The document summarizes the results of the author's experiments with different graphic design techniques for use in a graphic novel project. The author tested comic book effect, digital photography, rotoscoping, and illustration techniques. They found that comic book effect and rotoscoping produced high quality, detailed images quickly enough to complete the project on time. While digital photography was simple and fast, the images lacked impact. Illustration took too long. The author concluded they would use comic book effect and rotoscoping due to the speed and quality of the results. They recognize skills with selection tools need improving for rotoscoping, and blending tools for comic book effect. Overall practice with the chosen techniques on Photoshop will help strengthen abilities.

1. Graphic novel experiments
Task 2

2. Comic book effect

3. What I like about the design
• The detailing of the key features on the tiger, such as: the eyes and the ears. The black and white threshold overlay layer on
Photoshop really enabled those features to stand out on the image. The tool firstly turned the image black and white, before
allowing you to control the visibility of key features on the particular image.
• The contrasting colour also allow the image to be at the fore-front of attention
What I would change on the image if repeated
• Either make the background colours of the grass fully visible or not visible at all. The effect as a whole was a good one to
use, but I felt the little specs of grass on their own just looked out of place in the overall image.
• Make the eyes a more prominent feature within my image, which they are in the original. The eyes of the original image is
striking, where as my comic book effect images eyes aren’t that prominent.
Quality of the product
• My image used comic book effect to good use, which made the image stand out, where as the
original image had failed to do that. It did this because my image had a mostly white
background, where as the original had a range of colours for it’s background.
Speed you can work
• This effect is one of the fastest effects I used within the experiment section of the project. It can
be done easily and it’s success rate and effectiveness cannot be faulted.
How similar products are produced
• The image on the right has used the same effect as I used and, in my opinion, isn’t as striking as
my own image because the colours don’t contrast. However, the image does have normal
colours, before having an eye catching orange at the bottom of the page. If I repeated the
experiment, I may try with this technique.
The target audience
• For my image there is only one particular demographic I am looking to target, and that is animal
lovers. This is due to the tiger not been age or gender specific and the colours not been bright
and more appealing to children.
Resources that’ll be required
• Photoshop and a range of tools within Photoshop.

4. Digital Photography

5. What I like about the design
• The light and dark shading for the parts of the image, this is one advantage to using the
post-production tool of colour range.
• The detail that the end product had because colour range sometimes takes some detail off
parts of the image, but this particular image has kept all the characteristics of the original
photo.
What I would change on the image if repeated
• Make the colour range a bit lighter. This is because when a colour range layer is produced it goes a
bit see through, so when the colour overlay is added, the image darken a bit, lightness added to the
image would improve it.
• Colour overlay the image a different colour, I like the colours of the original image but had to change
it to make it my own piece, so decided to add a colour range and followed it up with an overlay.
Quality of work
• The quality of detail is accurate and precise on the image, however, hasn’t changed much from the
original image, so the detail wasn’t initially added by me.
Speed you can work at
• Can be done very quickly, but to get a good finish, a bit more time will need to be spent. Between
Comic book effect and Rotoscoping for speed it takes to accomplish.
How similar products are produced
• The image on the left has undergone a colour range and colour overlay transformation. However, this
image has had a dark colour range added, this means features like the mouth won’t be prominent. I
could have used a transformation similar to this, but the monkey’s fur wouldn’t have been detailed and
highlighted and noticeable this way, instead it would just blend into one.
The target audience
• Like the other image, animal lovers are the main demographic and no one in particular is aimed at age
and gender wise.
Resources that’ll be required
• Photoshop and the colour range and colour overlay tools.

6. Rotoscoping

7. What I like about the design
• The detailing on the main features of the Rabbit, like the different colour for the inside of the Rabbits ear, or the whiskers on the
rabbits face.
• The background of the image. The images I have rotoscoped before have just been the object or person alone, not the background.
Even though the background is simple and consists of two colours, the background is still rotoscoped, to give a completely rotoscoped
image.
What I would change on the image if repeated
• I would add highlighting to the image if I had more time. I did experiment on highlighting the image by using the colour range tool
to add the highlights. However, I was unable to add the highlights correctly because they either looked too striking or too dull.
• The shading of light and dark on the rabbits paws, face and ears. This feature was a difficult one to do successfully because if you
added too much shading or lightness to the image, it looked mismatched and didn’t blend with the colours already on the image.
Quality of the work – The quality of work that the rotoscoping technique produces allows
details in key feature, due to the polygonal and magnetic lasso tools been effective in small
and tricky areas that other tools would struggle with. However, the smoothness of the
picture is sometimes compromised if you rotoscope round an extra bit or miss a part with
rotoscope.
Speed you can work at – The rotoscoping technique can vary in terms of how long it takes.
Detailed work can take a long time to complete, where as simple designs can take as little
as 15 minutes to complete. My design took around 15 minutes to complete, but would have
had more time spent on the image if I was using this technique for my Graphic novel.
How similar products are produced – The image on the right is an example of another
rotoscoped image. This image however has had a lot of time spent on it, therefore it has
details and shading within the image. On the other hand, this image is of a human, who has
many more features to rotoscope compared to a rabbit. The other image on the right is a
rotoscoped animal, which is more relevant than the previously mentioned example. This
rotoscope allows for key details on the wings and beak, but they are meant to look like
shadows or outlines of the initial animals, so don’t have features like eyes or other colours
added to the image, where as mine does.
The target audience – due to my piece been mainly about animals, all my experiments are
about animals. Therefore my target audience is the same as my two previous images,
animal lovers.
Resources that’ll be required – The polygonal and magnetic lasso tools within the
Photoshop software.
Another few product using
rotoscope techniques

