The document provides a template for evaluating a graphic narrative project. It prompts the user to provide specific details and examples from their work to explain strengths and areas for improvement. The user should praise strong elements of their project and identify what they would improve if given another chance. Additional slides can be added as needed and any blank slides should be deleted before submission.

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Use this template to help you evaluate your project.
You should give specific details about your work.
You should provide both written and visual examples to explain your project.
You should find areas to praise in your work. Be specific about why you think they are
good or why you are proud of them.
You should also find areas that could be improved. Look for areas that you could make
better if you went back to them. Be specific about what you would improve.
Add additional slides as you need to. Don’t be restricted by what is here.
Any blank slides should be deleted before submission.

3. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
When compared to my flat plans, I would say that
my work is a close representation. This is because I
have used the same backgrounds for both the flat
plans and their respective final pages. This could be
interpreted as both a good and bad thing. Good,
because I have stuck firmly to my planning which is
good for design, but it could also be seen as bad,
because I may have stuck too close to my basic
planning documents, meaning my work could have
a better quality.

4. One thing that I that changed when compared to
my original plans, is that I originally had ideas to
do characters for each page, instead of reusing
assets. However, because I intended to make my
characters with rotoscoping, and finding
appropriate images of the Chinese Emperors in
different poses is really not easy. I was also
restricted by time, and so I had to reuse assets.

5. How well have you constructed your
images?
For my images, I believe they are constructed fairly well, as they follow
a particular style throughout, but they could also do with a bit more
work because getting images of ancient Chinese backgrounds and
people to rotoscope and filter was quite difficult and as such I could’ve
put more effort into it. For example, the second page takes place in a
kitchen but it was difficult to find ‘ancient Chinese kitchen’ and so the
end result was a filtered Chinese kitchen that was zoomed in quite a
bit so that you at least get the impression that it is in the kitchen
despite the the characters looking small compared to it in the
foreground. All the backgrounds were made by using the same
backgrounds as the digital flat plans and then put through the ‘cutout’
filter. In this instance I think more work could have been put into
constructing the backgrounds, but I don’t think I would’ve had enough
time to improve the backgrounds and finish the pages in the allotted
time.

6. In terms of texture, for all of the clothing I used traditional Chinese
patterns already found on their clothing and rotoscoped them onto the
images I’ve used for my characters, as such all of the textures are
appropriate for where my book takes place and when it takes place. In
terms of colour however, I think that I could’ve used more variety, but at
the same time it would’ve strayed from the theme of the book being in
Imperial China. The colours used were all part of the time and fit the
theme well. Adding too many colours would’ve broken that theme.

7. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
My combination of text and images was what I
would consider fairly standard for a book. I went
with the simple text at the top of the page with.
I decided to do it in this way and not use speech
bubbles because there’s no direct speech in my
script. I also made that decision because I
wanted it to be a simple, easy-to-read design as
my audience would be children. You should talk
about the combination of words, images and
text.

8. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
I think my product is suitable for my audience because
the audience is young children. “The audience for my
book would mostly be under 7 years old. More
specifically 2-6 year old, as this is the time-frame of age
where the story would have some kind of meaning, and
it’s also the age that picture-books are most prominent.
In terms of class, it won’t be a factor in my book, as it’s
not based towards any part of the class system. My book
won’t be focused towards gender, because nothing in the
book would determine some kind of gender bias”. In the
proposal, I had in mind what age group my book would
be for, and so I used more simple language in my text, as
well as easy-to-understand pictures for younger minds.

9. I believe that my product is suitable for the target age that I decided on. This is because I
have used different strategies and methods to match the kind of education level of my
audience. For example, I made my text bold and standing out so that the text was easier to
read, I also used a more basic vocabulary so that it would be readable by the intended
audience.

10. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
I used Rotoscoping for all the character designs. I like this
because I wanted to have a consistent art style throughout it. I
also did this so that it wouldn’t be confusing the audience. I
also liked how I did the text, by putting a black gradient
behind it at a low opacity, it meant that the text was visible,
and so was the picture behind it but if the background was
lighter, the white text was still visible and easily readable by
my target audience.
What I disliked is how the backgrounds look. They were made
by just using the ‘cutout’ filter in Photoshop, and sometimes
they look like they could just do with some added extras.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to do much editing
to match the character’s styles.

11. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I liked the what I have done with the text and the
story-telling in general. Like that I have turned a
multi-page stage play into a short and succinct 8-
page children’s book.
What I disliked however is that each recurring
character uses the same sprite each time. This was
because I was limited by a mixture of time and the
amount of available pictures of Chinese Emperors in
the right poses to rotoscope.

12. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images:
The images I used were chosen not really because
I wanted to, as I would’ve chosen better positions
for them to be in. However, there were very few
suitable images to rotoscope.
• Fonts
I chose the font ‘Plantagenet Cherokee’ after it
was recommended on a website I found whilst
researching for child-friendly fonts.

13. • Effects:
I used the gradient effect to darken the image behind
the text so that the lighter backgrounds didn’t obscure
the text, as the text had to be white due to the
majority of the backgrounds being darker colours
around the middle.
• Colours:
The colours I used (excluding backgrounds) were all
based on traditional Chinese patterns and colours
such as reds and golds.

14. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
I don’t have a huge amount of ‘signs’ or
‘symbols’ because it didn’t fit with my story. The
closest I would have to this is the fact that I have
traditional Chinese patterns that I rotoscoped on
to the character’s clothing.

15. 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.
15Creative Media Production 2012

16. 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.
16Creative Media Production 2012

17. 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.
17Creative Media Production 2012

18. 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.
18Creative Media Production 2012

19. What representations can be found in
your work?
In my work, there isn’t a huge amount of representation as it is set in
Imperial China, and whilst Imperial China lasted for more than 2000
years, there is no indication in the book (or the original story) when
exactly the book was set although it was written around 1843 so it
could be considered to be around that time. If it as set around this
time, it could be assumed that there weren’t a huge amount of visitors
to China. For this reason, the majority of the characters are Chinese. I
say the majority because some are white, although they are visitors
from other parts of the world, and they show up very little in the book.
As for different ages, all my characters are adult because there were
no children in the story, and adding them would make no difference to
the pot except making it more difficult because the only characters
mentioned couldn’t be children on account of what they are; Maid,
Emperor, visiting dignitary, doctor(s), and a bird.

20. What style have you employed
in your products?
The visual style in my book was originally intended to
be similar to books like ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’
and/or the front cover of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ shown
above. I like this art style because it is reminiscent of
older, classic children’s books that I enjoyed when I
was younger. I used this visual style because I liked
how it looks and wanted to emulate it into a slightly
more moderns book for current generation children.

21. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
The planning and research helped by giving a sound
basis for what my whole story will be about and
look like. For example, the digital flat plans laid out
what each page would roughly look like, then I
would build my actual page around that as a
blueprint. I would say my time was managed
relatively well, given that I completed the pages in
the allotted time we had available. However, during
the evaluation/post-production stage it has taken
me longer than normal to do work. This might be
due to lack of motivation on account of it being
close to the end of the educational year.

22. Historical and cultural context
An intention of my work was to invoke some Chinese culture in
my book, although it was limited by how much I actually knew.
For example, all the characters were from portraits of real-life
Chinese people. The Emperor is based off the picture of the 6th
Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Aisin Gioro Hongli. (Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor), whilst the
maid is from the picture above. The colours and patterns I
rotoscoped onto the clothes of my characters were all based on
Chinese patterns that I found on Google. I couldn’t find any
other Chinese-based illustrated fairy tales that came close
enough to my book to attempt a comparison, but the closest
one would be stories like ‘The Wolf of Zhongshan’, and ‘The
Pretty Little Calf’.

23. Peer Feedback
• Summarise peer feedback and discuss
– Responses you agree with
– Responses you disagree with