Creatives Spotlight

Some examples of influences and inspirations for my Final Major Project can be seen below. Their contributions in storytelling (in all forms) helped me to understand how good stories are written, as well as how themes and emotions can be portrayed successfully in many creative mediums.



Joseph Staten

Joseph Staten is an American writer who was the main writer at Bungie Studios for the Halo video game series, and was the cinematic director, script and dialogue writer, and franchise developer until 2011. Staten now acts as a senior creative director at Microsoft Studios.

One example of his work is Halo: Combat Evolved - the first game in the Halo series (released in 2001). The narrative of the game follows the Hero's Journey Monomyth that I have mentioned before to be a classical aspect of character development in stories, as well as being a unique interpretation of military life in the year 2552. As the beginning of a series that would grow over the next 15 years and span countless games/comics/shows, it is telling that the writing of Halo CE unlocked the potential to explore and develop a new and exciting science-fiction universe.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Bungie Studios

The work of Joseph Staten has influenced my Final Major Project, in that I am inspired to explore my own version of a sci-fi narrative set in the year 2320, with many designs and ideas from Halo feeding into the visual style for my project. Added to this, Staten's writing has helped me to inform my own writing when constructing the main threads of my narrative. This is why these influences add to the structure of my FMP.



Matthew Stover

Matthew Stover is an American fantasy/sci-fi novelist, who has written several novels in both genres - to much critical acclaim. Stover may be best known for the four official novels he wrote in the Star Wars universe.

An example of his work is the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelisation (released in 2005). This book was based on the story and screenplay of the movie in the Star Wars franchise of the same name. Because of the nature of this storytelling medium, and the talent of the writer, the novelisation evokes more emotion and thought in the reader than the movie ever could. While fans of the franchise are split when it comes to Revenge of the Sith, both sides come together to highlight this novel as one of the shining examples of a Star Wars narrative done right.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelisation - Del Rey

The work of Matthew Stover has influenced my Final Major Project, in that it fueled my passion for meaningful and emotive storytelling. Many of the passages of the novelisation are beautiful and raw, and I hope to reflect that beauty when writing my own narrative. Stover's novelisation also inspired me to always take a deeper look into the aspects of a story, including the feelings of the characters and the descriptions of the locations (world building). This is why these influences add to the structure of my FMP.



George Lucas

George Lucas is an American filmmaker, entrepeneur, and creator of both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. He also founded well-known studios Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic. Lucas led Star Wars media and the Lucasfilm name until he sold it to Disney in 2012. He now works on experimental movie projects and ideas on his own.

One example of his work is Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV), which was first released in 1977 and remains one of the most influential movies of all time. This movie is a sci-fi/fantasy adventure that hosts a clearer case of the Hero's Journey in the development of Luke Skywalker. A New Hope (and Star Wars in general) has become a cultural phenomenon lasting 40 years - a testament to the initial spark of creativity and imagination provided by George Lucas, as well as how strongly these stories resonate with fans across the world.

Star Wars: A New Hope poster - LucasFilm Limited

The work of George Lucas has influenced my Final Major Project, in that Star Wars shaped my childhood and gave me a setting where I could use my imagination to create limitless stories. The unique vehicles and planets in the series inspired elements of my ship and world designs, and the Hero's Journey parallel is something I intend to utilise for the protagonist of my story. This is why these influences add to the structure of my FMP.

FMP Proposal

My Final Major Project will be a series of science-fiction graphic novels in the style of a space adventure opera, based on my own personal written narrative. As the format will be mainly visually-based, I shall simplify the pre-existing narrative to better fit into a short novel series.

For this project, I intend to entertain, while provoking thought about deeper philosophical and existential subjects, such as morality, purpose, and what it means to be human. I will also incorporate various mythological tales and themes in the project, to further present these moral issues. The graphic novel series is aimed toward a young adult audience, and I hope to challenge them on topics that they may have never given thought to, as well as creating an emotional connection between this audience and the characters in the story.

