1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
Digital flat plan 1
Digital flat plan 2
Final Book
I believe that my final product does reflect on my digital flat plans. There has
been lots of change made through out the process but by looking between each
stage you can see what was planned and that I mostly got everything I was
planning done. Overall I believe my final product is good but with some of the
detail on the pages was not as high as the final came out as. This can been seen
within the first flat plan where the view point is far away (view from outside of
house). The amount filling the page was much more than the final making it look
not as noisy and active as the original flat plan. This is because I drew the first flat
plan by hand and the page sizes on a smaller scale to the final which made it
much quicker to get the little detail done. My second flat plan did not have as
much time put into this as after my first flat plan I had what I wanted planned so I
left this simple with no detail. I personally think that my final product is the best
out of the 3 though as it is all original with only some rotoscoping unlike the
second flat plan where none of it was my own work but taken of the internet so
by creating the final product allowed me to take my own style as I was
unsuccessful to show how I was wanting it does in the second flat plan.

3. How well have you constructed your
images?
I personally think that my images have been constructed well as all the pages were made by using
adobe software photoshop. Within photoshop I used mostly the shape tool. I started by creating the
characters on a blank background and saved as a photoshop file and a png so I can edit characters for
different pages and also used png so the characters had no background and could be dropped into
backgrounds and resized easily. I created the characters by imagination as I did not want to copy
anyone else's characters as it needed to unique. I chose to spend longer on the single horizontal page
as it was showing inside the spaceship and I thought for my audience that page would take most
interest to them. I also added extra characters then I thought I was going to have.
I also used the rotoscope tool within photoshop so I could go round the fruits on the market as I was struggling to make
them look good by using just the shape tool. Within layers needing shading or extra texture and detail I used the layer
style by double clicking on the layer to bring up I then used the appropriate styles it offered for
whatever I was making which could’ve been the kitchen and its shadows or anything. I wanted
to make my book look slightly comic themed so that’s why I chose to
use carton six as it looks bold and clear with a cartoon feel making it
suitable. I also chose to put a round rectangle behind all of the text as the font is
set in caps I thought it would be more clear to see with a strong simple background. I may have used some of the same
page layouts but I still changed the things within the background to make an effect of time passing.

4. All of the above are zoomed screenshots of slight texture which is more clear on the actual saved
pages. I used texture on the ground as normally the ground is quite a large area and when there is just
colour with nothing else it looks still and boring so by adding slight texture or more layers to build up it
creates a less empty look and makes the page look more filled. To create the grass texture I got a
cartoon grass sample from google and put it into photoshop, I then went to filter I then used a filter to
tweak the look of the grass and then added a new layer of a green I wanted and put the grass layer
overlay above but with a low opacity blending the colours and giving a slight texture. I added texture
to the planet by giving it craters to give it a slight 3D look and then selected the purple I used for the
base and made it slightly darker and then used the pen tool with fine small tip to give some extra
detail. To create the grass detail and the path detail of the view of jacks house I used the layer styles
and used the texture with a low opacity to try give small detail for it being so zoomed out.

5. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
I think that I have managed to overall use text to anchor my images well apart from on my third page with
the sunset background. This is because on this page jacks mum is meant to go back inside and jack is planting
the seeds in the garden and even though he is stood outside his house I think it improve I would change this
page to a point of view being a close up of him with the seeds planted in his garden making it clear it has
been done. Aside from my third page I find that the rest of my pages are anchored well to the text and it is
clear to read the story and look at the pictures to compare. I have also used speech in some of the pages. I
used speech bubbles when the characters had little speech said but on the pages where more was spoken I
used a second rounded rectangle and indicated who was speaking with there name before the speech this
was because I did not want to fill the page with massive speech bubbles and it took less space sometimes
using just a rectangle. I rewrote the story and my version short but sweet unlike the original which was very
long as shown in my ‘Development Pro Forma’. This made the book a lot more suitable for the age group I
have chosen (age 3-6). This also allowed me to illustrate my images better as it gave me more room. It was
also useful to be able to have larger text as having lots of text and keeping space would’ve meant smaller text
making it more difficult to read.

6. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
My target audience is aged 3-6 and as I said in my development pro forma
my book is not aimed at a specific gender as it covers things I would find
female and male to enjoy. This is because my book has no action making it
less scary but does still involve an alien cyclops but also and alien princess
and I find by making the princess be in the story pulls a female audience but
also pulling the male for it being in space and the princess being an alien.
My book was written in English making it suitable for countries who use the
English language such as the list on the right, other countries may have
some English in certain places but the list is of countries with a majority
speaking English. If my book was to be sold in store I would keep it within
the UK to see how it goes and if it was enjoyed and have a certain amount
made making the first batch sold a first and addition out of 10,000 prints. I
also think that the products look suits either gender as the colours were not
chosen upon suiting a certain gender neither was the style. I find that this
book suits the modern age younger audience best now as girls are now
more into things they wouldn’t have been before.

7. What do you like/dislike about the techniques
you have used?
I like the simplicity of my overall book but as I mostly used
the shape tool on the side bar to get the overall structure
making the images have simple base colours but which
can be further edited further after within things such as
layer styles and adding shadows and textures in some
cases. To give the shapes characters bodies more naturally
shaped I used the transform function and within there I
used warp so that I could slightly adjust the curve sides
the have more curve and give things perfectly straight a
more imperfect line so it doesn’t look to perfect. I also
used the filter gallery to give things more of a cartoon
look by removing or adding more detail but keeping the
base shape and colour feature. I also chose to use
rotoscoping which is a tool which allows you to go round
an area and select it and then fill it and make it your own
which works well for my theme of getting real images
from online and going round them to make my own
cartoon version. For the majority I left everything
untextured apart from some terrain and in the indoor
pages but the rest I left as I thought too much would’ve
taken away the simplicity I wanted.

8. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I liked my 2 pages which were indoors the most. The first page which was inside was the first
page of the book and was inside the kitchen with Jack the main character his mum and his pet
goat. I liked this page as it was easier to add the detail and fill the page. For instance I added in a
personal feature of a photo frame to make it seem like an actual home. I also like my
7th page as it is again filled with stuff going on
making it a very fun page for a kid to look at as
it can be explored. I also liked this pa ge for its 3D
look on a room. This was done by making the walls, roof and
floor co nnect giving it a depth of filed. I did not like the use
one of my pages 4 times but I did change the backgrounds by
making the time change as the story goes on to give it a sense
of time. I also did not like that I did not have the time to make
a front cover for my book as it would of make it look more professional. I liked that I put the
simple science behind the time by moving the planets in the sky in the space pages and moving
the moon and sun.

9. Why did you include the content you
used?
The font I used for my whole book was CARTON SIX I chose this font for its cartoon look and
its constant cap theme as there is not lower case included with it. I chose the font from
www.Dafont.com I did not mind that the font had to be capital letters with this font as it makes it
really clear and distinct what the letters are making the font suitable for a younger audience
which my book is aimed at.
The colours used within the pages which were in day time so needed to be bright were vibrant
strong colours which are clear and distinctive. For the pages in space and at night I made it much
darker by adding a black layer with a low opacity over all the image to create a dimmed shadow
look like it is nice so the colours are slightly darkened on the buildings unlike in previous pages
where the buildings colours are a much brighter look. Throughout the book I used shadows to
create depth and to show angles on light direction of where the sun is sat on the page. I also used
some gradient effect on the ground as the ground is quite a large empty so by adding something
to the solid colour makes the page look less empty. I also used the gradient overlay tool to create
the change in colour for to show a sunset and to give the sky not a solid colour and some more
detail. The stroke was used on the majority of things in my images such as characters, buildings
terrain, items. I did this to make sure the colours behind and around those things were distinct
the different between the 2 things which also gives a more cartoon look

10. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
I chose to make the opening of jacks kitchen nothing to special and fancy as I wanted to show that Jack
was not very rich and wasn’t struggling where it wasn’t capable but want better. I also showed jacks
house next to another house which has more stories and looks nicer with not slanted windows and a
bad roof. I also chose bright vibrant colours to work with throughout my book as I wanted it to look nice
for the younger audience and not be a sad but enjoyable view when reading it. I chose to have a mix
group of characters and different raced characters from white and black characters to show different
culture as it is set in the modern day and this should not make a difference. I also chose to use aliens as
it is something quite modern and is a good attraction to the younger audience and I did not want the
book to be seriously taken as it is only a children’s book. I kept each character to have the same clothing
between pages but different positioning as I wanted them to be varied but wanted the colour to help
the children once they knew who is and what colour it will help them understand and follow the story
easier. (Jack always in blue top).

11. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to
be able to interpret them.
At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a
magazine is written in.
At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that
we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas.
We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to
understand when looking at others.
We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different
forms.
11Creative Media Production 2012

12. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
What is this?
This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in
snow and with a red ribbon on.
Our cultural understanding allows us to
interpret its meaning.
To us, in British society, it means
Christmas, presents and family.
This is because we share a cultural
knowledge.
12Creative Media Production 2012

13. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
There are many other signs and symbols
that we attach meaning to.
A leather jacket can imply rebellion.
A sports car can imply wealth and power.
A cross can represent religion.
13Creative Media Production 2012

14. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world
over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in.
What that car means however, can be very different depending on your
cultural background.
14Creative Media Production 2012

15. What representations can be found in
your work?
• How are men, women or children shown in
your work? Does your work feature different
ages, races, social groups or religions? Does a
lack of any variety of character types create its
own representation?

16. What style have you employed in your
products?
• Discuss influences/ existing products
• What visual style does your work have and
why did you choose it?

17. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
• How did the planning and research help
• How well did you manage your time
• Reference specific examples

18. Historical and cultural context
• How does your work compare to what has
come before? What other similar products
have existed in the past? What current
products exist?

19. Feedback 1
• What do you like about the graphics?
• Backgrounds very detailed and high quality, love the inside of the space
ship.
• The characters are high quality and consistent throughout.
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
• Could show some more detail of jack climbing the beanstalk/the top of the
beanstalk as they’re very good but cant be seen very clearly eg. Add some
close ups of jack climbing the beanstalk and reaching the top.
• Condensing the amount of text on each page may fit better with the target
audience.

20. Feedback 2
• What do you like about the graphics?
• I like how detailed the background and characters are.
• I like how you have made the text easily identifiable by
putting a box around it so it can be clearly read
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
• To improve you could possibly condense some of the text
so that it isn’t as long, meaning children won’t find it as
difficult to read.
• You could change the last page to be in portrait instead of
landscape to fit with the other pages.

21. Feedback 3
• What do you like about the graphics?
– The background is very detailed. The characters
are simple but good. I feel like the font is a good
choice for a children's book.
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
– I think the thought bubble needs to change
speech bubbles

22. Peer Feedback
• Summarise peer feedback and discuss
It was clear that everyone found a problem with so much text being implemented in a book for
an audience of 3-6. I agree with this as looking at other peoples work everyone had it short and
snappy making it simple to understand what was going on in a few sentences. I also agree with
that I could have made the page with the beanstalk and jack climbing it more focused on that and
a close up of jack climbing instead of the zoomed out view of the scene. I would change that as
the books named it Jack and the ‘Beanstalk’ so having a focused page on just the beanstalk would
have made sense. I agree with my backgrounds being detailed as I focused them as priority first
making sure they were right before moving on. I also agree with my characters being simple but a
good choice for a children’s book and that is because by having some facial expressions helps the
younger children reading what those characters are feeling and too much detail in characters
could be confusing. I disagree with my bubbles I designed looking like thought bubbles and not
speech as it will not effect a child who will understand that it is a thought bubble as there is text
inside of it. I also disagree with my horizontal page should be vertical like the rest. I designed it so
the as you go through the book once you get to that page all you have to do is turn the book and
I found landscape was better for an interior spaceship image.