Overview
The main goal was to tell the story that you create through a visual representation of a book cover, using a random prompt generator as the title and inspiration of the book. The purpose was to explore visual narrative through illustration and/or design.
Generated Prompts
Constellation Protect
Guitar Cat
Cultural Behaviour Cemetery
Sketches Based on Prompts
The concept moved forward with was Cat Guitar.
Story Crafted
“After Dan’s partner August passes away, he falls down a spiral of grief and bad coping habits that disconnect him from everyone. His outgoing nature succumbs to his sorrow and he avoids contact with his friends and family. August’s guitar resides in his room, untouched and neglected, a constant reminder of his loss. Dan vows to never touch it again - his own passion and dream that were once nurtured by it and August. It was too painful to consider.
What he didn’t expect, though, was Monty - August’s cat he took in after their death - to have remnants of August still alive within him. Through Monty, maybe Dan can find his peace and learn to heal his broken heart.”
Concept Sketches
The concept sketches were developed based on this story crafted, with the focal point being the cat and guitar within a bedroom. Having the cat as the only character in the room and the guitar was meant to evoke a sense of melancholy and a quiet environment. I played with this idea in an array of sketches.
Initially, the composition was in an open space, but I moved more toward a closed space to play with depth and give a feeling of the viewer looking in on a personal moment. Playing with sharp verticals and horizontals and being aware of how the fore, mid, and background built on each other.
Building onto the initial design with personalized details and items to further allude to the grief and attempted coping of the storyline. The colour palette was focused on being faded purples and pinks, darkened to add the silent somberness of the cluttered yet empty room. The final part of the composition was the placement of the cat and guitar as the focal point.
Animating the piece was a new experience. Being most familiar with photoshop, I learned the timeline tool and after watching different tutorials on basic animation tips and watching how the objects themselves would move naturally, I did the frame-by-frame animation
Final Rendering
Final
Reflection
This was a great experience in tying in my illustration passion in design as getting to try out new skills like animation. The takeaway from this project was the use of visual narrative and design to push a story and was one of the first times I got to really enjoy storytelling in design.
Line & Rendering
Creating a Narrative through Randomly a Generated Prompt
Through the use of narrative and illustration tools and techniques, I designed and animated a book cover for an imagined story based on a random prompt.
Illustration | Story Telling | Case Study
Fall 2019