The graphic novels will be physical A5 15-page books, with traditionally drawn images and a digital formatting and printing process. The finished book will be printed and published externally. It will be mostly black and white with graphic detail, accompanied by text interlaced with the illustrations in a standard graphic novel style.

Some skills I might need for this project are the ability to replicate a graphic novel format through placement of text and drawings, as well as being able to apply the correct shadow and line weight to the traditional illustrations. Other skills required include proficiency in editing software, such as Photoshop, GIMP and InDesign.                    

(1)    Page 6 from TMNT Tribute by Arena Comics. (above)

Demonstrates panel/text formatting amongst illustrations of varying sizes. Notice how the limited colour adds a focus for the reader.

The story of the graphic novels is a condensed version of a larger narrative, and as such, a lot of it will be told through the visual illustrations. The series will be titled “Invasion of the Cryp'lar Series,” with the four books reflecting the four parts of the original narrative - "Extinguish," "Vanquard," "Resolute," and "Aftermath." Together, these novels will complete the visualisation of my narrative.

The artistic techniques of creating the graphic novel are based on my own abilities to draw characters, vehicles and locations. Other techniques and ideas for the format of each page have been influenced by a book called “Artists on Comic Art” by Mark Salisbury (2) – a compilation of interviews with renowned comic artists about the creation of their work. This is a useful resource and will help me to interpret and visualise my graphic novel better.

My primary research for this project will be based around character design, including the creative differences between alien races. Added to this, I will develop my own spaceship / city structures from various pre-existing sources. Also, it will be important for me to research fiction writing techniques to better create an outline of events for the larger story, as the graphic novels will be a condensed version of the same narrative.

My secondary research for this project will highlight the narrative and visual sources of inspiration for the graphic novel. More specifically, the writings of Eric Nylund, Matthew Stover and Joseph Staten, which brought the aforementioned themes and world-building into universes of their own. The visual sources of inspiration are founded by the Halo videogame series, as well as artists working in the sci-fi genre.

(3) Cover art for Halo: Uprising Marvel comic series. (left)

The influences on my narrative can be seen here, with the alien invasion, armoured heroes, and sci-fi war.

Research methods of experimentation in this project are varying internet resources, comics, science-fiction novels, and art books where I can analyse the style of artists’ work in the same genre. The idea development strategies for my graphic novel include imagining the aesthetic of different characters, vehicles and locations in the story and creating varied styles of concepts for them. From there I will chose a particular style and form for the object I like and continue visually creating down that path. This is particularly helpful when designing the unique alien technology or world-building.

Bibliography

(1)   Old.brokenfrontier.com. (2016) TMNT Tribute By Arena Comics – Broken Frontier – Comic Book and Graphic Novel News & Community | Blog. [online] Available at: http://old.brokenfrontier.com/blog/p/detail/tmnt-tribute-by-arena-comics [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].

(2)   Salisbury, M. (2000). Artists on comic art. London: Titan.

(3)   Bendis, B. and Maleev A. (2008). Halo: Uprising. New York: Marvel.

Pitch Design Board

The design board for my pitch went through many iterations before I settled on a layout that demonstrated the visual language of my Final Major Project, as well as one that described the influences behind the various elements of the project.

This is the final version of the design board, and includes my own illustrations of the main character, one of the alien ship designs, a dummy page from one of the graphic novels, and simple dummy book covers.  It also includes visual reference to inspiration from other comics, literature, and narrative devices. I believe this layout is effective in portraying the atmosphere and style of my FMP, while also giving a good idea about my intentions and reasons for doing this project.

The above image shows me testing the scale of the design board, to see how best to fit all the seperate elements to the aforementioned design. By doing this, I can visualise how the finished board will look and adjust the scale of other elements, such as text boxes, to fit alongside the images.

