2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
I used the ideas from my digital flat plan and stuck to them for my final
product which is why my finished pages reflect them so much. I found this
very useful as I had a template to work from which is how they are both very
similar as I wanted to create something as close as possible to my original
idea.
The planning I did helped me decide what type of characters I wanted and
what they would look like, as well as how they would fit in with the story. I
used this planning as inspiration for my final pages which gave me a clear
picture in my head of what I wanted it to look like. This helped me complete
the pages quicker as I had a clear goal.
The storyboards look very similar to my flat plans but it meant I could draw
and compare one page to another with different layouts, such as where the
text would be, where the characters would be as well as what my
backgrounds could look like. I found this very useful as it helped my visualize
what I had as an idea as well as what type of layout looked and worked best.
3. I wanted to have the same
locations used as much as
possible to create a feeling
of familiarity and to also not
make it too difficult to
follow for the age group I
have chosen to target.
I made sure each scene was
significant, from the
Princess being locked in a
tower, to the wedding near
the end. I wanted to do this
as my aim was to follow a
traditional children’s book
as well as trying to make it
as interesting as I could
because there are so many
locations the same.
As you can see at the right
hand side, the final pages
strongly reflect the flat
plans I created. This really
helped me to stay on track
so I could focus on making
each page. Some pages look
slightly different such as
when I tightened some of
the pages or made some a
close up instead, but the
concept is still there which
is what I am happy about as
it can show I can stick to my
task and not start making
new things on the spot that
may change everything.
4. This was my final mind-map
on my final chosen idea. I did
a lot more planning, including
my other story ideas, but this
became my chosen one.
I looked at many different
aspects needed for my
children’s book, such as what
the characters may look like,
what type of colours I could
use and if they will be
traditional.
One thing I was very keen to
do was to have repetition in
my book. I accomplished this
through repeated locations,
objects and characters which
helps keep the story simple
which is what I was planning
to do.
I took into consideration the
actual story I had chosen and
tried to consider the length of
my book, the size it would
need to be and the benefits of
doing this. This helped my
when it came to storyboarding
as I could look back at my
notes and change things to
how I had previously planned.
5. How well have you constructed your
images?
I think my images have been constructed very well as I stuck to my plan and schedule
to give me the best outcome. Plus, I really enjoyed rotoscoping the pages so I was
always motivated to do my work the best I could.
I think that overall, my pages are exactly what I aimed for, if not better in some of
them as they are all bright pages, given the tower to be dark, but that is to portray the
‘villain’ in the story. I did change some of my pages fro how they were originally meant
to look such as tightening pages to make the characters bigger and clearer to see. But I
also made one of my pages a mid-shot close up of the argument between the Prince
and the Queen as they were the main part of the page and nothing else needed to be
in the background to add to that pages scene.
I made sure each page had depth in them, such as the grass, buildings and windows
having a gradient on them to make them look more real and 3D. Also, the grass carries
on into the foreground which helps add more detail into each page and make it look
more interesting instead of being flat.
I used a shadow effect under my characters to give a more realistic look to my images,
I think it looks really good on my pages, especially when my characters are in the
tower as it really gives the appearance of a 3D tower.
6. You can see the shadows I used to show
the realism of my story.
The tower has a gradient over it to make
it look more rounded which again makes
it look 3D which adds a lot of depth to
the background as well as adding more
detail to my pages.
The Princess has a shadow over half her
face to show how dark it is in the tower
she is locked in.
You can see the depth and detail in the
growing ivy around and up the towers of
the castle which adds to the image to fill
it and make it more developed.
Again, there is a shadow on the
characters in the tower, I did this by
using the ‘drop shadow’ effect to create
a casted shadow look.
By using the gradient tool on the grass,
castle and windows, it really brings
everything to life.
7. I think I included a lot of detail when it came
to my pages, the walls brick detail was very
complicated to do due to having to fill such
a large space with a lot of detail. But I think
it looks good and really represents the dark
part of the book well, as it is dark, dull and
grey instead of the bright colours in the
previous pages and the ones after this one.