8. Illustration

9. What I like about the design?
• The detailing on the cape and clothing
• The colours used on my design were very effective and fulfil the striking element I was looking for when
creating this illustration.
What I would change on the image if repeated
•
•
•
The quality of the finishing on the edges of the design. Some of them are detailed, but the majority
are rough and haven’t been finished to a good quality.
Some of the illustrations features have merged, such as the feet and the fingers of the design. I would
definitely change this if I repeated the design.
The facial features aren’t to a high standard and they are just simplistic. Not up to the standards of
other techniques that are available to use for my images.
Quality of the work
The finish and overall image is not of a high standard. Some features blur into one and you can’t
differentiate between the two body parts. Maybe not the best technique I have to choose from on this
particular project.
Speed you can work
This particular image was a quick sketch, but they can potentially be time consuming. In the project I don’t
have a long time to complete my illustrations. This is another thing that goes against the technique.
How similar products are produced
How similar products produced
The image on the right of the page was created using hand drawing. The image took a long time to create,
but looks very effective. However, like I said in the previous section, time could be an issue in the project.
The target audience
Unlike all my other techniques, this images target audience is history lovers, but the childlike illustration
bring the age demographic down on this particular image.
Resources that’ll be required
A pencil, paper, but these images aren’t that effective, to make effective images you need ink.

10. Overall Evaluation
Techniques I decide to choose and the reasons why I didn't select particular techniques
After completing all of my experiments for potential image creation I will use in my graphic
novel, I have decided that the rotoscope and comic book effect techniques are the two which I
will use in the production of my product. I have chosen these because they look effective and
detailed when done successfully. However, the main reason why I selected these two were the
speed that these images can be created and still look as effective as an illustrated image, which
takes twice as long. Time is a factor in the production of my graphic novel and if I have many
images to produce, which I will, due to graphic novels been communicated to the consumer
through imagery, I will struggle to complete the project if I used illustration for the images. The
digital imagery technique was contemplated by me at various points throughout the
experiment stage, but I decided the images couldn’t be edited enough for them to look nearly
as effective as the two techniques I have chosen to design my images.
Comic book effect
• Advantage – The images produced by this particular technique look effective, while at the
same time, are quite quick to do.
• The image that I produced for the experiment looks as if it can be inserted into a graphic
novel, where as my other image technique examples don’t.
• Disadvantage – The tools required to carry out this technique can be difficult to find, plus, if
you miss a step, the end product will reflect this, where as rotoscoping and digital
photography can hide this well.
Digital Photography
• Advantage - Simple to produce and the fastest technique to carry out as well
• The detail and shading of the images produced by digital photography, as well as it’s
techniques, can be used to good effect.
• Disadvantage – Maybe too simple in some ways, due to the tools you can use on the picture
not making it look as effective or striking as the other techniques.

11. Rotoscoping
• Advantage – The detail that the images produce is very effective, due to the lasso tools been used to
carry out the Rotoscoping technique.
• Can be carried out quickly, while maintaining the same quality of all the other techniques, if
not, more so.
•Disadvantage – the smoothness of the product is quite often compromised because the lasso tools
miss bits of the image or make the lines go wavy because they haven’t controlled the lasso tools
correctly. However, this isn’t the tools error, instead, it’s human error, but still a factor.
Illustration
Advantage – You can get exactly what you want, not a digital equivalent of the image.
Disadvantage
•
It takes a long time to complete the images
•
the quality of the image is compromised if it isn’t created by someone who is good at
drawing.
What skills I need to improve on within the techniques I have chosen and how I can carry them out
For my final products to be produced, I require skills on control of the lasso tools when carrying out
rotoscope techniques, this could lead to the smoothness of the final product been compromised. I could
improve this skill by practicing my Rotoscoping techniques on Photoshop, this should enable me to get a
good finish on my final designs.
My comic book effect skills also need some work, including the blending tools within this technique.
This will enable me to cut out the unnecessary background colour I don’t want and allow my image to
be more striking because it’ll contrast with the black background. I will go about doing this by practicing
my comic book effect on Photoshop.