This image shows a far more developed version of my design board. It looks professional with the black background and borders, as well as having a cohesive and varied layout. While this is not the finished design board, differences can still be seen in how the presentation of the board evolved through its production. I feel that this new layout puts a more central focus on the visual design of my FMP, while allowing enough negative space to declutter the limited space.

This is the final look of my design board, and includes added illustrations to fill the remaining large negative space, as well as giving as much visual reference to my project's style as possible. The board includes a good balance of reference images, dummy examples for my graphic novels, and design illustrations. I am content with the development and final outcome of this design board, and I believe it represents everything that I intended it to.


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I feel that by producing a design board for my pitch, it helped me to summarise and clearly explain (through text and visuals) the ideas behind my project, my intentions for it, and why I decided to do it. While being hand-made, the board ended up looking professional and visually appealing. I believe that constructing design boards like these would be beneficial to any creative project I plan to undertake.

Visual research and style

Developing the visual style of my Final Major Project is an important part of the design process, as it gives myself and others a clearer idea of the different aspects of my fictional universe. This includes everything from the spacecraft used by the humans and the aliens, to the techniques and aestethic used in the final outcome. 

The first experiment into the visual style of my project came in the form of traditional inking practice. This page shows dummy panels from my graphic novels, as well as a shaded and detailed head, which I later realised would be too detailed and time-consuming to implement into my graphic novels. I worked to get better with my line control when it comes to brushwork, and I think this experimentation payed off in the final dummy page at the end of this post.

Next, I produced several designs for what the human ships and military vehicles would look like. This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the visual research, as I hadn't developed the human side of the designs and could do anything I wanted with the designs. In the end, the designs I preferred the most were the more 'modular' and blocky ships, along with the infantry transport on the last page.

Revisiting the Cryp'lar concept ship designs, I wanted to produce a larger and more concrete design of the Cryp'lar Control Ship for my design board. I believe that this illustration shows the technique and level of detail that would be in my graphic novels - as if this drawing was taken directly from a panel of one of the books. I like this design because it has a simple structure, while also showing a lot of detail. For example, the large concentrated city on the surface of the craft has all the buildings and towers fully represented, which not only gives a better sense of scale to the ship, but also contrasts well against the more spacious 'arms' surrounding it.

This is the initial page layout sketch for the final dummy page that would also be presented on my design board. There is rough detail concerning the subjects of each panel, and it gives a good, if not crude, example of the finished page.

Above is the inked page in all its detailed glory. The ink gives the lines a bold and sharp look, which works well on subjects with a lot of close linework (like the Cryp'lar warriors under the first panels). The content of this page includes the Cryp'lar invasion seen in the first graphic novel, and is presented in a way that emphasised the aliens' descent onto Earth - with panels at the bottom on ground level showing the reaction to the invasion. 

While this was only meant to be a simple test for how the actual pages of my FMP would turn out, it surprisingly helped me with the world-building of 24th Century Earth, if only slightly. The towering skyline of this metropolis helped me to comprehend the setting of the first book - before the Cryp'lar attacks Earth.

Here is the final dummy page scanned, formatted, and with the text added. After digitally cleaning up the linework, I placed the page inside a black border with a white bleed, which makes it look professional and further aids the black ink lines in popping out.  By adding text to only the top panels, I managed to further emphasise the alien descent by having the text move lower and further to the right, which would naturally end on the people at the bottom. The textless end panels give time for the people to react to the ships swarming over the skies. Overall, I believe this page is both visually pleasing and representative of the direction and pacing I had in mind for this part of the narrative.

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I believe that conducting this visual research has helped me to better understand the look of the characters, vehicles and locations of my own universe, as well as gave me an opportunity to practice the process I will use to create my graphic novels, during the FMP module. As this was only preliminary research into my narrative, I did not get to experiment or develop elements very far, and would have enjoyed a longer period of experimentation and development to fully engross myself in the visual style of this fictional universe.