The page was constructed well as I think I
composed the pages clearly with the
juxtaposition between the bright pink
Princess in such a dull place, also, the blue
bird adds more colour to this dark page as
well as representing hope for the Princess to
escape the tower.
The opening page is very stereotypical with
the red curtains acting as a clear opening to
my book, as well as introducing the two
main characters, but also showing the other
characters at the back separated from the
first characters you see which gives you the
impression that you should watch out for
them.
8. This is a page from the original book I
used and changed. The style is very
similar to my rotoscoping which is
what I wanted, to make the story come
to life again but as my version of it.
Because I stuck to my plan that I made,
I knew what to do to keep on track,
but it’s this story that inspired me to
rotoscope how I did which is why I
think it turned out so well.
9. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
In my first few pages, each character is clearly labelled, and what I mean by this is that
each character is very traditional and stereotypical, so when the audience reads
‘Princess’, they will immediately look at the beautiful, blonde girl dressed in an elegant
pink gown who is also stood next to a handsome Prince.
I have also anchored my text to my pages through saying someone has done
something in my story, while allowing the audience to see what is explained in the
text, e.g. ‘Locked the Princess in a tower’, and the page shows the Princess in a tower.
I also used facial expression in my pages to link with the text, such as when the Prince
is turned into a bird and you can see the Princess looking shocked in her tower.
Another key link in the text is when the main characters names change from Princess
and Prince, to Queen and King. Their outfits change to show that they are married,
and they also have crowns on to make the link to becoming rulers of their kingdom.
This makes slight or big changes that are easier to understand as you read and see
something the same, or you read something you don’t understand and are then
shown what the text means, e.g. the wedding at the end.
10. The one thing I could have done better when it came to anchorage in my book would have
to be the eighth page. In this page, the text does not mention a marriage, only hints it as it
mentions that they are now King and Queen. Also, in this page, the text explains that the
Queen and her stepdaughter are locked up in the towers in the castle, but the image does
not show this, however they are not in this scene which could show that they aren’t free or
that they haven’t got away with anything. The good part of this page is that it states ‘since
free’ which links to the earlier page which shows the Princess freed from her tower in the
castle by the good fairy who changes the Prince back to his original self. This shows good
transition from one page to another, and I could arguably apply the same to these pages.
Apart from this page, I think my book shows a clear anchorage between what my images
show, and what the text says which just ties it together a lot better.
11. This shows the anchorage between
the text in a story and the image
that goes along with it. ‘Jack and the
Bean Stalk’ is a well known and
classic children’s book so the link
between seeing a tall bean stalk
with a boy on it you just assume it to
be Jack because of how the book
described him as climbing it.
Below are some more examples of
the image showing what is
happening while being explained in
the text part of the book which is
what I tried to do with mine,
although that could have been
better to show more anchorage
between both my image and text.
12. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
My children’s book is suitable for my target audience as I will be aiming my story book
at children aged between 5-8 years of age as I think older children will understand the
story better and it will be more enjoyable for them. This is because the language isn’t
too complicated to read but it is also not too simple. This is also because there is not a
large amount of text on each page making it look more appealing to older children
who may want to read by themselves. Also, I think that the elements of magic I have in
my book, such as the fairy’s and fairy dust is believable for the children which is why
this would be more appealing for children aged 5-8.
The original story is more graphic than mine as I have censored mine, I did this to
make it more appropriate for children the age I am aiming at.
I will be primarily targeting a female audience as I think my type of story with
stereotypical characters will be best suited in a book for young girls, unless I added the
classic dragons and knights. This is because it is a princess fairy tale, with pretty gowns
and happy endings which is perhaps not every little boys choice for a story.
I am not aiming at any particular demographic as I think my book could appeal to
anyone, this includes class and race.
