compiling sequences so far

Now that there are three separate compositions or scenes in progress I wanted to put these together. Doing this allows me to see how each scene leads into the next, are the styles compatible, do the scenes make sense and how do they portrait the story and character of the Baron.
The opening scene portraits the Baron very well with the textured backgrounds adding to the age of his story, using lighting from above also seems to work well and gives a sense of drama. This is probably very subconsciously as my mind may think of theatre without even realising. Again suiting the Baron's character as I could imagine him being a very theatrical person based upon the tall tales he told of his adventures in life. The issues with this scene are mainly with the font and block colours used as their backgrounds, these do not quiet fit with the rest of the image. The same can be said of the button, I think having an actual button works well but I may reduce the effects on it to make it appear more natural. The Baron's eyes moving to look towards the viewer really works for me as I feel this this should engage the viewer and hopefully create some kind of connection. The viewer must like the Baron in order to make them want to read or view his story or stories so establishing some kind of connection as early as possible is crucial. This point was made clear to me during my research as there was one interactive comic which lost me within the first 30 seconds. I want the opposite to happen as it is important to draw the viewer in wanting them to see how this character progresses. Having the Baron's head becoming unattached from his body and the background set the scene very well for the type of world the viewer is about to enter. This is a world where almost anything can happen and the rules of the real world do not necessarily apply to the Baron.
The next scene which shows the palace looks rather unfinished compared to the previous scene. The black background seems to be in stark contrast to the textured background and the image misses the use of the light from above. The image seems rather flat as some of the depth has been lost from the light not being used. The broken world theme seems to be lost mainly by the method I have used to create this image. The coloured block shapes are too defined by the shapes within the image of the palace which takes away from the idea of a broken world. Again the font and block colour backgrounds for them are not fitting to the story. The doors don't work quiet as well as I had imagined so I will need to play around with the idea to make some improvements with style and timing of doors arriving on scene. The ballroom scene works well although I should consider background and lighting for this scene. My next step for this scene is to begin adding more characters, dancers and I am thinking about having characters such as Bach playing piano.

Palace scene

After compiling my opening scene my next task was to create a scene which would work as a transition towards the ballroom. It made sense to me to start the story outside a grand estate or palace as this would really set the scene for the story and embellish who the Baron is as a character. The scene would have to look similar in style to the ballroom scene already created. The style is similar although I did use a different method to compile the image, previously I used the coloured shapes first and then transferred a line drawing over the top, however this time I have tried to use the original sketch and then make the coloured shapes suit the image. I will not know fully if this will make any major difference until I put all footage together. This image and sequence were really just to see how it may work as a transition and how the image might come together and break apart. The colours used in this image are more like what may be expected i.e., blue sky, green grass. The timings of the sequence footage are very rough as again they are just to portrait an idea and give me a base to work from and develop further. Both images and sequence are shown below.

opening titles

Due to previously making a part of one of the first scenes I have now been able to start producing final pieces for the interactive comic. Beginning this process with the opening titles made sense as I can just keep on adding and see where I finally end up with this sample of an interactive comic. The initial scene I began to compile used a sort of broken world where parts of the scene would come together almost like a theatre. This theme will be keep through the story as it suits the Baron's character as he is over the top and very theatrical especially with his tall tales. The opening titles sequence is done in a slightly different tone, much darker and older in style. This was done as I thought it portrait the age of these stories very well although it is still in keeping with the broken world theme. I have also tried to add a little humour to the opening as the stories that will be told should be taken in good humour as they are by no means true to life apart from in the Baron's mind. This opening scene is primarily a test to see how this will work, once I have prepared the next scene I will see how the transition works especially with change in tone. I think it should work well and bring the story more to life when the Baron's world seems even brighter.

Trial animation

Trying to create an initial scene has become my priority for this project. As shown previously on thumbnails I imagined the Baron telling tales to many women perhaps within a ballroom. This type of scene would set the status of the Baron and show his character within the opening scene, although I may use another introduction for title etc prior to this scene. My first step was to draw the Baron as though he was entertaining or speaking to a crowd. Shown below is the pencil sketch I produced, there are several errors although none to severe and easily rectified. The main issue is with the weight distribution as the back leg seems to low, also the folds on his trousers and jacket do not seem right.

The next stage was to take this character into Photoshop so that I can then begin to think about putting him in a scene. Being influenced by NAWLZ I knew that the backgrounds within this comic would be nice and bright so I purposely kept the Baron within a range of blues which would contrast the background of the ballroom. The only thing which uses bright colours is his cane which appears to be made of gold and a large precious stone to show his wealth, final result of this is shown below.

When producing the first image I thought about where the final product may be displayed. Would this comic be for PC or would it be available for tablet? As this is to be a sample version which is primarily to look at style and functionality, it is not aimed at any market, or for any particular device. However I thought it should be important to create something that would be compatible for PC and a high end tablet. My decision was to make this compatible with iPad and chose the spec of the first generation to base my images on. The finished images I create should be 1024 x 768 pixels set at 132 dpi as shown below (newer iPads have higher resolutions, mini iPad now same resolution but higher dpi so would work on all iPads in production)

Prior to completing the image of the Baron I also created the basis of what I thought should be the background colours. This also allowed me to play around with the scale of the Baron and see where I thought he should be positioned within the image, this is shown below.

Using this layout would mean that the ballroom should become secondary as I want the focus to be on the Baron. As I wanted to trial an animation very quickly I overpainted an image I found of a ballroom which had the perspective I was looking for. Although this is not something I would usually do this was required to let me see if the background colours and images could move separately or if they would be better kept together. Shown below are the image I found and the overpainting created from that image.

The next step was to introduce this image and also trial different versions of the Baron. This was due to me trying different brushes for shadows etc and I wished to see them all against the same background to see what differences there were.

After dividing which brush I preferred it became more about the scale and position of the Baron. Then having a trial of where I could place text was done also playing around with scale etc.

This layout was something I was happy with and decided that this was enough for me to trial a short animation using this image. There will be many other characters included in the final image but there is no real requirement for them at this point. The focus of the task was to produce something to let me begin to see how different factors may be combined. The short animation which was created is shown below and has definitely brought progress to this project as I can now begin to see visually how things may come together regarding style, textures, animations and text.