Graphic

Narrative
Evaluation

Does your final

product reflect your
original intentions?

Story Board
Image

First
Development
Image

Mid Way Through

Development Of
First Image

Final Development
Image

The story board for the first page was my original intentions, I wanted a seaside
scene, where two giants where shouting at each other, you could see our main
character on the beach while the other character could be seen on the horizon.
However, a lot changed during development like the angle the scene was seen
from. It turned from a just behind angle so you could see the horizon and the other
character as well, to a side view angle. With this change many others came as
well, including taking out the other character from the scene and replacing it with
just a speech bubble. The seaside setting was kept but instead of Finn standing on
the beach, he was stood on a cliff to make him look more dominant.
I also included a tree a rabbit and a flock of birds during production as a scale to
how big these giants were. The sky was also altered throughout production,
because I couldnt make my mind up on how realistic the sky was, I then settled
with a Dark blue into blue into light blue as the sky. The sea was also given a
gradient making the sea look darker as it gets deeper. By the end of production I
settled on three sets of waves in the sea to give the environment more depth.
The last thing that changed throughout production was the sun. My story board
did not include a sun originally, but after designing the environment, I thought the
sky needed it to add to the realism and to let children know it is day because
there is a sun. The sun was originally just having a gradient, but later on in
development, I gave the sun a Gaussian blur effect to add to the realism of the
scene.

Story Board Image

First Development Image

Final Development Image

The first idea for the second page was very like the first. Same setting just at a
different angle. Through development I tried to keep it that way, with the
narrative environment being the same as the first just with a different
environment.
Compared with how much changed in the first page, not much changed. The
only main things that changed was the different angle for the cliff, the idea for
that was I would have an angle from a mans point of view of the giants,
looking over the cliff. As this page would show how giant the giants are.
I kept the narrative environment relatively the same as the cliff was the same
colour as the one from the first page. The sun had the same level of Gaussian
Blur as the other sun did, the only difference being you can see the entire sun
rather than just the corner of it. During development I altered the colour of
some of the cliff to make it a darker brown to make it look like a cliff in the
ground rather than it just being stuck on there.
I created a rather small island in the distance with the other Giant called Ben,
which was in my story board for this page. It took some time developing Finns
legs and shoes as it was extremely difficult to Rotoscope and shape people on
Photoshop. Page 2 is the only page in the book so far that shows what the
characters shoes look like, and that will be something to improve on.

Story Board Image

First Development
Image

Final Development
Image

The idea for the third page, was to have the scene take place inside of Finns
house with Mary and Finn talking about the deal he made with Ben.
Unfortunately this original idea was changed during development. The scene
instead took place outside Finns house, at a side view angle much like the
first page.
The narrative environment was very different from the last two pages as it
took place away from the seaside, there are only two pages that dont take
place where the Giants Causeway is. The sun stayed relatively the same
throughout development as after the first page that used the Gaussian Blur, I
then included it in every page.
The house changed a lot during development, the plan for the outside of the
house was to make it like dark wood, but the Birch like colour stood out for me,
making it the defining part of the book. The windows and door were made a
darker colour to make it not blend in to the colour of the house. Over time I
added smoke to the chimney, originally I had just grey ellipses over time I
then added a Gaussian Blur to make it more realistic.

Story Board
Image

First Development
Image

Final Development
Image

The original story board idea was to capture Ben mid charge coming across the
new Hexagonal bridge he created, viewed from a first person perspective. It was
also the first page where the readers would get to see Ben after being told he was
5x bigger from any ordinary giant.
The first thing that was changed was capturing Ben mid charge. This was changed
after many failed attempts of making him look that way. Instead I went for the part
where he got off the bridge and landed in Ireland, to make him look big and scary.
His clothing is the most defining feature about Ben, compared to the other
characters Ben is scruffy as he wears ripped clothing, to make him look like a
brute. I also got a picture of Finn from a previous slide and made Ben 5x bigger
than Finn was in pages two and one because I wanted to be a little bit accurate
with the character.
The environment was made before the character and after doing this narrative
environment I decided to copy it and use it for the Title Page, as it looked nice and
it showed off the bridge in all its glory. When I did finally add Ben in he blocked out
the sun, which was supposed to represent how the dark blocked out the light
because of size and dominance. Bens face and body type would be what I would
want to improve the most as it isnt as realistic or good as I originally planned, his
body type was supposed to be muscular but I changed this to make him just Big
and Tall.

