static vs motion comic. an investigation

[tyson642]

Hi Folks

I am a 4th year student currently completing my honours project

I have created a motion comic to see if a persons experience of static comics can be improved with the addition of motion

I want to see if a person prefers to see the motion happen on screen or prefers to read a static comic and imagine it themselves

If possible i would like to ask your help to complete the evaluation of the project

I would like to ask you to watch my motion comic and from your experience of comics decide if you enjoyed the motion comic or prefer reading a static comic.

The comic is the hyper-historic headbang from The complete Alan Moores Future Shocks

here is the comic: https://vimeo.com/123737453


Once you have done it please complete the following questionnaire: http://goo.gl/forms/nBhfqnkhV1


(The hyper historic headbang ©rebellion a/s, all rights reserved. the hyper historic headbang created by alan moore & alan davis. use with the kind permission of 2000 ad & rebellion.)

[Colin YNWA]

Done. Good luck with the project, out of interest what is your degree in?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Done. I only got 24 seconds in, which maybe shows the bias of my replies.

[TordelBack]

Done.  Best of luck.  And for Glycon's sake also get some survey answers from an audience who haven't read this particular comic a dozen times or more over 30 years!

[Fungus]

Done. Now that the questionnaire is submitted, the MAIN bugbear occurs to me 
Won't say more, can see that influencing others is a danger if people read this thread before participating.

[Karl Stephan]

Done too. I'll get out there and say I don't see the point of motion comics at all. All the 'motion' (timing and progression) is already being conveyed through the artist's choice of panel shape, size, shape and placement.
Putting sound and animation into the mix makes it look like a hybrid between a comic and a cartoon, but not quite as effective as either.

Anyway, that's my take on motion comics as a medium and not your individual effort.

Meh.

[tyson642]

Thanks for the replies folks

I am studying a degree in interactive media design/digital media

Thanks for these replies the entire point of this investigation is to see if motion comics are effective or not

I will now be passing on the questionnaire to people who don't read comics

This way I can get a varied opinion

Please continue to evaluate my work and help me with my investigation


These replies will be very useful for my report

Thanks

[Montynero]

Happy to help with this, so I watched the whole thing with an open mind and did your survey. I've made a few of these myself* and I can see you put a lot of work into it.

I've blacked out what I've added here in case it prejudices anyone else's response.

[spoiler]I gave this a fair crack and it confirmed everything that I dislike about motion comics.

In a nutshell, comics take place in your head. In my experience the writing and pictures are visual stimuli that allow you to imagine vividly scenes in your imagination. Every time you animate a character, or panel border, or add a sound effect, you contradict the veracity of that world. The imagined reality - the atmosphere, timing, sounds, textures and emotions you feel - all comes crashing down. It's debased and diminished. Because the motion comic animation, pacing, soundtrack etc is a fraction of the reality you're imagining. It's twenty times less interesting than what's in your head, and it also interferes with your imagination like visual static to the point where you can only imagine the most perfunctory of worlds. So it's not even a bad animation. It's worse than that.

Please don't confuse that with the skill of your execution, or the validity of your work. They're both good. I'm just talking about the problems I have with motion comics as a medium, as evidenced by this example.

(*I was forced to, it was my job for a while.)[/spoiler]

[radiator]

Happy to help with this, so I watched the whole thing with an open mind and did your survey. I've made a few of these myself* and I can see you put a lot of work into it.

I've blacked out what I've added here in case it prejudices anyone else's response.

[spoiler]I gave this a fair crack and it confirmed everything that I dislike about motion comics.

In a nutshell, comics take place in your head. In my experience the writing and pictures are visual stimuli that allow you to imagine vividly scenes in your imagination. Every time you animate a character, or panel border, or add a sound effect, you contradict the veracity of that world. The imagined reality - the atmosphere, timing, sounds, textures and emotions you feel - all comes crashing down. It's debased and diminished. Because the motion comic animation, pacing, soundtrack etc is a fraction of the reality you're imagining. It's twenty times less interesting than what's in your head, and it also interferes with your imagination like visual static to the point where you can only imagine the most perfunctory of worlds. So it's not even a bad animation. It's worse than that.

Please don't confuse that with the skill of your execution, or the validity of your work. They're both good. I'm just talking about the problems I have with motion comics as a medium, as evidenced by this example.

(*I was forced to, it was my job for a while.)[/spoiler]

Yep, that sums it up exactly for me.

[spoiler]Without wanting to sound like a luddite, I don't even like that 'Guided View' mode, where you zoom and pan from one panel to the next. I've read comics that were written and drawn specifically for the digital format but didn't like them either - then you're just looking at a disconnected sequence of still images, and that detracts greatly from a beautifully drawn 'page' of comic art. I don't really know why, but it totally breaks the immersion for me. It feels more like flipping through a book of movie storyboards than a true narrative.

It's like those 'Motion Comics' movies that were vaguely popular a few years ago, like the Watchmen one that came with the movie on DVD. Nice idea in theory, completely unwatchable in reality. Worst of both worlds.[/spoiler]

[tyson642]

All this feedback is great folks. it has definitely helped my evaluation. if only all the people who have watched it completed the questionnaire then i would be sorted.

Thanks everyone who has helped out. If you know anyone who would be interested in this piece and helping out please send them the link and get them to do it. had about 15-20 people so far complete it.

thanks again