Illustration & Visual Narrative : Task 3

05/11/2025 - 26/11/2025 (Week 8 - Week 10)

Chan Xin Yean, 0377851

Illustration & Visual Narrative

Task 3 : Digital Triptych 


TUTORIALS

Week 8

In week 8, we learned how to portray a story without having too many panels and over explaining our story to the readers. Teacher provided a comic with many frames and instructed us to shorten the long comic into 20 frames. Through this, we learned how to convey a story using limited frames and still get a clear narrative.

Figure 1.0 Transition Exercise, Week 8


Week 9

In week 9, we learned on how to customise fonts for our comic if we were to use any fonts. Teacher told us to avoid using the default font in Adobe Illustrator when designing and taught us a few ways to customise fonts, which includes using different font, using different strokes and even merging words to get a more interesting fonts. 

Figure 1.1 Font designing exercise, Week 9


INSTRUCTIONS

In this task, we will apply Scott McCloud’s theory of transitions from Understanding Comics to create a digital triptych — a sequence of three panels representing:

  • Before a significant event
  • During the climactic turning point
  • After the event


Each panel should showcase a different transition type (excluding non-sequitur). The goal is to demonstrate our understanding of visual narrative flow and how different transitions affect storytelling.

Learning Focus
Understanding and applying Scott McCloud’s comic transitions:

  • Moment-to-Moment
  • Action-to-Action
  • Subject-to-Subject
  • Scene-to-Scene
  • Aspect-to-Aspect

Translating narrative timing and pacing into visual storytelling.
Enhancing coherence and emotion through sequential composition.


Requirements

  • Write a 300-word short story as a narrative plan for your three panels.
  • Choose three different transition types (excluding non-sequitur).
  • Create at least three digital panels (triptych) — one for before, one for during, and one for after the event.

Each panel must visually represent its respective transition type. Include a brief note for each panel explaining:

  • The chosen transition type.
  • Its narrative function or significance.

We must use use Adobe Illustrator for this Task.

Submission ( 26 November 2025 )
1. Digital triptych artwork
2. 300-word story
3. Transition explanation ( in e-learning portfolio )

Weightage : 20% of final grade

PROCESS WORK

Story Writing 

Before jumping into creating a triptych, we were instructed to create a 300 word story for our character (from previous task). In the 300 word story, there should be descriptions of our 3 main frames in the triptych. I wanted to create a story about Noir, a character I previously used in the previous task. Since I created a scene of him visiting his old friends grave, I wanted to write a story about how the friend died.

Figure 2.0 Attempt 1 of story writing

After showing it to teacher, he said the story wasn't clear enough especially when I needed to explain the 3 scenes I had planned. He also said that the frames could be more interesting and it should have a clear disruption of the plot. 

Following the feedback, I decided to change the story into a more clear and interesting one.

Figure 2.1 Final short story 


Researching

After the story was done I went on Pinterest to find some inspiration for my triptych layout and illustration composition. Thus, I created a mood board for further reference.

Figure 2.2 Mood board

Sketching

After the researching, I sketched out the triptych. At first, I just sketch out the 4 frames I wanted without any composition.

Figure 2.3 First attempt at sketching

After that I made some changes into the layout of the frames. I added an extra frame to see if its better as I thought it would be good to have a moment to moment transition in my triptych.

Figure 2.4 2nd attempt in sketching

Then, I felt like adding the words Noir to the 4th panel as to better show that the portal was calling out to him.

Figure 2.5 Final sketch

I also did another version where theres only 4 frames that highlights the important frames in the triptych.

Figure 2.6 Alternative sketch


Digitisation

After the approval from teacher, I went on digitising the artwork. Firstly, I started on with doing the outlines of all the frames. 

Figure 2.7 Outlining lamp and reference image from Pinterest

I struggled especially in doing the hands of the Noir as I didn't know how to draw a cartoon bird hands holding a pencil. So, I went on Pinterest and found a reference for the hands.

Figure 2.8 Outlining hands and reference image from Pinterest

There was also some other elements in the 1st frame that I had to reference to get a better idea of how people drew them which includes the paper stack on the desk and the quill.

Figure 2.9 Other reference image from Pinterest

 
Figure 2.10 Outline of triptych

After the outline I moved on to adding colours and highlights of the frames. As my triptych has a mostly dark environment, I studied a little on how people colour in dark rooms and how light shines in the dark.