13. Girls will enjoy
the happy
ending as well
as the pretty
dresses, crown,
the dashing
Prince and
fairytale castle
in my book,
which is why I
think it will be
more appealing
to girls than to
little boys.
14. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
I really enjoyed rotoscoping each character, object and building as I find it makes my
story more realistic and human-like which could make some of the characters
relatable to the children who read the book.
However, rotoscoping took a lot longer than if I just used shapes, which could have
meant I would have had more time to add more details into the final pages such as
more body language and movement in my characters, as well as more facial
expression to show more emotions. Bur as I had a clear plan, I completed everything
on time and to a high standard, even if I could have added more if I had more time.
I think the best tool I used was the gradient tool as it meant that I could add more
depth into my images and backgrounds as well as showing a range of more colours.
The technique I struggled with was creating the important tree into my story, I made
many different drafts of trees with different tools used, but I really struggled to make a
realistic tree to match with my theme, without making it look fake and bare. I decided
to rotoscope the outline of a real tree and then add the ‘inner shadow’ tool to make it
look more 3D as well as adding different tones to it. If I had more time, I would try and
add more detail to the tree but I am happy with the final outcome.
15. Could have
more detail on
the tree as well
as making it
more realistic,
perhaps I could
have added
some leaves to
it to make it
more full and
alive? Although
I think it does fit
in with the dark
theme that the
Queen sets,
with locking the
Princess away
and turning the
Prince into a
blue bird.
16. These are some examples of my earlier
work on Photoshop. I used different
techniques such as making images look
like comic books, or using shapes to make
animals, after using these techniques, the
one I enjoyed more and preferred was
rotoscoping, so I used this technique
when it came to making my own
children's book.
The reason I didn’t use the other
techniques was because I wanted my
pages to be detailed and realistic and I
found it easier to do this rotoscoping as
well as finding it more enjoyable.
I did use the shape technique for
buildings and simple things, but I couldn’t
make it realistic enough for the style I
was going to do on my pages.
I also didn’t use the comic effect because
my pages already had a cartoon look to
them and it would go against my idea of
having it realistic looking, not a comic
style. I’m happy with the way it turned
out so I wouldn’t change my style.
17. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I dislike the fact that my tree looks so bare as well as it not having a whole lot of depth in it,
I think perhaps if I had more time, or I get to change a few things, I may add more shadows
and detail to the tree.
However, apart from that, I am really happy with the way the pages turned out. I like how
bright they are, how my characters are all the same so nothing is out of place. I like the little
bits of detail I added in each page, such as the grass in the corners to fill the page more, the
ivy growing up the castle, the veil on the Princess on her wedding day and even the
shadows below my characters feet.
Each page has the same style in it and each scene flows into the next really well. My
favourite aspect of my book is my Princess, I have two other failed attempts at trying to get
the Princess from my head onto my book’s pages. I had almost finished all my pages when I
decided to create a new Princess, this time I made her how I had imagined. This also
happened with my evil fairy, but after a few tweaks and changes, she came alive too.
I would have to say I am most proud of the ‘ballroom’ which is the first location you see. It
took me a lot of attempts to finish it, which consisted of me making new locations a few
more times before I came back to the original and just made it simpler. I found it really
difficult to do but after I finished it I was very proud that I had managed to do it.
18. I also dislike that there wasn’t enough movement and
different facial expressions to make my book even more
realistic. These examples of fairy tale characters shows
their change in facial expression and body language to
portray the tone of that moment.
With perhaps more planning, thought and time, I could
have made more versions of my characters with
different postures and facial expression. With the time I
had left at the end of my production, I went back and
changed my Princess by remaking her, while I had this
opportunity, I made more version of her, such as a
shocked version with her hand over her mouth. As well
as my Princess, I changed some of the facial features of
the Prince and Queen for some of the scenes. Although
they are small changes, it creates the tone of that scene
more than when they had their old neutral face.
19. Bright colours that
connote a bright
happy day to
match the happy
turning point of my
book.
Characters always
look the same with
tiny movement
such as facial
features or body
language.
