Graphic Narrative Evaluation

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?

• Compare your planning/digital flat plans/ storyboards to your final productMy final product does reflect my original intentions as the storyboard does reflect my final story on most of the pages, however I did alter the 5th and 7th page from the storyboard as they were too similar so I changed them to help add more variety to the pages and make the pages look more interesting for younger audiences. Also from the storyboard to when I actually created the pages I added in more details to the 4th page around the castle, as I added in the clouds and trees in the background. As well as this I changed the background in the 2nd page to make the encounter between the snake and the monkey look more natural and realistic. From the original Jack and the Beanstalk story I have changed the ending as in the original the giant dies at the end but for my story I altered it so that the monkey and the bear become friends so that it it is more suitable for younger children. Another thing that I changed from the original story is that the characters were jungle animals so that the book is more interesting to younger children and as I had changed the setting it helped to incorporate brighter colours which helps to make the pages look more appealing to young children, by changing these features from the original I think it helped to create a more modern story but still keeping a moral for the children to learn from. Also I changed the layout of the 1st page so that the characters would fit better onto the background as they were placed onto a rock so I changed the original idea to have them in the centre, also by having the two monkeys to the side of the page it makes a clearer area for the text to start the book. However I have kept the main look of the pages the same as the digital flat plans as most of the pages have stayed the same with only a few adjustments to make the pages flow better, and look like more of a unit, for example with the 4th page I only added to the background of the castle to make sure it fitted with the look of the other pages.

My final product does reflect my original intentions well as I aimed to created a children's book based on the idea of jack and the beanstalk but to change it and make it a more modernised version so by changing the characters and having a more children friendly ending I think keeps the story up to date and makes it more unique. However from the original plans I did change the idea of having all the backgrounds very brightly colours, I changed this because the text wouldn’t show up on the backgrounds due to how brightly coloured the jungle backgrounds would be, so by darkening the backgrounds It meant that i could have a white font to stand out from the images.

How well have you constructed your images?• How well have you constructed your images? You could talk about the overall visual

appearance and well as the use of texture and colour.• To make my images I built them up starting with the backgrounds to help give an idea of

where the characters should go on the page and how I should create them. To make the backgrounds I used the cutout filter and altered the levels and simplicity to make the image look more like a new background rather than the original photo, on top of this I added a threshold and over laid the two layers to help and lights and dark to the image and fit with the style of my book. From this I then created the bear and monkey using the rotoscoping technique to help create more unique looking characters also by using the rotoscope technique it makes it easier to change the characters faces for the different pages as you already have the main portion of the body completed I only need to slightly adjust the face to achieve the different pages. After creating the two main characters I could then place them on the backgrounds that they were needed on and then create the other characters around these and make them straight on top of the backgrounds so that they fit in more accurately. To create the bananas and the seeds I made the bananas on a separate Photoshop file so that they could be used more than once and to create them I used the comic book style and used the cut out filter and threshold to make them look different from the original also by doing this I think it made them look more realistic even when there was a gold texture on top on the 6th page, but for the seeds I just created them on the page by simply using the shape tool and then warping the shapes to make more of a seed shape, I did the same as this for the golden seeds under the bed except for these I took a gold texture and created a clipping mask to give the seeds a gold look and stand out from under the bed. When creating the castle I only used shapes to create it and only used a reference picture to help create the right shape, I then used different textures to overlay on the shapes to help make the castle look more noticeable in the clouds for example I used a brick texture on the walls and then a wood texture on the door, but for the flags and tops of the castle I just used gradient overlays.

I used a moderate amount of bright colours throughout the pages but only on certain things like the monkey, bananas and the final background so that the colours aren’t too overpowering and help to just draw attention to the main character also by having the last pages background brighter than the others it helps to show the happy ending because of the bright colours. Also to create the bed I used the quick selection tool to select the bed from the background, I then duplicated the layer and applied the cut out filter to one of the layers and then on the other duplicated layer apply the threshold and overlay the two layers to create a cartoon looking bed also to help make the bed look more realistic on the background and duplicated the layers of the bed and flipped them to fit underneath the actual bed and faded the opacity to make it look like a shadow and to fit more with the background and give a more 3D look to the page, I also did this with the bear to help make the page look more realistic with the shadows.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

