Tuesday, 14 March 2017

My Final Project (Comic)

1: Research

My inspiration comes mostly from DC and Marvel comics but i also get ideas from my other ideas, an example is i often come up with storylines thanks to thinking of what my characters would do in certain situations.

I often look at DC and Marvel characters on their database websites because i like their characters and the alternate versions of them, which is why i have alternate realities in my comics.

Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are the two main writers/creators for DC comics.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are the main writers/creators for Marvel Comics.

Image result for geoff johnsImage result for jim lee
Image result for stan leeImage result for jack kirby

Other Research

I googled Character bio's, scripts and ideas to look at how they are laid out by other comic writers.

 Image result for dc comics script writing Character Bios

Image result for dc comics script writing Scripts

Image result for dc comics script writing Ideas

Some of my characters take inspiration from DC and Marvel characters and have similarities to them, i also want the idea of characters passing down the mantles of aliases just like DC and Marvel. It is also interesting to see early and alternate versions too well known characters because they look different and all versions always look cool, like what my characters should be like.

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/DC_Comics_Database
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel_Database

These two Wikia databases gave me inspiration, whenever i look at or listen to superhero related things I start getting ideas or thinking about my own characters and other creations in different situations.

When i need to name my characters, I always create the character concept first (e.g. this character can control electricity and he is a rude person) that helps think of a character name, I also google lists of names based on what gender and ethnicity my characters are or sometimes I just ask my friends if they have an idea.

I also googled different comic covers to find out how they are laid out and then also searched for comic panel templates to give myself examples on how to make my comic.

Image result for comic panel template

Comic Covers - Characters that first appearance is in this comic.

Image result for action comics 1 - Superman (Clark Kent), Lois Lane
Image result for detective comics 27 - Batman (Bruce Wayne)


To get ideas about my characters it helps to just randomly talk to someone about them, so me and my friend Ethan spend a lot of time talking about each others characters which led to the creation of new characters and naming some unnamed characters, as well as new ideas for what could happen to my creations. I also watch superhero related videos sometimes or listen to hero themes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-rl0tfQO9E

This is a clip of Batman fighting his evil alternate reality counterpart Owlman from the animated movie
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earth's. One of my heroes is similar too Batman without meaning too and so Batman is a huge influence on me and the character (Also other heroes in my comics make jokes about him being basically a teenage Batman) I also have a villain based on owls but that is a coincidence however a different villain i have has the same motives as Owlman with even less emotions.

My friend showed me a picture tutorial of how to draw hands so now I might get better at drawing characters.

Thursday, 16 March 2017: Today we started doing a proposal for our final project, I wrote about the characters and storylines and brief descriptions of the comic, this helped me think of more ideas to put into the comic itself like reminding me that my character goes by the alias Magpie before he chose the name Shadow Bird.

Survey Questions:

What kind of comics should they be? (Physical, Digital, Both)
Would you pay $3.99 (£3.22) for these comics?
Which other media should these comics be adapted into? (Movie, TV, Cartoon, Video Game, Multiple)
Would you like it if my comics had a universe where your fan creations existed?
I plan on adding as many genres as possible in these comic stories, are there any you would not like to appear and why?
My comics have a lot of stories about equality and lots of different characters, so i know who would like these comics, please enter... (Age, Gender, Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation)
Is there anything you don't want to see or happen in the comics?

Stats:

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/articles/are-comics-still-for-kids/1100-146707/
The stats for age groups that are fans of comics. (18-30 is the biggest age group of fans)

http://www.comicsbeat.com/facebook-demographics-what-do-digital-comic-readers-look-like/

The stats for gender groups who are fans of comics. (Male is the biggest gender group)

I looked at images of the bird species Magpie for inspiration on the superhero Magpie.

Image result for magpieImage result for magpie

This helped me decide on what colour the suit should be.

My idea has changed to advertising the comics with posters and a video.

Image result for comic book poster

Comic book posters are usually just the front covers of the comic but i am making adverts about my comics as a whole so i will make it more epic by making it more like a movie poster with multiple characters in the image.

The audio adverts will use a script to have some characters saying things from the comics, there will also be sound effects to accompany the script to make it sound more dynamic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVVCBCf_N8

This is an episode from the Superman radio show from 1945. The advert will kind of act like a normal radio show.

The cast and characters will be set up like the cast of a movie in the credits.

This is a link to my survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/C7KRF8C

I got feedback from my peers from my survey.

I looked at images of islands, swamps, maps and volcanos to get an idea on how to draw them.

My ads are slightly based on these cartoon episode promos

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL03A17E71ACE8F37E

While i was drawing my scenery posters i used google images to find out what some buildings look like and what colours should be used

2: Planning

Project Ideas:

Script:

I am going to make a script as a part of the FMP. The script will be a written rough version of the story with descriptions of characters and the scene.

