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Write an 8-12 page script for a graphic narrative based on a fairy tale of your choice. Use the character color wheel technique explored in class to create characters for your version of the fairy tale that will have sufficient depth and complexity. Feel free to stretch your fairy tale to fit the situation you imagine. Unexpected twists are encouraged. Post your script or a link to it on your blogspace before next class. There are a number of fairy tale resources on the resource page if you need inspiration.
A good example of an adaption of this sort is Bill Willingham's Fables. You might also consider watching the movies Red Riding Hood (2011) and Sydney White (2007) as examples of adaptation of fairy tales.
So far it seems that the word template from the comics script archives works well. It creates a word document which can be posted on blogger. You can try posting it as a .doc or as a .rtf in order to preserve the formatting.
For your first major challenge of the semester I would like you to adapt one of the short stories linked on the syllabus or on the course resources page to an comic of less than 20 pages. For this you need to learn comic script form, which isn't hard but takes some practice. A very brief explanation of comic script form is at this site:
How to Format a Comic Book Script
Post your script Blog for this class.
If you would like some examples look at some by various professional authors of comics at the comic script archives. There is also a good Word template that you can download from this site. The link is here and in the course links:
Comic Script Archive
Some students prefer to use a software program that pre-formats the script for comics. Celtx is the one I usually recommend because it is free and has a comic script format included.
Celtx
You can export your work as html or a pdf file and link it to your portfolio blog.
Please adapt one of the stories available on the Course Resource page, all of these are in public domain and can be adapted as freely as you would like. You are welcome to change anything about the text you need to, place it in a different setting, condense the setting, or whatever, to try to get the best script for comics you can. Please post the script on your blog before coming to class. This is probably the most work intense assignment of the semester. If you have any questions you can ask them by email.
We will begin this week with a number of in-class writing exercises and an opportunity to go over the requirements of the class and set some personal goals for what you would like to get from this semester. Please bring your notebook computer to class along with something with which to write and draw. The course will focus on writing comics for digital media because this is the most important form of independent publishing today. Because of this, direct digital input is the recommended approach to drawing/writing comics in class. So if you use a drawing tablet for input bring it with you.
Please create a blog for this class where you can post the scripts, scenarios and comics you make this semester. Send me the url for your blog, indicating that you are in the Writing for Comics class, so I can link the course blog to your blog.
I have a reading assignment I am asking you to do before we meet which consists of reading several adaptions of short stories into 50 page graphic novels. These are posted on the course resource page in both cbr and pdf formats. If you want to read the cbr (comic book reader) format, you need to download a program or app that can read that format. There are several available and many are free.
I am not so much interested in what the stories I am asking you to read are about, but rather how they are telling the stories they tell. There are seven of them and each takes a different approach in style, narrative breakdown, paneling, etc. to tell the story. Read enough of each story so that you get an idea of how it is being told. Post notes, even single words, on your blog that describe each story you read. We will compare these notes in class.
I am in the process of recoding my website to make it more accessible to smart phones and ipads. So it will look rough and will change frequently for the first few weeks as I break-in my new site.
You can visit the beginnings of the new site design here
http://www.ringling.edu/~dsteilin
The links will take you through to the Writing for Comics course. The new syllabus will be mounted next week, after I have a chance to meet with you as a group. You can use the link above or to the left to navigate to the old syllabus from the last time the course was taught.
You can go directly to the course resource page by using the link in the course links box.
This week you should be prepared to present your final project. I will ask each person to present in the class. Please post your project in the form of a pdf file unless you prefer a cbz. PDF would be best. I would like to be able to assess them in class. On your blog you should also post pictures of your collaboration with the Broach School students. My thanks to all of you who participated in the service learning project.
We wil also fill out the online course evaluation in this week's class and prepare for the final grade evaluation. I will discuss these issues in class.
Remember your last assignment is to make a youtube video talking about something you learned about making tablet comics. Please post on youtube and post the link on your blog.
This week we will work in class on a collaboration project. As well, we will discuss our plans for collaboration with students at the Broach School for our service learning project. Next week we will review our final projects, they should be complete at this time.
Below is a link to a very interesting flash comic that explores some of the ideas in next generation sequential art:
http://balak01.deviantart.com/art/about-DIGITAL-COMICS-111966969
This is a short comic and I recommend viewing it. Here is another link to a scrolling horizontal comic with excellent special graphic effects called Delta: First Word
http://www.electricsheepcomix.com/delta/firstword/
Remember next week we will meet at the Broach School at 9:00 a.m. you need to find your own transportation. We will finish at the school at 11:00 a.m. Come prepared to work with students, bring computers and other materials.
In two weeks we are doing our service learning project with the Broach School in Bradenton. The Broach School is located at 3005 26th Street West, Bradenton, FL. The phone there is 757-2525. There isn't much parking at the Broach School but you can park directly across 26th Street in the parking lot for the Catholic Church and Catholic School. You are expected to be there by 9:00 a.m. and we will finish by 11:00 a.m. The students will have some art supplies. You should bring some supplies of your own if you want to use them. Please bring your laptop if you want to work digitally.