Shadows under
characters and
buildings to make it
more realistic.
Grass at the side of
the page to give a
forefront effect
which adds depth
to the page.
20. Why did you include the content you
used?
The font I used is called ‘Baskerville’ and I used it because I think it looks like
the type of font used in traditional children’s books. I also think it is clear to
read for a child that I am aiming at. For the first letter of the paragraph of
text, I used a different font called ‘Snell Roundhand’ which again links in with
a traditional story font.
I did a lot of research when it came to what type of images I would use to
rotoscope over, such as the Princess and Prince’s style of outfit to fit in with
the story.
I used bright colours throughout my book, although when the scene is inside
the tower, everything is black and dull apart from the Princess and the blue
bird. This signifies how evil the Queen for locking her away as dark colours
connotes bad things.
I used the rotoscoping effect on most of my images, while using the shapes
on simple things such as the castle and tower. I did this as I felt this was my
strongest way of creating what I had planned.
21. This is an example of the font style and
character style similar to how I made mine.
The first letter is bold and different from the
other text making it stand out which is what I
did to mine as it fits with the traditional
children’s book style.
Also, the characters in the example are similar
to mine, they are meant to look realistic, but
they still have that cartoon look. This was my
aim as I wanted my book to look real. The
example looks modern yet they are trying to
look old and classic, which is the same type of
style that I wanted.
22. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
I really focussed on what type of colours I was going to use as each colour can
connote something different. With this in mind, I did research as to what type
of colours the ‘villain’ would wear which was dark colours, such as black, dark
red and dark purple. I decided to go with the dark purple as this clearly labels
her ‘bad’ as well as being shown to be evil further in the story.
Another colour I looked at was what the Princess of my story would wear, my
first decision was for her to wear blue, however, I realized the most traditional
and typical colour for her would be pink which is why I changed it to that
colour instead. I think the pink connotes purity, gentleness and love., which is
what she is meant to be in the original story.
I put the stepsister in a pastel yellow colour as I find yellow to be very
attention grabbing, which is what she wants to do, to steal the attention off
the Princess so the Prince will marry her.
The Prince is in dark blue as it portrays him as rich, elegant and sophisticated
which is how every Prince should be in the fairy tale stories. Plus it is the
common colour to represent a boy/man.
23. I wanted to stick to a traditional style where my characters and backgrounds were
realistic yet they still have that cartoon style and Disney look to them. I made it
realistic by rotoscoping real people and outfits as well as doing this to the trees.
This took longer to do and it was harder but the outcome is very good as I made it
look realistic which is what I wanted.
The locations are repeated a few times, such as outside the tower or the ballroom
in the castle. I did this to make it feel familiar for the children. It also meant that
the story didn’t get too complicated. The locations were realistic, with different
shades in the grass, as well as different objects in the background, foreground etc.
to make it have more depth.
Also, there are many symbols in my book that I have used to show or have the
text say it, an example of this is the castle. The castle automatically represents a
royal family in a fairy tale and also shows how wealthy they are. As well as this,
their crowns when they get married also portray their royalty and wealth as that
represents a King or Queen. To add to this, the blue bird in my story is the symbol
of hope, this is a big symbol in the tower scene for the princess as that scene is
represented as a dark scene due to the dark colours, but the blue bird is there
showing that there is still hope to get out of the tower. Because I wanted it to be
traditional, the fairy dust acts as a sign for the children reading it and represents
the magic in the book, much like a lot of other fairy tales.
24.
25. What representations can be found in
your work?
There is only one man in my story, which means there is not a variety of different genders,
although there was going to be a King in my story, I quickly decided against it as he doesn’t have a
big enough part in the story so there was no point adding more time by creating him. Although, if
I had more time, I may have added him just to make it more varied. However, in the classic fairy
tales I looked at, there was normally just a Prince and a King with more females in it than males,
and seeing as I wanted to stick to tradition, I am okay with having one strong male character in
my children’s book.