Cartoon Episode:

A cartoon would take too long to make so i decided not to make one, I also do not know how to animate. I would get voice actors for the different characters and there would also be an intro, i could have also done just the intro.

The intro would be a meteor crashing into the earth followed by a roll call of the main characters with scenes of them while their names appear kind of like the tv show Smallville.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g44F8JRxdTc

The smallville intro inspired me with the way it was made. My intro would show the character from head to mid-body and in the background have different action shots of them doing hero things, it would also show the character name, alias and the voice actors name.

Video Game:

A video game would take to long to make although i could probably make the sprites and files.

The video game would let you pick the superheroes and then you would go through different levels set in locations in the comics, the villains would be the bosses and each one would be trying to do some evil plan. The gameplay would have been like a beat-em up game (e.g. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Image result for teenage mutant ninja turtles turtles in time

I might have also just made a fighting game like Injustice where you fight the heroes and villains

Image result for injustice gods among us characters

Radio Show:

A radio show is a very likely idea to make if I get voice actors although some of my stories might not have enough character talking?

Comic Book:

I will make an actual comic book but I am not that good at drawing, I will have to draw on them on paper because I am worse on computer.

Character Bio Archive:

I will make character, object & location bios for the FMP which will tell you all about the characters.

Write Story/Script for others:

Might have done this but I would have to ask people if they wanted me to create one.

Comic Script would be a story written down, the comic book would be the story adapted from the script into an image based story and radio show would be people reading the script in a recording.

Possible Storylines:

Meta City Comics:

Origins (The beginning of the entire stories)
Earth-03 (The heroes go to an alternate world and have to fight their evil counterparts)
Boss Battle (Villain with video game based abilities appears)
Earth-02 (The heroes go to an alternate world)
Game Of Chess (Introduces villain that manipulates from the shadows)
The Haunting (Ghost Girl origins, haunts the city)
Horror Show (Scary villains team up against the heroes)
Return Of D.I.A.C. (Evil A.I. returns)
Hive-Mind (Origins of insane villain Hive-Mind)
Dark Insanity (2 major villains team up and fuse together to cause chaos)
Darkness (Return of the dark entity that is out to kill humans)
Sun & Moon (Origins of a tag team of 2 villains)
The Anomaly (Villain from an alternate reality enters Earth-01 to cause chaos and causes the origins of another villain)
Frosty Summer (Origins of an ice villain)
Conspiracies (I forgot the storyline behind this story)
Song Killer (Mystery about an unknown villain targeting singers)
Zero (An evil space demon with no emotions returns to earth to destroy it)


My target audience is superhero and comic book fans, since my comics include stories related to equality my comics are for all ages, genders and anyone else who wants to read them, I will have characters of different ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations and genders and they won’t be stereotypes.

I have now done my proposal and pitch. They tell you information about the characters and what inspired me to make them or what they are based on.

My comics have made it to a sub-plot.

Due to time restraints I have changed my idea into making posters and a video advert all advertising my comics.

All the posters will have the title and price and speech bubbles enticing you to buy the comics.

The first poster will be in space with earth in the background and a meteor shower heading towards earth.

The second poster will have the islands as the image with the city and the forest and other locations visible.

The others will all be collages of different characters, here are all the characters split into which poster they will appear on

Image result for superhero character posterImage result for superhero character posterImage result for superhero character posterImage result for superhero character poster The character posters will be like these where the characters are all over the page doing different poses and the title will be in big letters on top of it.

I have am now making a script for the audio adverts and a cast listing.

I wrote lines for all the characters that I will get voice actors to record and the edit them together.

The ads will be 30 seconds long.

My friends Ethan and Dane along with a staff member Rosie all taught me drawing skills so I could make the posters.

Because I am better at drawing scenes than characters and because of time restraints I will only make the two posters, one that has the islands and one that has a meteor shower. The Character collages won't be made unless I have extra time.

I finished my posters. However the first time i printed my first poster the printer accidently put red ink on the corner and during the second poster i forgot to add something and i forgot to change the printer layout too landscape but it eventually worked out.

The fog on the second poster looked kind off weird but it works.

I have recorded my lines for the ads and started recording the other two voice actors lines.

Both my ads are 45 seconds long because i had to cut out some things to shorten them but any more cuts would make them make no sense.

My ads were finished but i got feedback about the sound quality so now i am going to re-structure and re-record the ads a different way.

I made a survey for people to ask questions about my comics that reminded me that comics can be made online as well as being physical books.

I found some spelling mistakes on my posters so i fixed them and printed new ones.

3: Presentation

My idea has not changed since writing a comic script is what i want to do as a job in the future and i enjoy creating in my multiverse. I have a lot of work to do on my creations and having to do work on them for college causes me to get more ideas.

