating that
they are desperate. The teacher who is encountered by the main character is also a female; the fact that she has taken on a job
role of this kind is so that she can care for children and their education further emphasizes the fact that females tend to assume
roles involving care (despite the fact that the teacher within my story is depicted as a strict person who does nothing but shout
at the children in her class; credence to this is strengthened by the fact that she tells the main character to leave the school
premises rather than volunteer to take care of him until his parents can pick him up). The main character is supposed to be a
child (even though he looks like an adolescent) and the manner in which he is represented within my story can be considered as
highly negative. This also creates a false impression in regard to children in general. In my story, the main character is depicted
as a naïve individual who wanders around with no real intentions; he gets beaten up and neglected by other characters in the
story until it gets to the point that he can’t bear it anymore and decides to wander out of his village, all alone. Although all of
this is represented in a comedic way, it is still quite negative and can be fairly unsettling to some readers. There are a wide range
of different age groups who are also shown within my book; the characters who are encountered by the character appear to be
in their 30’s or 40s, with some appearing to be in their early 70s. In one scene, an elderly man is depicted as tripping and falling
flat on his face. The main character shouts ‘Have a good day’ at the elderly man, who proceeds to beat him with his walking
stick out of anger. Although this is played solely for laughs, this scene could offend people and it also creates a negative
impression of this specific age group. In this scene, elderly people are depicted as clumsy and slow and this is not a good
impression, thus this could affect the quality of my work. There are no different races or ethnicities depicted within my story,
however there is strong focus on religion in one scene in which the main character rudely interrupts a church service. In this
scene, the pastor is represented as being a highly religious person; the fact that he uses specific religious phrases e.g. ‘May the
Lord Bless You!’ supports this. In my comic book, there is also focus on different social classes e.g. upper class, middle class ad
lower class. For example, the scene involving the confrontation in the alleyway depicts an individual who is implied to be a
lower class individual. This refers to people who either earn very little or are unemployed. In this scene, the character who is
encountered by the young boy is clearly a homeless man. The manner in which he is represented is quite negative; the main
character insults this individual by shouting ‘there’s nothing for you’, causing this man to react and beat up the boy (as implied
through the ‘Ball of Violence’). Therefore, my book is likely to offend people who belong to a lower class (i.e. they receive low
income) because they might believe the phrase the boy uses in the book and falsely assume that they are inferior to everyone
else and that they have no place in the world.

What style have you employed in your
products?
• For my children’s book, I decided to construct a comic book with a wide range of images and
areas of text present; this combination of images and text has successfully enabled me to
illustrate the story I was initially hoping to tell, as well as create visually intriguing pages that
reflect near-professional standards. My overall comic book consists of eleven pages, with
eight sequential panels (into which scenes of action are inserted) taking up the entirety of
each page, thus there is a total of eighty eight panels in my book. The background of each
page consists solely of a large black rectangle which was edited via the Filter Gallery to give
it a grainy appearance and enhanced further through the incorporation of a Lens Flare. On
the bottom right hand corner of each page, a page number has been provided with the
purpose of indicating the order of events that are depicted on the pages. The primary
reason why I chose to create a comic book is because I thought that this type of book could
enhance the humour of my story, mainly because the presence of speech within speech
bubbles, as well as the humorous reactions of characters, could amuse readers easily. I also
assumed that a comic book would be very entertaining for children to read and that children
will be able to read it by themselves (the reason for this is because a comic book like the one
I created cannot be read to children because they won’t be entertained as much if they can’t
see the action taking place on the pages. There are more images on the pages than text
(only small areas of text are present and these solely represent the speech of characters),
and the reason why I decided to include a large amount of images is because I assumed that
the book might appeal to children more due to the fact that they do not have to focus on a
large amount of text which could potentially distract them from enjoying the story.