The Prince is represented as charming and handsome, with the Princess being kind and beautiful.
There is the Queen who is older than the other characters which offers diversity in the age range,
but there are no children in it. The age difference of my characters (even if not as diverse as it
could have been) in my book means that there are the old and the young. Typically in these types
of books and stereotypes in general, old is portrayed as being evil, where as the young are known
as innocent and pure.
All my characters are white, if I could perhaps improve my book to be more modern, I would
include a mix of races to make it more diverse. Although my book isn’t religion specific, they are
in the upper class social group, as they are royalty.
In my children’s book there is a traditional look to it, and what I mean by this is the first page
where we see the very traditional grand staircase used in most of the classic fairy tales to show
their wealth, I wanted this staircase in my book to follow the stereotypes I like so much in other
fairy tales like my own.
26. There is a juxtaposition of stereotypes in my book when it came to one character, the ‘bad’
fairy I added to the mix of characters is different because when associating a fairy in a fairy
tale, you think of a pure lovable good fairy, where as this fairy is bad and helps the ‘evil’
stepmother. You could almost link the two characters together with the assumption that
the fairy could be the Queen’s own personal fairy godmother as they both wear the same
colours with the similar expressions on their faces while cursing the Prince. The only
example of a character like this is in ‘Shrek’.
When thinking of a Princess, a Disney Princess is bound to be brought up, which is why I
wanted my Princess to have the ‘Disney’ look to her as it is more stereotypical to see a
Princess as an animation looking like that. Most Princess’s have blonde hair and wear pink
to show their femininity, which is also why I made my Princess like that. I find the
stereotypes are easier to point out the quickest when something has little detail like my
book, so if perhaps my book had more text and detail in it, I would have been able to make
my Princess how I originally had planned, black hair and a blue dress.
Similar to the Princess stereotype, the stepsister is the same, she doesn’t stand out like the
Princess of the story, but she looks very mundane and not very unique. She has common
brown dark hair and a dull yellow dress.
The Queen is a big stereotype in my book as she is the stepmother out of the classic fairy
tale books. As I wanted my book to be traditional to the Disney fairy tales I know, I went
with the traditional look for my ‘evil’ stepmother. The original story I used already had the
stereotype of the ‘evil’ stepmother but she was only described a jealous. So with this in
mind, I took to the inspiration of the other characters much like the one in this book. That’s
why she had the pointed face, the accusing eyes and the dark purple dress as it invokes the
feeling of gloom which is the tone she is meant to have.
27. Here are the examples of the stereotypes and
countersterotypes in fairy tales. Here are the
three best known ‘evil’ stepmothers in fairy tale
films, I wanted mine to look similar to these
characters as I wanted the stepmother to be
easily recognized by children so they know who
the ‘baddy’ is in the story.
There is also the ‘fairies’ in my book, one good
and one bad, they are like a fairy godmother but
one is the fairy for the Queen, making her bad,
where as the other one wants to save the good
characters in the story. The only examples I could
think of that are completely the opposite of each
other are these two fairy godmothers.
28. What style have you employed in your
products?
There are many influences that I had when it came to work, such as all the classic fairy
tale books I was brought up with. This influenced me when it came to deciding what
the style would be when creating my characters, as well as the style of writing I would
do to shorten the original story.
Although, there was no specific existing product that I focussed on as I just used my
knowledge of fairy tales and created my own version.
I wanted my book to be bright and colourful to be eye-catching as well as making my
characters very stereotypical.
I also wanted my characters to resemble a more human look to them instead of being
cartoon like, although I did use the inspiration of Disney characters to use as a
template for the style I wanted. I wanted to do this because I wanted to me more
realistic as I can put lots of detail in it as well as have real things to use as the
inspiration behind some of my objects, such as a real castle for mine, the dress for my
Princess and the inside of the dark tower, which I found to be more rewarding than
doing a shaped or cartoon character as you can compare something real to my
version. This allowed me to see what worked and what didn’t a lot easier, and I myself
being more proud of something with more detail in than easy shapes.