Story Board Image

First Development
Image

Final Development
Image

This was the page I planned for the most in my original idea, as this is the
conflict/climax of the book and I wanted it to be the best page. It had Ben
noticing that Finns son is huge and that he had a thought bubble of Finn
dwarfing Ben in height and size, this would all take place outside Finn and
Marys house.
During development I used page three as a template for this page, as I knew
this would cut back on time, I used the same house but just moved a bit to the
right to give more room for the cot and Ben in the picture. The other changes
from page three include a darker sky to represent the villain of the book
coming to get Finn.
I used the same side view look of page, I used in page one and three, as that
was style I was used to making by that point in production. The environment
stayed relatively the same as page three, although the grass looks darker to
mirror the dark sky effect I had. I also made the sun more dimmer to match
the dark sky.
I recurring theme in this book is the lack of clouds, originally I was thinking
about adding clouds onto my pages but the after many attempts, the clouds
didnt go with the narrative environment I had created beforehand. So instead
I just left them out and just had a sky.

Story Board
Image

Mid Way Development

Image

Final Development
Image

The original plan for this page was going to be, a view of Ben destroying the
bridge with a worried look on his face because Finn was running after him.
Instead a lot of the original ideas were cut mid way through development and I
created an entirely different scene.
After developing page fours narrative environment, I knew this was a good
starting point for page six, so I used page four as a template for this page. The
only part of this page that stayed true to the original plan, was the dark sky ,
which I thought was a great effect for these scenes. I dimmed the sun a little
like I did on page five to match the dark sky. The seas colour was also made a
more darker blue to mirror the dark, looming sky I had created.
The bridge was deleted except for the ends at first, to make it look like it was
destroyed as Ben was running across it, and it was like an after photo of what
page four was. Near the end of development I added pieces of the bridge and
scattered it along the sea, to give the impression that it floated away after
being destroyed by Ben.

The original plan for the text pages was almost exactly the
same as what I produced during production, a simple border
with green or blue text with a green or blue background, these
pages had a lot of Celtic symbolism inside to match up with
the time set and location.
The only changes that happened during development for the
text pages was the inclusion of the simple Celtic symbol at the
bottom of each page, this and the border were traced on with
the pencil tool on Photoshop, as I thought that was the easiest
method of doing it. The other change was the change of text
late on in development to a more bubbly child friendly font for
the text, this would make it easier for younger children and
maybe parents to read.

The 7th unused Page

There was one page that I had in my original plan, was a page that
showed the modern day Causeway. This page was scrapped as I
thought it wasnt good enough for the final childrens book. This page
consisted of a bright blue sky, similar to the first page environment.
With a hill that had a green-brown gradient on, and below that was
the causeway, all of them were different shades of gray because all
the same colours weren't showing off the hexagonal pieces correctly.
The page was also quite meaningless, as this page was done on the
last week of development, so there was signs that this environment
doesnt look good compared to the other images I have created. As a
whole I think the page wasn't needed, as the original story board for
this page was slim and I didnt know what I wanted for this page
exactly compared to the other pages plans.

How well have you

constructed your
images?

The visual appearance was kept the same during

development, as I wanted to achieve a half and half
between semi realism and comic like appearance,
for the book. The primary colours I used for this
book were Green, Blue and Black/Grey. The green
represented Ireland and Finn and the Celtic
symbolism behind that colour that is common with
Ireland. The blue was a contrast to the green
mostly, but it was also used to represent Scotland
and Ben and the Gaelic symbolism behind the
colour. The brown and black/grey colours were used
as the ground mostly, like the cliff and the Giants
Bridge, and was very clinical to the narrative
environment I had created.

On the use of textures during the book, I tried to incorporate

the use of textures throughout development. But that style
didnt fit what I was going for with my semi realistic comic like
appearance. On the last few days of development I attempted
creating a clipping mask for the house on page three and five,
although it was a good idea the end result just didnt match
the style of the other pages.
The colour of the text pages was a mixture of green, blue and
black. The blue was used to contrast the light green text I had.
The border was a darker green mixed with black to make it
look like a border outline, and to make it different instead of
using the same light green I used to create the text.

How well have you

used text to anchor
your images

Not much text was used on the image, because the page layout was to have a
separate page, where all the text would be placed. However during
development I thought the images needed a speech bubble with a one liner
that was different to the text page. Doing this would create a better
understanding of the image for the children who could be reading this.
The colour of the text was also important to the speech bubbles as, the text
colour would determine who was speaking from that speech bubble. For
example Green would be Finn, Dark Blue would be Ben and pink was for Mary.
This would make it easier for parents that would read the book to the children
as some parents would put on a voice for each character to make it more
interesting for the child.