What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
• The process of pre-production involved analysis of existing children’s books and tales online, considerations
regarding the viability of specific resources (e.g. DSLR camera, Photoshop and Google Images) as well as
constructing a script which would provide the basis for the children’s book I would create via Adobe Photoshop.
I consider my planning documentation as highly beneficial because it enabled me to gain insight regarding the
amount of detail which would be required to complete my children’s book, as well as provide me with a wide
range of options to choose from. The research I undertook on existing children’s books provided me with a
great deal of information regarding specific conventions that are used in children’s books in recent times. I
consider obtaining this kind of information as advantageous, primarily because it enabled me to enhance the
overall quality of my book whilst increasing the chances that it could appeal to my target audience (which is
children aged 5 to 11 years). The reason for this is because my book would have a specific style that children
are familiar with (in regard to alternate titles they have read).
• Overall, I think that I managed my time fairly well, in spite of the fact that the anticipated length of my
children’s book resulted in production via Photoshop taking up almost five weeks (including some of half term).
The reason why my comic book took a long time to complete is because of the storyline I planned to create
initially, as well as the individual scenes, locations and characters I intended to construct through utilization of
the ‘rotoscope’ technique. I think that some aspects of my planning were quite weak in terms of considering
the amount of time production would require and whether or not I would be able to finish my comic book
before the deadline. My initial intentions were to construct a long story, with a total of seventeen locations,
seventeen different characters and a wide range of short, one-word phrases representing instances of
onomatopoeia. The number of locations present in my story was increased by my intentions to create multiple
versions of a single location; for example, the scene involving the relay race required two different illustrations
of the same location. The purpose of this was to provide increased aspects for the customer to interact with. I
don’t think that I took into account fully the amount of time I would require to construct my children’s book
and this could have potentially reduced the overall quality of my product, especially if I didn’t manage to finish
it in the end or if I was required to rush it, thus decreasing the visual appearance of my book.

Historical and cultural context
• I think that my children’s book bears many similarities to the old English tale ‘Stupid’s Cries’,
with the protagonist being a young boy who encounters people and gets beaten repeatedly
after offending them unintentionally; and at the story’s conclusion, the boy does not yet
learn the error of his ways. The story I chose was heavily influenced by ‘Stupid’s Cries’, which
is obviously a fairly old story with the copyright covering it having expired. Although
significant adjustments have been made to the story (specifically in regard to the ending of
the story, the phrases which are uttered by the characters and the story’s setting), my
children’s book does compare to this tale which was clearly published a while ago (as
evidenced by the manner of the phrases used within the story e.g. ‘Liver and lights and gall
and all’.
• My comic book looks very similar to existing products; as of recent times, a wide range of
comic books have been produced and a lot of them are quite humorous in regard to tone.
Some of the children’s books that I have analysed bear many similarities to the book I have
created. For example, ‘the Selfish Crocodile’ provides significant focus on the consequences
of one’s actions, as well as the advantages of having friends. This story clearly has an
interesting moral behind it and children are very likely to learn from the aspects of the book
which could encourage them to treat others as they desire to be treated themselves and not
be overconfident or assume themselves as superior to others in any way whatsoever,
otherwise other people might not help that person when they find themselves in a dilemma
of their own. My own story is very similar because it revolves around the main character
getting neglected due to his own unacceptable behaviour, as well as getting beaten up by
other people whom he insults. Therefore, children who read my book are very likely to learn
that there will be consequences for their own actions, much like ‘the Selfish Crocodile’.

Peer Feedback
• The feedback I received for my planning documentation was generally positive, with
some people highlighting the type of storyline I chose to create, as well as the fact
that I have done well to provide an interesting moral to my story which could ensure
that my book appeals to young children. People have also praised my intentions to
utilize specific techniques in Photoshop e.g. the rotoscope technique to construct
cartoon illustrations in order to tell my story. Another aspect that people have
praised is the fact that I will have been employing certain conventions e.g. the dust
cloud for fighting as well as ‘amusing injuries’ for the main character.
– I agree with many areas of my feedback, which has implied that the story I have chosen is
fairly unique and possibly something that is very difficult to find i.e. not commonly found
in children’s books nowadays. I also agree with the fact that I should have established the
exact place in which the story is set e.g. the United Kingdom rather than simply ‘in the
middle of nowhere’ because this wouldn’t have been intriguing for the reader.
– I disagree with the fact that I should reconsider my target audience (which is 5 or 11
years old) because I feel that children who are very young e.g. 3 years old might struggle
to understand the concept of my story and may even still be learning how to read.
Although the content of my book is mainly images, there are still areas of text present
and even though these areas of text are in small quantities and do not contain any
complicated words, children will still require a certain degree of skill regarding how to
read, as well as understand specific phrases, if they are going to understand the message
communicated by my book and also enjoy reading the book.

Digital graphics evaluation pro forma

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