• You should talk about the combination of words, images and text.• I think in most pages the text does fit the images for example with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd ,7th and 8th page all the text corresponds with the

images as they have smaller pieces of text on them, however with the 4th, 5th and 6th page they have a lot more text and the image only represents one part of the text on the page, but because there is quite a lot of text per page it means not all of the text is represented in the image, therefore I need to create some extra pages to help break up the text so there isn't as many pages with large sections of text. When the text does fit with the image like in the first few pages where the image directly represents the text, for example in the third page where the monkey is throwing the seeds out of the window its directly represents what the text says. To ensure that the text stood out from the backgrounds I gave the white text a black stroke to outline it and stand out from the jungle backgrounds but still fit in with the style of the images and doesn’t overpower any of the images because of the black outline the white text isn't too harsh. With the castle page I think there is too much text to reflect the image, so it could've been split into two pages which would've made it simpler for children to understand as there are sections in that piece of text like when the monkey is climbing the pal tree which could've have a separate page which would've helped to break up the text and make it a lot clearer for younger readers. In comparison with this the first two pages have a lot smaller amounts of text and therefore fit better on the page and better suit the image, an example of this is in the second page where the text perfectly corresponds with the image as it describes the deal between the snake and the monkey which is what the image shows.

With this page I think there is too much text in comparison to the image and only shows a small amount of what is happening in the text. This image only shows the part about the bear coming home, and doesn’t show when the monkey climbs the palm tree or returns the bananas to his mother, therefore I could do to split this page into two to make it easier for children to understand the bigger pieces of text. As well as this because there is too much text on this page it covers the window on the wall which the text should’ve ideally stopped by that point.

On this page I think there is the right amount of text to go with the image as the text directly relates to the text as the text talks about the mother throwing away the seeds and the this is what the image shows.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

• Reference your proposal• Give an audience profile and describe suitability in reference to contentIn my proposal I said that the book wouldn’t be aimed at any child between the ages of 1-6, and I think I achieved this as the book didn’t have an overall look which would appeal more to a certain gender and the simplicity of the pages and images is also suitable for anyone from the ages of 1-6, also the younger readers would still be able to be involved in reading the book as there is lots to look at which helps represent the text well on most of the pages. Also in my proposal I said that the audience would need to be old enough to understand the moral of the story and i think that the older end of my target audience will understand the moral of the story better than the younger readers as they will be able to piece the image and text together and understand it more. Also i think my product is suitable for my target audience as it contains a lot of bright colours on the main characters which helps draw more attention to them among the jungle backgrounds and helps make it more interesting for children to look at. Also because I have fairly simplistic pages which contain basic things for children to look at and understand what they are in relation to the text. To make sure that my product was suitable for the audience I aimed to create characters that would appeal to children from the ages 1-6 and to do this I made sure the characters were very simple and easy for children to know who the good and bad people were in the book. As well as this I used simple shapes to create the castle to ensure it wasnt too complex and made sure that it fitted with the style of the rest of the pages.“I don’t think that my children's book would be aimed at any specific gender as it is suitable for everyone, also the ages of the audience of this book would be fairly young but old enough to read with guidance so that they can understand what’s happening and old enough to understand that the moral is about sharing so that they can learn the ideas of sharing so around 1-6. As well as this the colours in the book will be bright so that all ages will be interested in the look of the book.”

What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?

• Reference specific tools you used with images• To create the pages in my book I have used a variety of different techniques to make the

images an example of this is that I rotoscoped my main characters but then used the comic book style by duplicating a layer and adding filters to create the background which I think helps to add variety in my pages and make sure there isn't any areas where the characters and backgrounds look too similar. I liked rotoscoping my main animals as I think it added more detail to the characters and helped make them look more unique whereas if I had just applied filters to an image they wouldn’t look as cartoon like as I wanted them too. However rotoscoping the characters was fairly time consuming to begin with as it does take quite a lot of time to go around the details of the animals using the polygon lasso tool and create all the shadows, highlights and facial features of the animals. Another technique I used to create the images was the comic book style images to make the backgrounds I think that by using this technique to create the backgrounds helps to make the characters stand out from the backgrounds, as well as this by using this technique to create the pages it meant that making the backgrounds was a lot less time consuming then making the characters and helps to keep the detail in the backgrounds without being too overpowering among the characters. When using the comic book style to create the backgrounds I had go through a few different images to get the right one that didn’t look too dull once the cut out filter, and threshold had been applied. Some things I did dislike about the way my backgrounds look is that sometimes the darker patches in them looked too dark so to correct this I had to use the clone stamp tool and spot healing tool to cover the dark areas of the background, as well as this when using the comic book style backgrounds it meant that I could change them if I needed too, for example in the page where the snake and monkey are talking there was a tree where I wanted to place the snake so I was able to used the clone stamping tool to remove the branch and put the snake and seeds there.