Character Development

In starting to develop the characters for my Final Major Project, I began with designing the main protagonist of the story - Dr. Michael Ruwan. In the narrative, he is the person who makes the discovery of alien life and brings them to Earth, sparking the 'Invasion of the Cryp'lar'. 

The first page of development showed me experimenting with different angles and poses for the character, while studying how the clothes would sit on him. As the main character of my project, I wanted to keep his design simple and accessible, while portraying his messy and workaholic nature.

Next, I finalised the design of the character and centred him inside of a 'Hero's Journey' circle. This is because Ruwan goes on a journey following the structure of the popular 'The Hero's Journey' storytelling device recognised by Joseph Campbell. I made the character stand out by going over pencil lines with an ink brush - the main technique that I will use in my graphic novels.

Then, I began designing the look of the Mars-based military forces who accompany the protagonist on his journey in my narrative. I thought of them as standard Marines, and I based the armour design on what I would think would be the military standard in the 24th Century. I also made sure to break down exactly how each part of the armour worked, and what the purpose of everything was.

The initial helmet design didn't feel like it was suitable for a military force stationed on Mars, so I took about designing concepts for some new helmets. For these, I referenced existing sic-fi helmets and adapted them to better fit the look of the armour. I believe that this process was useful in helping me understand what kind of designs were already in media, as well as solidifying a more appropriate design for my characters.

After this, I began designing the aliens of my narrative - the Cryp'lar. From the start, I knew I wanted to use a body similar to the one illustrated above, as it portrayed elements that would be present through the Cryp'lar adapting to a rocky and hostile homeworld. As for the head design, I experimented with many different designs - including how they would look with helmets - and decided to further develop three of my favourites. 

Also, I designed the Cryp'lar armour and ensured it also reflected the values and nature of these aliens. The symbol on the torso armour is the Cryp'larian writing for "progression." As this armour would be worn by the standard military forces, it makes sense that the main goal of these grunts would be to help the Cryp'lar progress and move forward. There are different symbols for different ranks of Cryp'lar - each with its own meaning.

Alien Development

Cryp'lar language

At the start of the visual development for my Final Major Project, I considered how the alien life in my story would communicate, which led to me developing an entire written language for the Cryp'lar species. I understood that the language would have to be alien, but also could be understood by the reader if they wanted to look deeper into it. The Cryp'lar language has a large history behind it and there have been many variations of the language through the ages.

Some evidence of these past languages can be seen in the modern language, as Cryp'lar of old tended to base their language off circular symbols, while newer Cryp'lar leaned more towards using sharp, triangular symbols, as their species increasingly experienced war with each other, and other races.

Above are the original post-it notes where I first constructed the language. By using the english alphabet to design the alien symbols, I was able to illustrate designs that followed a sensical pattern when comparing both languages. At this stage, I also came up with meanings for each symbol element that is incorporated into the Cryp'lar language.

This language is unique in how you read it, as unlike english, the symbols are read from bottom to top. However, this would not affect the reader's interpretation of the alien speech, as the reader is not supposed to be aware of exactly what the Cryp'lar are saying - further helping to make them fully alien.

Later on, I finalised the designs for each letter, and expanded on the meaning behind more of the symbol elements in the alien language. These meanings represent the culture of the Cryp'lar, and how much importance these aliens put in communication.

Cryp'lar ship design

Early on in the design process, I decided that the alien ships would be based on sea creatures, as the void of space is comparable to the expanse of the ocean. Designing ships from the physical characteristics of sea creatures in my project is inspired by the Covenant ships in the Halo series. These ships were large, organically-shaped cruisers that were more akin to sharks and whales than traditional sci-fi craft. While my adaptations of sea creatures are more noticeable than the Covenant ships, I have incorporated more futuristic elements to the designs so that Cryp'lar ships become something entirely unique. 

