Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

David Boring by Daniel Clowes page 65

The image that I chose was from Daniel Clowes David Boring. This book does a really good job of representing motion both from frame to frame to create a picture but also within each frame. I chose this page in particular because within each frame it is clearly showing a fight happening between two people. This page does a really good job with the different frames showing the transition and progression of time, from a simple argument to a fight. Also the way that some of the pictures within the frames are cropped in a particular way to show falling. For example, the bottom right frame the one guy who is punching you can only see his arm and not his fist, but you knew that he just threw a punch because of the angle of his body and arm. However the author also put another indication that this was a punch because of the other guy in the frame appears to be falling, I know this because you can only see one of his arms and part of his head is out of the frame. This page also does a really good job of showing the progression of time with the repetition of the same two people in each frame in different positions each time. You can clearly see that it goes back and forth between the two men progressing further and further from pushing to wrestling,slapping, and then full on punching. Although each one of these is a still two dimensional figure it represents change over time and implied motion very well.

Excerpt of “Clye Fans” by Seth from pages 222-223 of Chris Ware’s McSweeney’s quarterly concern. No. 13.

“Motion can be implied as well as literal…Artists have long sought ways to represent the movement of bodies and the passage of time within the realm of static, 2-dimensional space” (Graphic Design: The New Basics, pg. 233).

This except of Clyde Fans is a good example of the artist, Seth, effectively showing the motion of Simon Matchcard, the man in the two pages. Though there is nothing about Simon that inherently implies that he is traversing space, Simon seems mostly upright and standing, but elements such as cropping and repetition help establish that Simon is traveling through time and space.

Simon is in almost every frame, the color pallet doesn’t change either, but the artist manages to imply that Simon is moving by cropping certain parts of Simon implying that the “camera” is moving. This in turn also implies that our view of Simon is rotating. By using completely black frames in the sequence the artist does a good job of signaling a longer period of time passing, he uses them as transitions between three physical locations.

Graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, “David Boring” (Pg 11)

When I first looked at this picture, the first sign of motion I saw was the plane. according to the Graphic Design book every image has implied motion. Artist use techniques such as rotation, scaling, cropping, repetition and others to convey a sense of motion. in this image the two most noticeable techniques are cropping and rotation. Like the road runner, the setting in this image is fixed which provides a sense of motion to the cars as they are partially cropped out of the frame. The plane is at an acute angle which signifies the plane is soaring high up in the sky. The last part of implied motion I can observe comes from the lines next to the cloud as well as the cropping of the clouds. These lines sort of represent the wind is strong and you could even see it on the grass.

Artists and designers create movement as well as showing passage of time using concepts such as repetition, shapes, overlap, and cropping. Motion in itself is type of change and change can only occur as time passes (Graphic Design, p. 233).

Page 230 of Batman: Death Flies the Haunted Skies by Archie Goodwin

In my example from page 230 of Batman: Death Flies the Haunted Skies by Archie Goodwin, there is implied movement in every frame from the characters themselves and their surrounding environment. Repetition of images such as Batman are shown running and leaping through the frames to try and save people. He is shown constantly changing position in each frame. This gives these particular panels a sense of panic and urgency.  The flames are present in every frame as well to enforce upon the reader that the fire is a pressing emergency in the story.

Goodwin also uses lines and shapes to create motion such as the fire extinguisher being used in an attempted to put out roaring flames in the background, which also make use of overlapping shapes and color to give it the roaring fire effect. Also Batman’s cape is drawn using curved lines and shapes in such a way to imply that it is dramatically swooshing around behind him. We can see that the frames are cropped to illustrate that the flames are moving in and out of the frame. Though it is a bit hard to see, in the middle right panel a little bit of Batman cropped to show that he is jumping away from the danger of a collapsing burning building.

Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis page 32. image from scribd.com

In today’s world we don’t often think about the images that move across our screens as seamless animations. As consumers most of us don’t care about the process that goes into creating such 4-dimensional designs. In the beginning of creating those compositions the designer or artist will often start in a 2-dimensional setting such as on a piece of paper. Given a framework the artist is now challenged with creating a feeling of 4-dimensions including movement and time while working in a 2-dimensional frame. But an artist may choose to use this framework as their final setting such as in a comic, so how does an artist give the sense of animation on a piece of paper? Looking at Marjane Satrapi’s comic Persepolis on page 32 we can see people moving while the images on the page are still. Satrapi uses strong visual cues to move our eyes around the page and imagine the movement of the people. In multiple frames we have a repetition of characters that are laughing and even falling over and using one another to steady themselves. The movement of characters arms raising into the air and shaking of fists, the crossing of arms holding themselves together from laughter. Even cropping in on characters and changing their positions from one scene to the next. While the images physically do not move, a character or object may change position inside the frame, from one frame to the next.  

Comics have many different advantages when it comes to the portrayal of movement. One of the advantage comics have over other mediums such as movies or books, is their ability to add verbal sound effects to mundane actions, and combine it with visual ques to inform the reader what has happened. As shown in the image of Wallace Wells falling drunkenly onto Scott, we get both a visual addition of lines showing the direction of his movement as well as the implied movement between panels, as he changes positions from one panel to the next. Keeping the frames close together in terms of small changes shows the passage of time being fairly short. Scott hasn’t moved from his spot, implying that the two actions of Wallace sitting and flopping down onto Scott are within seconds of each other. I feel that the motion here is more literal than implied. Even though the scene takes place in a 2-dimensional space, there is some overlapping action going on here, Wallace laying on Scott. Cropping and rotation play a small role in this scene, as nothing seems to rotate between frames, and the characters are the primary focus, which is why that’s all we see. The characters shape goes from upright to laying down, which would imply that Wallace has begun to become more relaxed in the second panel versus the first panel.

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, vol 1 colorized.