Also to create some things in the pages I only used simples shapes like to create the seeds under the bed I used a rounded rectangle tool to make the basic shape but then warped it to make the shape of a seeds but then over laid a gold texture, I think that by doing this is was a quick and easy way too create the simple shape instead of rotoscoping or using the filters and threshold on an already existing image. However I do think that I could've made the seeds look more realistic as the shape wasn’t very accurate or clear, to make it clearer I could've made the seeds using rotoscoping technique which would've allowed me to add more detail. Also to make the bananas different from the original bunch on the first page I used a gold texture and created a clipping mask to cover the bananas and give them a different look from the first page.

What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?

• There are various parts of my final work that I like and dislike, for example I like the way that the bear turned out by rotoscoping an image as I think it helped to achieve the right amount of detail and by using the image helped to show were the shadows and highlights should be which made the bear look more life like. However something that I didn’t like as much was the table on the 3rd page that the monkey is stood on as I think that it would've been better if I used the comic book style to create the table as it would've fitted more with the background and looked more realistic as the background was created using the comic book style so would've suited the page better. Another thing that I liked about the way my final pages look is how well the jungle theme ran throughout the pages that were based on the ground in the jungle, especially in the last page where the jungle background looks very bright and vibrant around the characters as it is the final page and a happy ending. One thing that I dislike about the way the final product looks is how much text there is on some of the pages as I think there should be less text on the page where the window is covered by the text, so to improve this I would like to split this page into two or change the layout of the image so that the text isn't covering any of the parts of the page that make the text harder to read so that its easier for younger children to read and follow. Another thing that I would change is the way the flags look on the castle as I think they look quite flat and don't fit with the overall look of that page so it may be better I was to us a photo of a flag and then use the comic book style to make it fit better with the castle.

Another thing I like about how my book looks is how the text fits around the animals on the first, second, third and seventh page as they have the right amount of text to fit the image and the text works around the illustrations. Another thing I like about my book is how the snake and monkey look on the second page as I think they fit well with the background and the colours work well together. However I do dislike the window behind the bear on the fifth page as I think it blocks where the text should be so I would like to alter so that the window doesn't interfere with the texts layout.

Why did you include the content you used?

• Images, fonts, effects, colours• I included a variety of different colours within the pages of my book as I think

that by using the different colours help to keep the pages looking bright and children interested as there is a lot to look at on one page, as well as this the colour scheme of my book helps to show the setting of story. By using the different tones of greens in the backgrounds it helps to give the look of different places in a jungle rather than just using the same background in all the pages, it helps to show a subtle change in setting. As well as this I like how the monkeys stand out from the green backgrounds because of the brightly coloured fur I think it helps highlight who the main characters are. I used a serif font throughout my book as it is generally what the majority of children's books use and makes it easier for younger children to read, but also fits with look of the pages and flows throughout without blending in to the backgrounds also by having the font it white helps to ensure that it stands out on all the backgrounds, another thing that I did to help make sure it stands out was used a black outline around the white text to help the text look clearer on the backgrounds. Another thing that I included in the pages of my book is the comic book effect to create the backgrounds of the pages as I found it was a way to achieve a busy but simplistic background as I used more than image for the jungle backgrounds and by using the comic book effect and layering a threshold on top off the cut out style it helped create a cartoon like jungle setting.

Also something else I used to help create some of the other features of the pages is using the ‘create clipping mask’ tool to be able to create the gold bananas and gold seeds i think that by having them with gold layer over the original shape helps highlight what they are.

What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?

• Choices of colour, style, locations, character design and tone all give additional meaning to your work.