Is your product
suitable for your
audience?

My proposal had an overview of what the target audience for this book was,
which was :
The age range for this book will be 6-10 years old, the book will appeal to
boys of the 6-10 year old range. The Giants Causeway is a very popular
natural landmark in the UK, and the legend is well known by the people of
Ireland, therefore the book will be sold in the UK and Ireland. I would like
the book to be priced at a price for the middle and working class people
can buy for there children. In 2015 the average price for a childrens book
is 5.40, so I would like the price to be 5 or lower to fit the demographic.
I believe that nothing has changed during production that would make the
age range lower or higher in any way, I have kept my word to make it for 610 year old boys as the comic like style would appeal to this demographic. I
still believe the price should remain the same, as its a book that would
primarily be sold at or near the Giants Causeway.
I still think the book is suitable for the 6-10 year olds as there is no gore or
any signs of violence, this book actually promotes the use of non violence
and to think before you act, which would appeal to the parents who would
buy this book for the children.

When the proposal was being reviewed, one

comment talked about how the book should be boy
orientated instead of having it appeal to both
genders. I kept this true throughout development,
as I believe the giants were appealing to boys of 610, so Ive decided not to change that.

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

During production, I used many tools in Photoshop to achieve the final book I
have created. One tool I have used was the Gaussian Blur tool in the Filter
Gallery. By using this I have managed to achieve a realistic type sun on every
image page of the book. I also used this tool on the chimney smoke on page
three as well as using it for the sun.

I have also used the warp tool to change the shape of any object like a
rectangle. This tool was very useful when creating the giants as they were
originally just rectangles and circles. This allowed me to give them the build
and shape a person needed. It was most useful when creating the arms of the
giants. Although after warping an image more than 3-5 times, the shape could
look awful and misshapen.

Other tools that I used was the Polygonal Lasso Tool, this was a useful tool to get
rid of any unwanted edges. By rasterizing the shape, you can cut out anything
from that with the tool. I used it most when creating my narrative environment
as sometimes the odd bit of sky would get into the cliff, or something like that.
This tool could also by used to Rotoscope a layer, by carefully using the lasso
tool, you can create new layers of what was on screen and create a comic like
version of that image.

Other tools that was useful to me throughout production was the pencil tool
which was useful in creating the text pages, because the border and Celtic shape
were all traced with the pencil tool. The shape tools were useful in creating the
entire image, as most of the pages were either rotoscoped or warped with
shapes. The text tool was also useful in creating the short one liner texts for the
speech bubbles.

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

In the final product, the narrative environment in pages two and six are the
parts of development I liked the most. As the Cliff in page two is really well
made, the darkened gradient, makes the cliff look realistic. The gradients for
the sky and sea in pages one, two, four and six really mirror very well, for a
comic like but semi realistic background. Compared to my first narrative
environment I created about a month ago, it really shows the difference in skill
for development.
The sun in every page of the book is also very well made, as the Gaussian Blur
makes the sun more real, rather than just having a yellow eclipse there. In
page one, the cliff is very detailed, as the gradient that makes the cliff get
darker giving the effect that the waves in the sea makes the rock darker. The
title page, I think is really well made, the text with the drop shadow in the sky,
really fits in very well. The environment created for the title page is also very
good with the rising sun over the Causeway Bridge, making look dramatic.
Page four Ben, fits in very well with the page four environment, because it
really shows the reader how tall Ben is, as he looms over the sunrise, which
gives a partial green glow around him that mixes with the sky.

The Books Best

Environment

First Narrative Environment

Second Narrative
Environment

Official Page 4

In the final product, the piece of work I dislike the most would be the
characters design on page four. I believe the face could have been better, I
know I was going for the comic like, less realistic design but, what was
produced was not what I thought I was going to make in the original plans. The
body on page four just seemed too rectangle like, and not like what a real
body shape looked like. The hair, I dont think was scruffy enough for an evil
brute of the book.
The lack of fingers on every character is also a flaw in the book, although it
has just fit in with the style, its a shame that I couldnt produce fingers for the
characters. During development I did attempt to add fingers to some of the
characters, but they didn't look realistic enough for the character.
On every page except two, there are no shoes or feet on the characters, I did
this for the same reason I didnt add fingers to the character, as they didnt fit
with the body. I just ended up hiding the characters feet in the environment
floor, except for page two as I had to make feet for Finn, to make the character
look giant like.

