This is a collaboration project between Paolo Morgan Orso-Giacone and myself, Elijah Kliot.
For this project, we will use a digital medium to express a story and its meaning, primarily through the use of parallax effects.
The story is centered on the main character, Sabah, of a yet-unnamed setting. Time has trickled past this weathered adventurer, and now he sits and recollects the stories of his once companions. Are they gone forever, passed on beyond the mortal plane, or merely lost among the countless acres of the earth? Regardless, Sabah is here, now, and his memories are certain fact...
Paolo and I have long since wanted to collaborate on a comic. We've played with this setting, a mix of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Robert E Howard's Hyboria, where we wanted to chronicle an epic odyssey of a band of adventuring comrades, mortals faced with the darkness just behind the corner, an inhuman and eldritch second-world seeping into our own.
When we enrolled in a class at our university discussing the medium comics and graphic novels, and were offered the opportunity to create a comic of our own for the final project, it was not a question what we would create. This project lets us take a small snippet of our setting, to explore specific characters, and to combine our respective expertise into a project expressing a unique digital medium for comics.
This project will utilize parallax effects and Paolo's paper cutout art to simulate depth and light effects inside a web browser. The expected technical tools will be javascript and an exacto blade.
The experience itself will center on a campfire, at which Sabah is seated. Around him are his comrades. Moving the mouse will dictate the parallax shifting, the mouse simulating a light source shining through the cutout image. Clicking on a character or a memento of theirs (undecided) will cause the campfire to kindle, sending the view upwards, where a vignette is played through comic panels, using a similar parallax effect. At the end of the vignette, the view shifts back to the campfire, where the observed character is now absent.
The characters to be explored. Names enclosed in {curly braces} are "codenames" and ought to be replaced with real names.
The descriptions of all characters are how they are at the time of their respective vignettes. Sabah is as he is in the moment of the campfire.
- Stats:
- Age :: Late 20's
- Gender :: Male
- Height :: 5'9"
- Weight :: ~170 lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: Lean, weathered by desert travel. Olive-skinned, almond-shaped earthy green eyes. Pointed chin, unimposing hooked nose. High cheekbones. Sparse stubble. Small ears, close/flat against the head. Feathered and unevenly cropped black hair, roughly 3-5" in length, bangs swept aside and held in place with a thin circlet (is this circlet special?). Wearing an assortment of traditional furs and cloths. Generally a non-uniform impression. Light sandals, no gloves. Hands are bony, prominent knuckles, palms are calloused. Carries a sleeping roll, a pack with him containing various traveling supplies, a couple weapons and backups (what are these?).
- Personality :: Brash and foolhardy, eagle-eyed. Very perceptive of the world around him, can make astute and detailed observations of people and things happening around him. However, has a very shortsighted introspective view, and has great difficulty judging the consequences or weight of his actions. As a result, he tends to rush into situations, being very self-confident and observant of obstacles in his path, yet gets into trouble once his actions lead to unforeseen (to him) consequences. He is possessed of a great imagination and showmanship, leading to tricky situations where he will, while solving whatever he first set out to solve, get into even more trouble he will need to get out of. Yet, such is his unerring luck that his overzealous nature always work out to his or the group's advantage. Over the course of adventures, as he grows and matures (initially 16), he learns from his comrades and develops a more levelheaded and rational approach, though retaining his showmanship (and perhaps expanding it, with new skills).
- Motiviations :: Wants to learn of his parents' fate when he was an infant. This is also aligned with his desire to understand more of
PLACE, which at this point he has learnt his father was intimately tied to. He is trying to follow through on how his father was involved, and how that led to him and his mother disappearing before he was picked up by clansmen. While initially he was repulsed and feared further involvement with thePEOPLE, since learning of his father's involvement he has become very active in pursuing their traces, on one hand to save others from his father's fate, but also because, given his nature, he has developed an intimate insight into their culture and being, and as such struggles with humanity's relationship with them, and Markos.
- Stats:
- Age :: Mid-40's
- Gender :: Male
- Height :: 5'10.5"
- Weight :: ~160 lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: Sharp, elegant, dapper. Wears a dark suit-vest like this or this, worn from travel but kept in fine condition. Underneath he wears a striped shirt, also stained with travel (no tie?). Loose fitting pants similar to this or this. Wears elegant, straightforward boots/shoes, similar to these. At his hip is a rapier, of impeccable craftsmanship and an otherworldly silver gleam. A chain is visible, leading to some pocket where a locket lies. He is naturally fair-skinned, perhaps a little tanned, but long travels have tanned and roughed his skin. His face is squarish, with a strong jaw hidden behind a thick, salt and pepper stubble. He seems to have a fatherly, contented half-smile on his face at all times. His eyes are a bright blue, sparked full of life, framing a chunky nose with a high bridge. His receding hair, black and gray, is cropped short and combed to the side.