Figure 2.11 References of lighting from Pinterest

I found out that even though everything was dark, but not everything was black in colour. There is still a main colour in a room as shown in the first reference furthest to the left, that has mostly blue hues to the environment. Besides, I also learned how glowing light looks like whether its for the table lamp or from a window. I payed attention to how I could replicated the glowing effect using gaussian blur and gradient in Adobe Illustrator.

For the 1st frame,  I wanted the main colours to be green and purple to convey the uneasy and mysterious vibe from the dark office. I also used gradients for the objects around the office. In addition, I added gaussian blur to the yellow lights.

Figure 2.12 Digitisation process of 1st frame


For the 2nd frame, since mostly was dark I used different colours to differentiate the storage room walls and the walls of the office. Besides, I added gradients to the walls outside to show that the hallway was ominous. I also added highlights to the windows as I thought it didn't look like a window without it.
Figure 2.13 Digitisation process of 2nd frame

For the 3rd frame, I applied the same gradient and gaussian blur to the glowing lights. After that, I added a sharp highlights to the hat and the frames of the office window.

Figure 2.14 Digitisation process of 3rd frame

For the 4th frame, I struggled the most in doing the portal to my liking so I tried different versions and finally ended up with using the twirl tool to make the portal seem like its spiralling. 

Figure 2.15 Various attempts at making the portal

Then, I added more papers flying towards the portal as I thought it didn't portray the chaos of the papers flying quite well at the start. After that, I only added the words in by using the brush tool ( 5 pt oval nib ) as well as extra highlights to the scene.

Figure 2.16 Digitisation process of 4th frame

Moving on to the 5th frame, since I figured out the best way to execute the portal, I went on using the twirl tool again. Then, I added the highlights and shadows to the scene.

Figure 2.17 Digitisation process of 5th frame

From teachers feedback, he said that I could add more frames if I want to, so I added to extra frames before the first frame to include the aspect to aspect transition. I decided to do a trapezium layout for both frames and do a close up of parts of the office.

Figure 2.18 Extra frames 

For the words on the nameplate, I used Adobe Caslon Pro (Semibold) as the font and I warped it to be slanted to match the angle of the nameplate by using envelope distort and added it to the zoomed out office nameplate too.

Figure 2.19 Adding fonts

Finally, I added a greenish background with grain effect as I thought the white background was plain and unappealing. 

Figure 2.20 Final Artwork

Final Outcome

Figure 3.0 Final 300 word short story - pdf, Week 10


Figure 3.1 Final Digital Triptych Artwork - png, Week 10 (26/11/2025)


Transition Explanations

Figure 3.2 Transition Explanations, Week 10 (26/11/2025)


Rationale 

Following the story, I wanted the vibe of the triptych to be dark and mysterious hence, the dark lightnings and colour palette used. I used the greenish colour as a main colour for the portal as in sci-fi movies or cartoons it is commonly associated with otherworldly phenomena. For the dark shades, I mainly used cool toned colours like blue, green or purple as I thought it could support the eerie vibe of the atmosphere. I also added the close up panels at the beginning of the triptych as I thought it can portray the time of the scene and the characters identity. Besides that, I used a more. rounded stroke to write "Noir" as I wanted it to feel like it is calling out the name with a slight warmer tone as compared to using sharp edged brush. I also did the hat falling at the last panel to signify that the bird went into the portal without having to draw. the whole bird as the hat constantly appears in other panels, the viewers could relate the hat to the bird.

TECHNIQUE APPLIED

I used the pen tool and direct selection tool to help me create outline and shapes for the characters. I also used the envelope distort tool to help me place the name according to the shape of the surface of. the nameplate. Besides that, I also utilised the twirl tool to create the portal and I created the glow effects using the gaussian blur effect. Furthermore, I applied gradient to the walls of the glowing area to amplify the glowing effect. I also used the brush tool to write out the name of the character in panel 5. After that, I also applied the grain effect to add texture to the background of the triptych.

FEEDBACK

Week 7
Mr. Hafiz said that the story I wanted to convey is unclear and the overall triptych could be more interesting.

Week 8
Teacher said the story and sketch was good and I could add more frames if I wanted to.

REFLECTION

From this task, I learned a lot about lightings and how colours can convey different vibes in an environment. Especially when its my first time trying a dark setting, I struggled a little in deciding what colours that I wanted without everything looking black. Besides, I learned how to create a glowing effect that I was satisfied with using the tools in Illustrator. In addition, this task made me learn a lot of new tools such as twirl tool or even the envelope distort in Illustrator. I also learned a lot about creating a story without having to explain every detail and still convey the meaning I want. Although I struggled in many parts of the assignment, it was overall an enjoyable task that provided me a whole lot of knowledge about creating an artwork.

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