No Fingers on
Characters

No Shoes on
Characters

Why did you include

the content you
used?

Fonts
The font used for the speech bubble, was used because that looks very bold
and because of the constant capitalization, its very out there and easy to
read, and the colours chosen for the speech bubble text is easy to read on the
white background. The font used for the text pages, is easy to read with the
bubble type writing and the drop shadow giving the text depth on the page.
This makes it easier for the 6-10 year old boys to read, and easier for the
parents to read if they are reading it out to the child.

Effects
The main effect seen throughout my book would be the drop shadow effect.
This can be seen on characters, environments and houses and other animals.
This is to give that page a little bit more realism and depth to the character
and environment. The other main effect used would be the Gradient effect,
which was placed on Marys hair, the cliff, the sky and the sea. This adds to
the realism of the object instead of just having a solid colour on the image.

Images
This book was a layout of image on one page and text on the other page. I did
this because for the 6-10 year old would understand the text more if there was
an image alongside it. On some pages I did a side view of the image, because
that was the easiest way for me to describe what's going on, on each page to
children.
For page two, the angle I used for that image was from a normal mans
perspective. This view would put into perspective on how big the giants are
from our height, where we can only see the legs from our view, which create a
very good image in the minds of children on that giants are huge. I also did
this on page one, where I put a rabbit and a tree behind Finn, to show children
that the giant is massive from page one.
On page four, the angle I chose was the first person view, where you can see
Ben when he lands in Ireland looking for Finn. I chose that view because it
makes Ben look scary to the children to portray the enemy. I also did the same
angle for page six when he runs away back to Scotland as it makes him look
defenseless.

Colours

The colours I primarily used were related the the Celtic culture
in Ireland as, thats where it took place.. The colours used
were Green, Blue, Black/Grey. The colour green was mainly
used to represent Finn and Ireland while blue was used to
contrast green on the text pages and to be used to represent
Ben and Scotland.
The colour black was usually used on the text pages. The
colours were also there to make the children more interested
in the images. If I used bright colours like green and blue, the
children will want to see the images after reading the text
pages. However if I used boring plain colours the image will
become less exciting for them.

Finns Speech Bubble

Text Colour

Border Colour Text

Pages

Bens Speech Bubble

Background Text Page Colour

Colour Of the Bridge

What signs, symbols

or codes have your
used in your work?

The colours of the main characters eyes were quite symbolic to me during
development, because I switched the colours that the main characters
represented. So Finns eyes were Blue, which is the colour Ben uses to represent
Scotland, and Ben had Green eyes, which is the colour Finn uses to represent
Ireland. I did this to symbolize that despite how different they think they are
from each other, they all have a bit of everyone inside. Like a we are all the
same species on the inside visual metaphor for children.

In every image page of the work, I added a clover into the image to add to the
Irish Celtic Culture. The colour that represented Ireland which is green, would be
what Finn would have primarily used and Ben would of used Blue more as that is
part of the Scottish culture. In character design, I made sure that Ben would be
significantly bigger than Finn by using Finns body from the first page and using
that as a template for the fourth and fifth page, to make sure the size of Ben is
bigger than Finn.
In the start of the book, Mary goes on about how big of a size difference there is
between Finn and Ben, from saying this, I needed to make Ben huge. I did this
by scaling the character to block out the rising sun, this would show dominance
in size.

Blocks Out Sun

To Show size
Dominance

Clover in page
four

On some pages I make the subtle clue that Finn represents the Sun. On page
two the sun is really high in the sky, this represents the fact that Finn is really
confident in his fight with Ben. On page four, the sun is then blotted out by
Ben to show that Ben will dominate a fight with Finn. The sky also turns dark
when Finn finds out he is tiny compared to Ben and that he will lose. That
shows a lack of confidence within Finn. On page six the sun is then positioned
high in the sky again, when Ben runs away from Finn after Marys plan works
to scare Ben away from Ireland. The sky then returns to the nice blue colour it
was on page one and two to represent, Finn regaining his confidence back.

What
representations can
be found in your
work?

In my book, the roles of men and woman are somewhat traditional yet there is
something different about it. For example, Mary stays in her home and looks
after the house. However though in this book, Mary comes up with the great
plan of disguising Finn up as a baby and actually saves Finn from losing a
battle with Ben. So we see in this book that there are traditional values seen in
this book, but Mary breaks that value by showing she is smart woman.
Finn keeps his traditional vales throughout the book, by showing he goes out
on a daily basis to hunt and taunt Ben every day. He is also shown to be
powerful and strong, which is a very stereotypical hero type build for a man.
The book is set in the Celtic ancient times of Ireland and Scotland, so
traditional values would have been common in many mythological stories, as
it was commonplace to see women at home and men out hunting and doing
adventures.