- Personality :: Immediately charismatic, soft-spoken, very comforting fatherly voice. Very tactical and manipulative, knows how to treat people to get what he wants and needs, and always has in his sight the "big picture," allowing him to make intelligent decisions to stay one step ahead.
- Motiviations :: To catalog as much knowledge as possible of
PLACE, such that he may use their secrets (and perhaps their "assistance") in his quest to resurrect his son and wife. In time, his motives become corrupted with power and insanity. - Weapon of choice :: Rapier
- Memento :: Locket?
- Brief Scene Description:
TODO
- Stats:
- Age :: Late 20's
- Gender :: Male
- Height :: 6'0"
- Weight :: ~280 lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: Morbidly obese, wearing a just barely fitting snakeskin vest. with nothing underneath. His pants are loose and flowing. He is bald naught for the ponytail behind his head and the long, thin whiskers of his chin. A pudgy face with deep-set brown eyes, decked with comically diminutive spectacles. Small, round nose and thin lips. He has two daggers, a longer straight blade and a short, curved kerambit. Carries a satchel loaded with books and scrolls. Significantly more lithe and agile than his size would suggest, uses his dynamic gravitism to his advantage in a fight, taking opponents by surprise.
- Personality :: Analytic, introverted. Tries not to get involved in irrelevant things, preferring to occupy himself with his studies, meditations, or appetite. Grows to be an academic and spiritual mentor to Sabah, as well as teaching him the important lesson of not judging a book by its cover (literally and figuratively). Has a soft spot for romantic fiction, gets very passionate about the art.
- Motiviations :: Very invested in the academic pursuit of the supernatural, to index new creatures and plants and to study inhuman tongues. Could never find love while he was holed up in his studies, so he's now turned to an adventuring life to try fill that hole in his life.
- Weapon of choice :: Dual daggers (straight and kerambit)
- Memento :: Spectacles? Romantic novel?
- Brief Scene Description:
TODO
- Stats:
- Age :: Mid 20's
- Gender :: Female
- Height :: 6'1.5"
- Weight :: ~190 lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: Tall, stocky, imposing. Her face is framed by a strong, tapered jawline. Her lips are thick but pale, crowned by an average sized pointed nose with a bent bridge. She has big eyes, pale blue. A scar runs down one cheek and across the corner of her mouth. Her tawny hair is cut short at the front and sides, while braided at the back. Her face is not usually seen, as it is hidden behind a helmet (Sutton-Hoo? Frog mouth? Armet? Barbute? Great helm?). Clad in weathered cuirass, frayed chainmail from under the plate hangs over her shoulders. Bare muscled arms are adorned with wrist braces of studded leather. On her legs she wears tall greaves of scarred steel, padded with leather, with scaled thigh armour (ref). Her thighs are otherwise unprotected. Overall, she is a representation of an aggressive female sexuality. Over the course of their adventures, she begins fully armoured, then gradually loses, breaks, or otherwise forgoes parts of her armour, until she is entirely or almost-entirely unarmoured by the end, paralleling her familiarity/comfort with her own sexuality (a discomfort which deliberately contrasts her own physical bravado and overly self-assuredness). She is, at this stage in the comic's timeline, roughly halfway through her "metamorphosis".
- Personality :: Cocksure, aggressive, and boisterous. She is grit, power, and confidence all in one, in the flesh. She rarely gives time for contemplation, preferring to rush in and sort things out later (or not at all). Looks for any and all opportunities to exert herself, lusts after physical expression of all sorts. Compensating for some kind of repression...
- Motiviations :: Her arranged marriage partner was brutally murdered on the night before their wedding. As she was quite vocally unhappy with the engagement, desperately trying to become a knight, she was blamed for the murder and extradited. However, having picked up on the trail of some sort of involvement from
PLACE, she's been doggedly pursuing those leads in search of the truth to prove herself as a knight and return home. How did she find out about this in the first place? Well, she got a little tip from a certain Markos... - Weapon of choice :: Polearm? Greathammer? 2H sword? Or, shield + mace, sword, spear, or axe...
- Memento :: Family crest?