My idea of writing a comic story would be enough on it's own because they are long and follow more than one plot at once. I could add character bios that have information about the characters on a sheet that goes with the story like an added bonus. I could add artwork of characters but only if i suddenly get good at drawing or find someone who is willing to do art for free.

I have decided to try and draw storyboards as well as a full comic just to add to my creations while also making me slightly better at drawing.

My final project that i have decided to do is a comic book script using the story:

Meta City Comics 1: Origins

The storyline will be:

A meteor wipes out the dinosaurs and then A fast forward to 2001 will occur where the origins of the superhero Shadow Bird takes place as his parents die. Then finally a fast forward to the present day of 2011 where another meteor is coming down meanwhile an evil computer virus goes on a rampage and Shadow Bird tries to stop it, the meteor crashed into someones garden and the person seems to be un effected by it? Other plots may be added too.

Appearing Characters:

Connor ''Con'' Woods - Shadow Bird - Earth-01 (First Appearanace, Origins)
Jason ''Jay'' Woods - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Dies)
Janice ''Jan'' Felix-Woods - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Dies)
Logan Woods - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Erika Mars - Reporter Mars - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Samuel ''Sam'' Lucas - The Jester - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
William ''Will'' Morgan - The Owl - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
Derek Morgan - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Dies)
Sarah ''Sara'' Brown-Morgan - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Dies)
Antonio ''Anton'' Russo - The Thief - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Benjamin ''Ben'' Johnson - Commissioner Johnson - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Hannah ''Han'' Rose - Chief Rose - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Koji ''Cody'' Takahashi - Professor Takahashi - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
Virus.Zip - The Virus - Tobi Hikari - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
Data Information Assistant Computer - D.I.A.C. - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
Tobi Hikari - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Akira Hikari - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Adam Waddington - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
The Fox - Wild Fox - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)
Jasmine ''Jazz'' Wright - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Titan T-Rex - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo, Dies)
Kenny Dalton - Lucky - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Dane Stevens - Mayor Stevens - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Donatello ''Donnie'' Stevens - The Bodyguard - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Justin Spirit - Detective Spirit - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Vincent ''Vince'' Spirit - Detective - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Ling Chan - Queen Of The Sea - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Origins)

Unnamed Bully - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Adam Waddington's Unnamed Family Members - Earth-01 (First Appearances, Cameos)
Caine ''Cain'' Richards - Night Thief - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Curtis ''Kurt'' Richards - Earth-01 (First Appearance)
Liam Richards - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Thomas ''Tom'' White - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Ashia ''Ash'' Madan - Earth-01(First Appearance, Cameo)
Cynthia ''Cindy'' Knight - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Emily ''Em'' Foley - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Rose ''Rosie'' Martins - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Violet ''Vi'' Powers - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Amira ''Ammy'' Suri - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Anastasia ''Ana'' Charkov - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Asumi Chen - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Victoria ''Vicki'' Garcia - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)
Fiona ''Fi'' Foley - Earth-01 (First Appearance, Cameo)

Appearing Locations:

Meteor Island (First Appearance)
Meteor Mountain (First Appearance, Cameo)
Meteor Forest (First Appearance, Cameo)
Meta City High School (First Appearance, Cameo)

Appearing Objects:

Chicxulub Impactor (First Appearance, Cameo)
Power Meteor (First Appearance, Cameo)


My final project is still going to be the origin comic script, I will also do artwork, a bio archive and a full Comic.

I will write the script and bio's using Microsoft Word. I am very bad at drawing using Paint, PhotoShop or Illustrator so I will instead do artwork, concept art, storyboards and the full comic on paper and then scan them all onto the computer, I will also put everything on this blog page.

I have started writing my script, separating them by scenes. So far my story includes the dinosaurs being extinct by the meteor and the origins of multiple characters from when they were kids.

For my Pitch i will make the PowerPoint slides look like a comic book.

My final project has been changed from a full comic and making an advert video and a few posters all advertising the comics.

I used Freesound.Org to get the sound effects for my radio ads and I used free to use music made by Kevin Macleod for the background music. Both were Recommended by my friend Ethan.

My ads turned out to be too long so i cut some sequences so they were shorter but still made sense.

I have recorded lines for more than two ads just incase i thought one wouldn't work so i could just use another one. I have decided to use the following two storylines for my ads.

Origins for being the first story and Haunted Horrors for being the most interesting story.

Story Poster:

The first poster will have earth in the background and a meteor shower going towards it including a giant meteor. The setting will be in space.

Location Poster:

This poster will have the Meta Islands near the Bermuda Triangle and all the locations on the islands will also be visible like the forest, mountain, desert, city and all the others.


The rest of the posters will be collages of the characters.

The characters will be split so that there will be a poster for the heroes and a poster for the villains.