• Throughout the pages of my book there are a variety of animals used as the original story contains human characters, so I changed these to different animals and the selection of animals all have different meanings for example I have a bear as the main antagonist as bears are seen as being quite aggressive and intimidating which I think is what was needed in the enemy in this book. Another thing that I used in my book is the bright colours throughout all the pages as it helps to keep the book looking more interesting and ensures there is a lot to interest the younger readers.

What representations can be found in your work?

• How are men, women or children shown in your work? Does your work feature different ages, races, social groups or religions? Does a lack of any variety of character types create its own representation?

• In my book there are no human characters so I feel like it doesn't wrongly represent someone, I think that by having the characters as animals eliminates the chance of upsetting anyone of a particular religions, races or social groups so by altering the original story to change the human characters to animals helps to reduce the chance of offending anyone. However my book does contain male and female characters as there is the mother, and Jack, her son as well as there being a male antagonist. The two main protagonists are represented by animals which look more friendly and loveable to children as they are two small monkeys and I think that this helps to highlight that these two characters are positive characters in the book whereas the bear represents the opposition of the two monkeys and shows a clear difference between the protagonists and antagonists in the book, so I think that by using two completely different animals helps to show the difference between the characters in the book to children. Also I think that the snake helps to show how mysterious that character is as you don't know a lot about the snakes characters as it only features in who page of the book. I think by not including humans helps reduce the chances of offending specific religions, races, social groups or ages and also avoids planting any thoughts about specific people into a child's mind.

What style have you employed in your products?

• Discuss influences/ existing products• What visual style does your work have and why did you choose it?• I looked at a few different children’s books when creating the pages of my book

such as ‘The very hungry caterpillar’, as I liked the simplicity of the drawings from that book as well as this I looked at the book ‘Where there's a bear, there's trouble’ as I liked the bright colours that the illustrator had used throughout the drawings and helped me to decide that is would like to have simple yet brightly coloured main characters and some backgrounds fairly bright. Another thing that influenced me was the idea of having the text fit well around the image like in the first few pages of my book where the amount of text fit well with how much room there’s was around the images to fit the few sentences that were needed on that page. My book has quite a cartoon look to the characters because I used the rotoscoping technique to create all the characters and I think this helped give all my characters the same cartoon like look to them, however I think that because I rotoscoped my characters it helped to give them a more realistic look to them because I was using same colours that were in the image and using an actual image of an animal helps to give them a life like look as the animals would be in a similar position to how they were in the photo and therefore in real life.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning

• How did the planning and research help• How well did you manage your time• Reference specific examples• The research that I did before creating my book helped to give me some ideas from other

already existing books such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Where There’s a Bear, There’s Trouble’ as the style of these books was very useful and helped influence the look of the characters in my book. Planning out the book was also very helpful as it helped to give a layout of what was going to happen on each page and how I was aiming for them to look, however from the storyboard I did make some changes to the 5th and 7th page because when I was actually making the pages I decided that those two pages would look too similar so I changed the look of both pages to help show that they were different days and helped to fit the text in those pages better so I had to go off my what I had already planned to do in each lesson to create these two pages differently to how I had originally planned them. I think I managed my time well as I managed to complete all the pages on time I think that the plan of how I was going to use each lesson helped keep me on track of what I needed to get finished each day as I made my characters separately from the backgrounds and so the plan helped me not spend too much time creating small elements of the pages, however as I was trying to work to that planned schedule was quite difficult at times because when I was making the bear I didn't have enough time to complete in the time I had given myself to had to take time out of the next lesson to able to complete it.

Historical and cultural context

• How does your work compare to what has come before? What other similar products have existed in the past? What current products exist?

• I think my book is in a similar style to some of the books that I researched in the planning stages of creating my book as it has the text fitted around the images is a lot like many children's books that already exist. I think that the style of my book is fairly similar to a few books already available due to the rotoscope style it has a more cartoon like look to the pages. The amount of text on each page is more similar to the book “The Selfish Giant” as this book has a lot more text per page whereas most other children's books have only got a few lines per page. There are a lot of different styles in how children’s books are illustrated at the moment so there is a lot of variety of what is already available to people, however I think that the style of the illustrations in my are quite unique because of the techniques I used to create them.

Peer Feedback

• Summarise peer feedback and discuss– Responses you agree with– Responses you disagree with