My work in the last brief along with several releases from Marvel and others in the 'motion comic' field convinced me that I wanted to do my graphic novel as a motion comic.
Motion comics such as 2010's 'Spider-Woman' by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are en excellent example of motion comics which are created and executed successfully.
Although I had to be wary that I was not animating for animation's sake. Scalera (2011) explains that since the processes for creating a motion comic are a fairly simple process then many comic/game/film companies are producing them just to have another branded product out on the market (p11). Often-times they are conceived well such as the 'Halo' tie-ins but there are many that simply jump on the band-wagon as they see an opportunity to extend the franchise. Companies such as Marvel, have spent large amounts of money investing in motion comics. The aforementioned 'Spider-Woman' and 2010's 'Iron Man: Extremis' are good examples but more money doesn't necessarily mean a better product. Their 'Astonishing X-men' motion comics pushed the boundaries too far and attempted to integrate 3D into the 2D animation as well as a surplus of lip-synch's that seemed unnecessary.
The successful ones seem to work by making the animation subtle and unobtrusive to the scene. Simple lighting changes or backgrounds in motion seem to work well but full figures in motion only seem to accentuate the fact that it is a 2D image.
I wanted my graphic novel to be in two forms, the traditional comic book printed version and a motion comic version. I would do both at the same time. Realising that I needed to convert many images to After Effects scenes before-hand meant I could tailor them so they would be better suited. For instance creating larger backgrounds than needed.
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