29. This is some of the inspiration I used when it came to
the design of my characters and the location I wanted
to have in my book, such as the stairs in the ballroom
scene similar to Beauty and the Beast’s staircase. Also,
Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Thumbelina are the
main inspiration behind my Princess that I designed.
30. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
I found that the planning and research helped a lot, it kept me on track, ensured I
knew what I was doing for each page as well as being able to research what my
characters clothes would look like. I am glad I did as much planning as I did because
without it I probably wouldn’t have finished in time or it wouldn’t be up to the
standard I wanted it at.
I managed my time very well, I had a schedule but the planning was better for me as it
was a visual reminder of what I needed to do. I took everything step-by step, making
sure all the text was correct, the pages with the same locations were the same etc.
Because of this, I finished on time and managed to look back at my work so that I
could have one last read and look through it which gave me an advantage. I also had
my friends look through it so I could have more than one interpretation on my finished
book.
The planning helped me a lot, and I managed to complete all the pages rather quickly,
although even after they were complete, I still made changes to them, showing that
even with the amount of planning I did, there were some things I didn’t think of or
some things I changed. This shows the weakness of my planning as I perhaps should
have had more ideas on the side for backups or things I could have changed instead of
asking for my peers opinions.
31. This is an example of some of the changes I made to my pages because I wasn’t happy
with them, so with some more feedback and ideas, I decided to change it. I wasn't happy
with my Princess as I thought she wasn’t Disney enough and she was too ‘plain’, so I
created a new one which I thought fit in a lot better than the last. I also thought that the
page was too empty as all my other pages are very full. After asking for others opinions
again, they suggested adding the ivy to the castle to add more detail to it, which I loved
doing. After this I added more words to the text in order to fill the bottom of the page so
it looks better and more put-together.
Before After
32. Historical and cultural context
As I used some classic fairy tales as something to compare to, such as Thumbelina or Sleeping Beauty, I
was able to create my characters with these books in mind as well as the style they are in. This meant
that I could compare to how they looked but they are in no way the same to mine as I still like to think
of mine as unique to itself, seeing as it was my ideas that made it how it looks now.
The original story I used had it’s own book so I had those visuals of what the story would look like, and
with that in mind I tried to make it similar but also different. Because I picked an unknown fairy tale, I
wanted to stick to the story and characters without changing it too much, I think I did this well as even
though my story is a lot more less complicated and basic, the story is still the same. I wanted my book to
fit in as much as it could with the original story as it isn’t a very well known story, so if I did ‘Snow
White’ and changed something in the story, the reader would know it’s different as it is such as well
known story, where as this one isn’t.
The current product that exists is a play being preformed as the story with some changes. But I don’t
think my work compares to this as it wasn’t until after my book that I found it while doing more
research.
The other current products that may have had an influence to my work is the classic Princess fairy tales
we all know so well because we were brought up with them. I like the idea of a traditional book but only
because the original is not so well known, perhaps if it was different, my book would have taken a
modern turn. Although now that it is done, I am very proud with the way it turned out so I wouldn't’t
change anything.
33.
34.
35. Peer Feedback by Niamh Darby
I really like this evaluation of your book. You have put lots of detail into your
answers so they are explained fully and it is very easy to understand what
you are trying to say. I like the annotations on every other slide to describe
your point even more and to show the similarities and differences of your
book compared to an existing one.
Your characters look very realistic, I think the shadow effect you have used
helps make them look like this. Your flat plans look nearly identical to your
final product and that is good because it shows that you have stuck to your
flat plans and schedule throughout the production process. My favourite one
is the princess in the tower as the detail is amazing and looks very realistic.
I like the decision you made to keep only one man in the story, even though
this story is very female influenced, I think another man in the story would
have been a spare character that the audience wouldn’t focus on, instead in
your final product the focus is on one man and the female lead character
which I agree with. Altogether, I really like your book and evaluation!
