planning booklet

1. Digital Graphic Narrative Planning
Use this booklet to help structure your planning and collate your planning documents.
Considerations:
There are lots of things to consider in this project. Fill out each section in detail to show you have thought about each one. You
should imagine that this is a live project, so considerations like cost, quantity and codes of practice must be thought about in that
context rather than just as a college project.
Costs:
For the production of my children’s book, the costs will be fairly low as I already have everything that I
need to produce it. The majority of the production will be completed on Photoshop which is provided
by college. The only other materials I may need is pens/paper etc. for scanning in drawings then
placing them into Photoshop. I already have access to those materials meaning the cost should be
relatively low throughout my production process. However the costs for the printing of the book
would be more expensive as we don’t have any access to printing materials/equipment.
Available resources:
There are lots of available resources when producing our books. For example, we already have access
to Photoshop and anything needed on the internet, which is provided by college. Also, I will need
some pens/pencils/paper to scan in any drawings, which I already have access to. In addition, a quiet
working environment is essential for the production of my book.

2. Quantity:
The quantity of books that I will be producing is 2,000. Most books sell between 1,000 and 8,000 on
average, and as my book would be fairly small in popularity compared to other books produced by
bigger designers/production companies, meaning on average, less books would be sold.
Audience and Target Market:
The target audience for my book would be boys aged 3-7, and would be targeted at no specific class.
However, this book could be read by anybody, and isn’t just aimed at boys aged 3-7. The book will be
targeted at people in Britain as the book will be written in English. However, people in other English
speaking countries such as America and Canada may also read this book. This will be targeted at
young children but will be purchased by their parents/other family/friends, which means the book will
have to look visually pleasing for the buyer as well as the children.
Quality Factors:
Some of the factors that will effect the quality of the final product is the amount of time we have to
complete the work, and also whether the amount of time we are given is used efficiently. Also, another
factor is the software, as some of the software may be unfamiliar, meaning time may need to be given
to learning how to use the software, which may reduce the quality of the final product. This may also
be applied to the equipment used. Also, the amount of planning done before the production will help
to boost the quality of the final product, as there will be lots of information and ideas before it comes
to the actual production meaning time will not be wasted thinking of ideas, and more time will be
spent producing the work instead. Also, there is the possibility of having technical difficulties
surrounding the work. For example, a computer may crash and break, and if none of the work is
backed up either to an online source such as Google Drive or saved to a USB or external hard drive,
the majority of the work will be lost. This would cause a big issue with the timing of the work as it will
take far longer to restart all the work.

3. Codes of Practice:
There are different issues regarding the author of the book and the publishers in some cases as there
can be legal and financial issues, such as the publishers not paying the authors for their work. For
example, one of the factors within the Publishers Codes of Practice is “The publisher must not cancel
a contract without good and proper reason,” which along with other factors helps to eliminate any
legal or financial issues surrounding publishers and authors. However, the publisher is entitled to
reducing or not paying the author if their work isn’t submitted on time or the quality of the work is
very poor or if there is some form of illegality within their work.
Regulation:
Within the production of the children’s books, there needs to be some kind of regulation to help
protect and ensure the safety of the children when using the product. The Toy Safety Directive Act, is
used to help ensure the products that the children are using are safe and don’t put their health at risk
at all. However, this only applies to products sold on the European Market. Also, the Obscene
Publications Act is used to help protect the children from seeing any obscenities or anything
inappropriate within the products they are using. Therefore, the Obscene Publications Act is used to
help prevent this from occurring. Also, the Equality Act 2010 is used to help to reduce any
discrimination against race, gender, disability etc. Therefore, the act is used to protect anybody that
may be discriminated against through the book.
Copyright:
There are lots of issues surrounding copyright when producing a children’s book. For example, the
original story may have been written by one author that has copyrighted the story meaning that if
anybody else is making any money from their story, then they require a cut of the money. Also, if any
characters are used in commercial use, that somebody else has created, then there may also be
copyright issues involved there. This issue is also found within fonts that are used in commercial use,
as a lot of fonts online are advertised as free for personal use, but have to be paid for if used in a
commercial setting. This causes lots of issues with copyright as some authors may not realise that
the font requires payment for commercial use, which leads them to using the free font for the book,
which would be classed as copyright.

4. Ethical Issues:
There are also some ethical issues within the production of a children’s book. For example, the way
people are represented may be an issue as some of the characters may reflect real people and they
may be portrayed negatively. Also, cultural sensitivity is another factor within publishing a book as if
the culture that is being represented is represented wrongly or in a negative way, that creates a big
ethical issue, which may prevent the book from being published.
Resources:
A successful project relies on good planning. Considering all the resources you will need for a project and then assessing which
you already have and which you need will help ensure you are ready to start your project.
If there is a resource you don’t currently have, then consider how you are going to get it before you go in to production.
Resource:
Do you have
it? What do you need to do to get it?
Photoshop Yes
Drawing equipment
(Pens/Pencils/Paper) Yes

5. Scanner
Available in
college
Internet access Yes
Production Schedule:
Delivering your project on time is vital. In order to do this, you need a solid plan of action. This will help you divide up your work in
to manageable chunks to be tackled one at a time. It will also allow you to plan which tasks need to be done in which order. It will
also allow you to track your progress each day. If you are falling behind, you will need to modify the way you work. If you work
faster than expected, you can clearly see what the next steps you need to take are.
Each session is a half day of college.
Session 1:

6. Start to create the background for page 1-4 by using rotoscoping and drawing in any other sections if
necessary.
Create hand drawn images and scan in to help with digital drawings of any features.
Session 2:
Create the characters needed for the entire story, through scanning hand drawing images and
rotoscoping.

7. Session 3:
Spend more time editing the characters needed and include different facial expressions and body
positions.
Use hand drawn images if necessary to help with the drawing of the facial expressions.
Session 4:
Start to create the background for page 5-9.
Use hand-drawn images to help with the creation of the background.

8. Session 5:
Continue to create the background for pages 5-9.
Session 6:
Begin to create the background for page 11.
Use different shapes to create the interior of the spaceship.

9. Session 7:
Work on the drawings/creation of the space ship, which is used on many occasions.
Use different shapes to help create the space ship.
Session 8:
Begin to add in text onto each page.
Think about fonts and the copyright issues behind using fonts online.
Make adjustments to the size/spacing etc. of the font.

10. Session 9:
Continue to add text onto page, and make final touches to any font.
Session 10:
Make any final touches to each of the pages.
Make sure the positions of the characters look suitable.
Make sure the pages don’t look too repetitive.

12. Health and safety:
Your health and safety and that of those around you is very important. Just like in industry, an accident could prevent you from
working. Whilst we don’t work in a highly dangerous environment, there are still risks. Some are short term, such as trips and
spillages whilst others, such as long term damage to eyesight or back problems, may affect you much later in life.
Consider the risks based on the activities you will be undertaking during the project. Explain how you could prevent them from
happening.
Ensure you reference appropriate pieces of legislation, design to protect people at work.
Health and Safety Issue How can you prevent it?
Bags left in the way, could cause someone to trip up and
injure themselves.
Ensure that everyone’s bags are in a sensible place,
under desks etc.
Chairs left sticking out, could cause an accident.
Ensure that your chair is pushed under the desk when
leaving.
Wires sticking out of the computer, could cause an
electrical fault or could cause someone to trip up if not
plugged in properly. Ensure all wires are correctly plugged into the computer.

13. Eye strain from looking at the computer screen for too
long. Take regular breaks to prevent this.
Back ache from chair being in wrong position.
Ensure the chair is in a comfortable position before
working.