Wild Fox
Light Fox [Earth-02]
Dark Wolf [Earth-03]
Adam Waddington
Aiden Curry (Sonic Boom)
Alexander Jackson (Cloaked Figure)
Amira Suri (Mass-Swapper)
Anastasia Charkov (Frost Girl)
Anastasia Charkov (Ice Girl) [Earth-03]
Andrew Matthews (Clayboy)
Andrew Matthews (Cesspool) [Earth-03]
Angelica Green
Antonio Russo (The Thief)
Ashia Madan (Shard, Mirror Wraith)
Mirror Wraith
Auto-Pilot (Power Suit)
Barry Hunter (Crossbow)
Commissioner Benjamin Johnson
Bill Thomson (Psychosis)
Callum Harris
Christopher Smith (Nitro)
Christopher Smith (The Speedster) [Earth-02]
Christopher Smith (The Anomaly) [Earth-03]
Clark Finston (Magpie)
Connor Woods (Shadow Bird)
Connor Woods (Shadow Bird) [Earth-02]
Connor Woods (Dark Bird) [Earth-03]
Curtis Richards (Night Thief)
Cynthia Knight (Ghost Girl)
Dale Weaver (Light Beam)
President Dane Stevens
Daniel Rojas (Parrot Man) [Earth-02]
Data Information Assistant Computer (D.I.A.C.)
Deadwood (Darkwood)
Dennis Petrov (Insectoid)
Diego Mendez (Plume)
Donatello Stevens
Edward Clinton (Stopwatch, Time Machine)
Emily Foley (Gemini)
Emma Weaver (Lunar Blast)
Erika Mars
Ethan Jones
Fang The Bat
Fiona Foley (Plant Girl)
Garfield Finston (Pidgeon)
Garry Patrov
Gilda Russo (The Supplier)
Grant Gray (Power Card)
Gregory Death (Grim Reaper)
Chief Hannah Rose
Harper Taylor (TNT) [Earth-02]
Isaac Thanatos (Scythe)
Israel Barker
The Darkness
Jane Chen (Pluto, Planet Girl)
Janice Felix-Woods (Light Bird) [Earth-02]
Jasmine Wright (Wildgirl)
Jason Woods (Dark Bird) [Earth-02]
Jeffrey Williams
Jessica Curry (Sonic Wave)
Jin Tong (Hive-Mind)
John Walker (Soul Eater)
Joseph Gray (Chess Piece)
Justin Spirit (The Spirit of Justice)
Kevin Anderson (Wildboy)
Kirby The Hovian
Koji Takahashi (Codec)
Koji Takahashi (Codec) [Earth-03]
Krystal The Symbiote
Laura Banks (Dice Roll)
Leon Weaver (Solar Beam)
Liam Richards (Raccoon Thief)
Liam Richards (Monkey Boy) [Earth-02]
Ling Chan (Queen of The Sea)
Logan Woods (Fast Falcon)
Marcus Fuller (Raptor)
Maria Gomez (Sound Wave)
Martin Vargas (Sound Boom)
Mick Gray (Boss Battle)
Nathan Smith (Spike-Bomb)
Robot Guard Unit II (R.G.U.)
Rose Martins (Pix)
Ryan Smith (Boomery) [Earth-02]
Samuel Lucas (The Jester)
Sari Amari (Motherboard)
Space Probe Energy Absorbing Octopus Robot (S.P.E.A.O.R.)
Thomas White (Colour Spectrum)
Timothy Powers (Magic Kid)
The Elemental
Violet Powers (Element Girl)
Wendy Thorn (Wild Vixen) [Earth-17]
William Morgan (The Owl)
William Morgan (Owlboy) [Earth-03]
Yoshi The Hovian Virus (The Black Whole Virus)
Zero The Space-Demon

My final project has changed once again, the posters are the same but now i have 2 new radio ads, both are advertising the comics as usual but this time the robot helper R.G.U. (Robot Guard Unit) or Argue is narrating the ads. He is the only voice in the ads and he is voiced by Kieran Thompson a classmate of mine.

The first ad is Argue talking about the 3 main heroes, there names, origins and abilities are mentioned. The second ad is him talking about 3 main villains with the same information as the heroes. Both ads mention the price, how to buy the comics and the fact that they are comics.

In all final project stuff there is unused audio because I had to shorten them to about a minute so they weren't too long by removing some character mentions.

The music for the radio ads was used from YouTube.

The hero ad uses the Daredevil Theme from the Marvel Netflix show Daredevil and the villain ad uses the Reverse-Flash Theme from the DC Comics CW show The Flash.

4: Evaluation

My second audio ad would not let me export it into an MP3

My radio ads voice recordings unfortunately have popping recorded into them because there was no filter available in the college.

I have now finished my Final Project and given my powerpoint presentation.