The first ship design I created was the Cryp'lar Control Ship. Based off of a starfish, this craft is a mobile battle station that houses the commanding aliens of an invasion force, as well as a sprawling city on its topside for the most revered Cryp'lar warriors and officers.

The next ship design was the Cryp'lar Single Occupant Craft. This fighter is based off of a manta ray, and is the main offensive aerial unit the Cryp'lar has. These fighters can detach the ends of their stabilisation 'tail' to launch high-yield alien missiles, and are manned by Cryp'lar pilots.

The third design was the Cryp'lar Transport Dropship. A large transport based off of the front half of a sea turtle that delivers warriors to the battlefield, and can be utilised as a defensive wall to reinforce Cryp'lar ground units.

The next designs were the Cryp'lar Exploration Shuttle, and Cryp'lar Mobile Exploration Station. The shuttles detach from the exploration station, so are treated as one large craft. The shuttles themselves are based off of minnows (with tentacles) and are used to reach areas of space that might be too small for the exploration station to travel to. The stations are based off of clam shells, and can deploy up to four shuttles that are embedded in its hull. Their more capable engines mean that shuttles must dock before stations can move off to new areas.


Cryp'lar world design

When designing the alien ships, I had to picture how they could work, and in what environment they could be constructed. The Cryp'lar homeworld is an area that will be heavily featured in the second graphic novel, so I began designing one of the main locations on the alien planet, known as Vanquard. This world is riddled with canyons and valleys which the Cryp'lar use to securely build and  engineer their ships.

My initial design for an area on Vanquard is known as the "Cryp'lar Star Valley," and is where the aliens house energy from the stars they extinguish. This solar energy is then purified and used to refuel the Cryp'lar fleet. This concept is the basis of the entire narrative, and the first element of the story I ever considered.

Project Summary

FMP

My Final Major Project will be a series of science-fiction graphic novels, aimed towards a young adult market. The title of my project will be the "Invasion of the Cryp'lar Series," with each of the novels named in the following order; "Extinguish," "Vanquard,""Resolute," and "Aftermath." This series of novels is set in the early 24th Century, and will explore what happens when humanity makes first contact with a sentient alien race. As humanity and the Cryp'lar descend into war, the protagonist of the story must journey to the alien home-world to discover something that could end the war, and restore Earth to its former glory. The final novel is a separate story, but takes place in the same universe - with a new group of protagonists rediscovering the events of the first three novels.

The graphic novels will be made by traditionally pencilling and inking pages, to later be scanned and formatted digitally. They will then be sent to a printing studio to be published, with original covers designed at the later stages of production. All four novels will be monochromatic to better suit the style of traditional graphic novels, with the exception of full colour digital covers for each.

With this project, I intend to communicate moral and human issues through the characters and events that I present in my narrative. I hope to provoke readers and make them think about issues that they may not have been presented with before, and offer a larger view of the grey areas that come with morality and humanity. I also hope to engage readers by adding layers of structure and subtext into the story - some of which following popular themes such as the 'Hero's Journey', while others more closely follow Greek mythological tales like 'Orpheus in the Underworld'.


Evaluation

The commercial application for my project could be encouraging readers of the first book to gradually pick up and work their way through the rest of the series. This would help them to become more engrossed in the universe, and possibly more invested in the overall narrative. By selling them either individually or as a set, it also gives the consumer more options of how to experience the graphic novels - not forcing them to get the whole set at once if they do not enjoy the first book.

I feel that by appealing to a younger adult audience I can help lead readers to think about broader subjects in life, and possibly help inspire them to go on to work towards educating more people about these themes. It will also inform them that nothing is ever as black-and-white as they may think it is.

A potential use for my project could be to educate younger readers on deeper philosophical/existential subjects that might not be the focus of most modern fiction novels aimed towards a similar audience. I could develop on from the creation of these graphic novels by writing full novels for each of the books and completing the narrative. This would not only help to fully flesh out the universe I will create, but also fulfil my aspiration to author a fiction book series.