- Brief Scene Description:
TODO
- Stats:
- Age :: 23
- Gender :: Male
- Height :: 5'8"
- Weight :: ~140 lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: You know this best.
- Personality :: Few thieves are more honourable, fewer yet knaves are more trustworthy than Djindo. Or so he says. What can be known, is that Djindo has no reservations or illusions of his own station and specialty. Djindo is an eccentric, a haphazard collection of odds and ends. Certainly, his odd travels may have no end in sight, as he scours the world in a tireless pursuit of his own wanderlust. He gets by on the occasional generosity of others' foolishness and neglectfulness, and has picked up a great many tales to spin to those that may ask (all are true, but not all are his own, if you must ask). A practical man by any means, he is concerned entirely with what is happening now, forgetful of the past and unconcerned with the future.
- Motiviations :: Looking for a good death, one he would tell a tale of were he not, you know, dead. Until then, anything that can add a chapter to the rich tapestry of his misadventures, one more trinket for the bottomless bag, or just another piece of silver to warm him for the night.
- Weapon of choice :: A tulwar, pricked from the clutches of a cavalry commander, just so happening to be laid alone and undisturbed alongside the road he was traveling.
- Memento :: ???
- Brief Scene Description:
- Djindo prepares to accept his grand death, but at the moment of truth it is denied from him by Sabah (?). Final panel, "Oh, come on!"
- Stats:
- Age :: mid-60s
- Gender :: Female
- Height :: 5'8.5"
- Weight :: ~150lbs
- Details:
- Appearance :: Despite her age, she stands upright and proud. Garbed in layers heavy cloths as old as herself, accentuated with odds and ends of a medley of wildlife, including bones, claws, horns, etc. Her face is set with deep wrinkles, and her jaw is wide. A sagging nose shadows a scowling lip, and her eyes are sunken and serious. She wears a crown of interlocked animal horns. Among her many cloths are equally many pouches and satchels,, laden with powders, herbs, and other such ingredients and talismans. She carries with her a great spear, a tribal artifact, adorned with jingling charms, feathers, and bones.
- Personality :: Despite her savage appearance, she harbors a great deal of warmth for Sabah, a sort of surrogate son. She, in her age, has learnt a great deal, not least of all patience. Compared to Sabah, she is something of a foil, being slow to action and deeply introspective, but likewise being less than capable of analyzing and understanding the world present around her. The exception to this is through the lens of spirituality and her own medicine practice, and her encyclopedic knowledge of the tribe's entire history and those of their surrounding tribes, she is able to gain an unparalleled and unconventional insight into the greater world around herself. Despite their divergent personalities, she bonds with Genesia over similar circumstances.
- Motiviations :: Had to murder her husband, the chief of the tribe and the adopting father of Sabah, under duress. While the tribe sympathized with her, it was the tribe's law that she must be exiled to death. Conveniently, Sabah was at the same time departing on his trip with Markos, so she chose to travel with them, providing spiritual and survival advisement. To be entirely honest, she just wanted to spend her final days with Sabah, knowing better than any that her end is rapidly approaching, and to rest easy knowing she guided Sabah in safety. Of course, in her final hours, she realizes she has unwittingly doomed Sabah...
- Weapon of choice :: Great-spear
- Memento :: Talisman of sort? Some kind of motherly bond to Sabah?
- Brief Scene Description:
TODO
The timeline for project deliverables
-
- Campfire scene (w/ just Sabah): Sun, Apr 2
- Campfire profiles:
- Character 1: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 2: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 3: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 4: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 5: Sun, Apr 9
- Mementos:
- Character 1: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 2: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 3: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 4: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 5: Sun, Apr 23
- Vignettes:
- Character 1: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 2: Sun, Apr 16
- Character 3: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 4: Sun, Apr 30
- Character 5: Sun, May 7
-
- Profiles:
- Character 1: Sun, Apr 2
- Character 2: Sun, Apr 2
- Character 3: Sun, Apr 2
- Character 4: Sun, Apr 2
- Character 5: Sun, Apr 2
- Vignettes:
- Character 1: Sun, Apr 2
- Character 2: Sun, Apr 9
- Character 3: Sun, Apr 16
- Character 4: Sun, Apr 23
- Character 5: Sun, Apr 30
- Profiles:
-
- Moving between scenes and interaction: Sun, Apr 9
- Parallax effect: Sun, Apr 23
- Server: Sun, Apr 30
-
- Project presentation draft: Sun, Apr 30
- Revised project presentation: Sun, May 7