Illustration and Visual Narrative // Lecture Reports

July 04, 2022

Illustration and Visual Narrative // Lecture Reports

Lim Yi Xvan 0354552

Bachelor in Creative Media Design

Illustration and Visual Narrative

LECTURES REPORT 1 : VISUAL STUDY CHARACTER DESIGN BASICS

fig 1.1 - Meilin and her transformation in Turning Red

fig 1.2 - Red pandas expression

The animated character I chose is Meilin from the movie "Turning Red". Meilin will transform into a red panda whenever she experiences any strong emotion, due to her ancestors' mystic connection with red pandas. The author created this transformation with a red panda only when she's experiencing strong emotions like anger, anxious, anxiety, it's because red panda is in the colour red which can bring out the emotion of anger and it also reflects other feelings experienced by teenagers. It was designed as an iconic grabbable giant animal that you just want to rub your face in with cute furry structures. It's huge and designed in giant size as it can shows that how strong her emotions are that makes her burst out into a huge form. However, when she calmed down, she'll be transformed back to her original self.

Her first time of transformation is when her mother exposed her drawings of fantasy to her crush and thought was her crush that did something bad to her daughter. Meilin felt embarrassed about it and uncomfortable about how she's being judged by her overprotective mother. She spent her night sleeping in a down mood and wake up into a red panda on the next day.

From fig 1.2, we can see how the author brings out its face expression of how she's feeling with the eyes, size of the iris, how its brows are, bent up or down and its mouth is open or closed. The first expression show that she's being adored, second one is frightened, third is impressed, forth is crying and so it goes.

The author mostly are using the elements of round shapes to present it. As round stuffs with no sharp corner shapes can make one feel more cute and more close to us. And red pandas are supposed to be cute and furry and huggable so round shapes are very suitable to structure the whole character.

LECTURES REPORT 2 : VISUAL STUDY CHIAROSCURO

fig 2.1 - Explosion of car chase scene (The Batman 2022)

The Batman is a 2022 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, 6th & Idaho, and Dylan Clark Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was directed by Matt Reeves, who wrote the screenplay with Peter Craig. It stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman. The film sees Batman, who has been fighting crime in Gotham City for two years, uncover corruption while pursuing the Riddler (Dano), a serial killer who targets Gotham's elite.

This one scene scene that stands out above all the others – the very rainy nighttime car chase.

In the sequence, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Robert Pattinson) is going after the Penguin (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) in his souped up Batmobile, which is perhaps the most hot-rod-y version of the iconic car ever captured on film. After a brief false start, Batman charges after the villain, following him onto a rain-slicked and extremely packed expressway. In an attempt to lose his pursuer, the Penguin causes a calamitous pile-up. But that doesn’t stop Batman.

The Penguin thinks he’s lost the Batman – or maybe killed him – only to see him leap out of the flames. This scene is when Batman got off from his car and walk through the flame in the explosion. It was in virtually every piece of marketing for “The Batman” for a reason. It’s that damn cool.

fig 2.2 - Scene of Explosion of car chase (The Batman 2022)

This Batmobile chase scene was inspired from one gritty 1970's film – The French Connection. Reeves explains that, like in The French Connection, he wanted the car chase in The Batman to serve as an extension of the main character's drive and determination. Check out Reeves' full comment below:

“I wanted to feel that kind of visceral chaos, so I wanted the cameras to be mounted, everything a hard mount as much as it could be. [The point of view] is totally subjective and hard fixed to this vibrating beast of a car driving through visceral elements of dirt and rain, and you feel like you’re sitting on that engine with him, and the car could come apart at any minute.”

In this scene, the visual director uses strong contrasts between the light of the flame and dark, which bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. This also increase the dramatic tension by giving a whole thrilling emotive depth on the visual and mood in the scene. As we can see that Chiaroscuro was used in visual narrative for this scene. From the picture above from the scene, this effect emphasis the shadow of the Batman. The director made this scene comes out in the composition of upside down which attract the viewers attention and create mysterious to the viewers.

It is also use as a technical term for the contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures. Chiaroscuro is used in cinematography to indicate extreme low key and high-contrast lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films. And this explains why The Batman was always in the mood of dark greyscale, this helps to contrast more with the lights to bring out tension.

LECTURES REPORT 3 : VISUAL TYPES AND SHOTS

1. Establishing

2. Bird's eye view

3. Worm's eye view

4. Frame within a frame

5. Medium Shot

6. Close-up

LECTURES REPORT 4 : FORE, MIDDLE AND BACKGROUND

fig 4.1 - Scene from The Moon Knight

This scene uses the contrast of light and colour which highlights the background and contrast of shadows on the foreground and background which focus the main on the background.