Finn

Mary

In the book we also had a small representation of Scottish people.

During planning we had to write down any ethical issues that may
happen during the making of this book which could offend some
people. My issue was I would be giving Scottish people a bad
representation, as I made the Scottish Giant Ben, big, scary and just
a brute of a giant to try and make him look like the bad guy. He had
ripped clothes to give him a brute look as well. I dont think I did
offend the Scottish people with this representation of the Gaelic giant
Benandonner. He was also given green eyes as a sign that he is like
Finn, as he is human too.

Ben

What style have you

employed in your
products?

The style I had for the book was very comic/semi realism, because I wanted to
keep the book, looking like it was set in the real world, but also having a level
of comic style included for when I rotoscope and design the pages in the
books. A similar Giants Causeway story also uses this kind of style of semi
realism mixed with comic like styles. The Celtic culture is also seen in this
book, with the same type of bright colours used in the book.
The Celtic culture definitely influenced the visual style of the book. I chose this
style because of the history behind the legend, it was first heard in the Celtic
period and the story was passed down generation to generation about how the
Giants Causeway was built. It was then written into books for the present day.
The book was also set in the Celtic time period so if it didnt have the Celtic
visual style, I believe the book wouldnt of fitted, the story or the characters at
all.

What were the

strengths and
weaknesses of the
pre production and
planning?

During production, we had two weeks to make the book before the deadline,
so I had to manage the time well. On the planning booklet we had to create a
schedule to go by for production, there was ten sessions to complete it by. So
for every session I created half of an image, along with creating some text
pages. I managed the time well, and I also underestimated how much work I
can complete in a session, as I finished three sessions earlier than I was
planning to finish giving me time to improve some aspects of the book.
There were some drawbacks during the production. On the first session I had
to leave half way through the day for a doctors appointment, therefore
missing out on half a days work I could of done. But it wasn't long until I was
back on schedule. The planning and research was useful in the lead up to
production. On the development Pro forma, I had to plan out character design,
page layout and design and also edit the original script, so It is good for the
target audience I planned on which was 6-10 year old boys.
On many occasions I did not follow the schedule as the amount of work I did
on some days was more than I planned on doing.

I also did mood boards for certain styles I was going to do, like
rotoscoping and illustrating for the Celtic shape designs and
for the character design and how I was going to make them. I
also had feedback from others to know how to improve the
planning in preparation for the start of production. I had to
source an original script of the legend, to then sort the story
into the seven text pages I had planned for.
The script went through four draft edits before I decided what
the script was going to be. This included the cut of
unnecessary lines and entire pages, the removal of some
characters because they had one line. The final script was
made and I had three characters and seven pages

Historical and
cultural context

There have not been many books based on the legend of the giants causeway,
which is what made me do an interpretation of the story in the first place. This
specific story has been mainly spoken as a story and was rarely written down
until 1761, where they discovered writings about Finn in Scottish Gaelic and
they translated it and published the book about the writings in December
1761. These poems and stories were popular in the area. To this day there are
people who believe the poems and stories were translated wrong as the
author of the original book thought his name was translated into Fingal rather
than Fionn and in the modern era his name was then translated into Finn.
I have found an example of a Giants Causeway book that was published in
2013. Compared to the book I created the colour style is very similar, as it
uses the Celtic colour scheme that I used. The character of Finn on the front
cover is quite similar to the Finn on my first page, the illustrator used the
same comic style of illustrating as well.

The character of Ben (Benandonner), has been portrayed as an evil ugly

looking brute, which is the same intention I went for when creating Ben. Other
than those similarities there are quite a few differences. For example the
interpretation of the story is changed a little bit, but the main aspect remains
the same. In this story, they made Mary a strong, independent and smart
woman, which is the same aspect I kept in my story.
The other differences inside the other book, are that the images that I have
seen that arent the front cover are in black and white, unlike mine which uses
the colours to get children more interested with the book. Also the words are
on the same page as the image, meaning there less pages therefore the book
could have been made longer than mine by not cutting the additional pages
that I cut out in the original script. The text is very basic compared to my text
which is bubbly and looking more child friendly. In the story they added more
back story to the legend itself, with a modern day look at the Causeway, while
I started at the beginning in the past and provided a page of back story.