This week we will discuss the Broach school collaboration and what we will do there. I hope each student will think about how they want to approach the collaboration and we will review those plans and transportation plans next week. After we work with the students there please mount a copy of your joint work on your blog and email me a copy or a link so I can set up a documentation page for the project.
This is the final week we can devote most of the class to working on your tablet comic. Next week we will plan our collaborations with the Broach School students and work on a collaboration in class. On Monday, April 16 we will go to the
Broach school and the week after that we will show our tablet comics in class. The final assignment for the semester will be to create a You-Tube Video that will be designed to help future students or others make a comic for a tablet. Choose one topic and develop that topic in your video. Suggested length is 3- 5 minutes.
When we return from Spring Break we will begin work on our long project for the semester. The project will be to make a tablet comic about an element or story that reflects an aspect of Biosphere Consciousness. To provide background for our projects I am suggesting the following short readings and viewings:
Please read this story on the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-rifkin/the-third-industrial-revo_b_981168.html
Jeremy Rifkin Ted Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization.html
Biosphere Consciousness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUWNLHbLnE
Rifkin and Diane Rehm Interview http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-27/jeremy-rifkin-third-industrial-revolution/transcript
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| "Dream Story for I Pad" |
This week we are building on last week's dream narrative. Using the synopsis of your dream as an inspiration, focus on creating a synopsis or script for a complete story. The purpose of the excercise is to develop your personal archetypes. Your original dream may form the beginning or any other part of the entire story. Make sure you have a beginning, a middle and an end. You could consider the story structure as a further developed 4 panel manga in which the central situation is introduced at the beginning of the story; the situation is developed in the second portion of the story; there is a reversal of expectation, a surprise, or change of direction which marks the climax of the story; and finally there is a denouement, in which the consequences of the reversal are shown.
I have begun meeting with students one-on-one to discuss their personal projects and their situation at mid term. This week you need to prepare a proposal for your personal project and be prepared to present it to your imprint group. We will meet in groups this week to settle on projects and begin work on them. There will be some additional in-class writing. Please bring a digital copy of your dome comic to class this week, I will be collecting them.
First, here are the links to Lance Ford Jones's tutorial on full-dome image making and to the scanning template:
Lance's website with the fulldome link:
http://webspace.ringling.edu/~lfjones/
The fulldome page:http://webspace.ringling.edu/~lfjones/fulldome/index.html
The new template page:
http://webspace.ringling.edu/~lfjones/fd_templates/fd_templates.html
Here is Lance's step by step review of the Scanning Process:
Assuming that the work is in an 8" diameter circle:
(this is easier if you scan from within Photoshop using "File/Import/Scanner")
• to start:
o in Photoshop: open the "Basic 4k Dome Master" image ("template_4096.psd")
o drag the window out a bit larger than the canvas (the scanned image will be larger (approx. 4800x4800) and you will need to get to the corners of it)
o in Photoshop: go to "Photoshop/Preferences/General"
o set the Image Interpolation to: "Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)" and click "OK"
o if you are scanning from Photoshop go to "File/Import/Scanner"
o set the scanner resolution to "600 dpi".
• repeat for each work:
o place the work on the scanner and preview
o drag out the marque (crop marks) to encompass the circle as tightly as possible
o scan
o if you are scanning from Photoshop the image will open in Photoshop - otherwise open the image in Photoshop
o rotate the image to the correct orientation using: "Image/Rotate Canvas/180º, 90º CW, or 90º CCW"
o drag the scanned image onto the template image
o with the scanned layer selected go to "Edit/Transform/Scale"
o grab the upper left corner of the scan layer and snap it into the upper left corner of the template
o grab the lower right corner of the scan layer and snap it into the lower right corner of the template
o double-click inside the layer to accept the transform
o drag the black mask layer to the top of the layer stack
o save the image as an uncompressed 32 bit Targa file (named as: name1.tga, name2.tga, etc)
o delete the scanned layer so that you can re-use the template
o if you are scanning from Photoshop go to "File/Import/Scanner"
Let me know if any of this is not clear or if the links are unavailable.
You can email Lance if you have any technical problems and can usually help you.
This week you should have finished your synopsis for your personal project comics. We will peer review those in class while I meet with individuals for their appointments. In the beginning section of the class we will have a visit from Claudia Cumbie-Jones and Lance Ford Jones to discuss the latest experiments in making full-dome comics. We now identify the best file type for these comics as 32 bit Targa images which can be scanned into and manipulated by Photoshop. These individual images do not have to be sliced for our dome thanks to scripting by Jeff Rodgers the Director of the Bishop Planetarium. We will be experimenting with and talking about some of the consequences of this technique during this week's class.
