Motion Comic Design: A Study On The Integration Of Local Independent Music And Digital Comics

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Cite this paper as: Tunku Yusrina Tunku Nazrin and Mohamed Razeef Abdul Razak. (2022). Motion Comic Design: A Study On The Integration Of Local Independent Music And Digital Comics. International Journal of INTI, 26(1). 5-12.

Motion Comic Design: A Study On The Integration Of Local Independent Music

And Digital Comics

Tunku Yusrina Tunku Nazrin, Mohamed Razeef Abdul Razak

College of Creative Arts, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam Selangor, Malaysia.

Email: [email protected] ,| [email protected]

Received: 15 Jan 2022 / Accepted: 15 Mac 2022 / Published online: 30 July 2022

Abstract

Digital comics have been around for a while, especially after the days of the Internet being introduced to the world. Generations after generations of technological advancement have caused the digital comic to be widely explored with all kinds of interactive elements such as animations and music. Thus, the motion comic was introduced to the country as part of the digitization of the economy by MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) in 2020. As part of moving forward and in parallel with the modernization of the creative industry, “The Echoes Beneath” motion comic was developed, and it was further experimented to help out local musicians to introduce their music through this motion comic series online. From here, a study on the integration of local music and digital comics will be conducted to show how the motion comic is designed to be a collaborative medium that benefits one another.

Keywords – Digital comic, Independent Musicians, Motion comic, Music, The Echoes Beneath.

1. Introduction

This study was made to analyse the integration of music and digital comics. Design wise, this study will be based on the local motion comic, “The Echoes Beneath” and its experimental approach of introducing local indie music through this medium. The term, ‘indie’ is short for independent, describing artists who recorded and released records themselves, rather than through a label. For independent musicians, most of their music are produced within their own budget. They struggled to be recognized as their music and tours are mostly self- produced and self-funded without the help of big production companies for marketing (What Is Indie Music? | Audio Network, 2021). Today, music can easily be released digitally on music streaming platforms, such as Spotify, Deezer, Soundcloud, JOOX, Youtube Music and many more.

In previous researches, one of the issues with local indie music is that they do not get enough recognition

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URL:https://jadinti.uitm.edu.my 6

compared to mainstream music. Furthermore, indie artists earn a ridiculously low percentage of the income generated by the songs they have written and performed when played on streaming platforms online (Janicke, 2021). In Malaysia, the indie music scene have been striving for a long time to be able to reach new audiences.

According to musician and academician Azmyl Yunor, even artists as well-known as Yuna and Zee Avi are struggling with the sales of their music as people are hardly buying cassettes or CDs now and the streaming payment rate is not much profitable for the artists, it takes thousands of listens to earn just a few dollars. (Tong, 2021). Genres unknown or less popular, are deemed unsuitable for major record labels. As a result, major recording labels nowadays hardly release music of unknown talent and people working inside the record label extensively promote artists under their label contracts through commercials, interviews, ads, social media, magazines, and more. However, independent artists who are not members of either of these organizations lack access to more connections (Martinez & Jessica, 2021).

While on the other side, The Echoes Beneath motion comic is intended as a visual platform for independent musicians to share their music through comics besides the usual music streaming platforms like Spotify, JOOX, Deezer and so on. The motion comic offers a new way of exposure for musicians to share their music digitally, as it integrates both music and visuals at the same time. In the end, this effort shall contribute towards the study of Malaysian motion comics and how it could be of help to assist independent musicians in the creative field.

2. Literature Review

As we move towards the digital age, the medium of communication varies. This is when the motion comic stepped up its game to prove that it is the digital medium that will contribute towards the digital economy and the creative industry. The motion comic has its own charm to influence viewers. It consists of combinations of texts, sequential images, sounds and animations, which is similar to 2D animation but in its own unique way. This part of the study explains what the motion comic can do to contribute to the creative industry.

2.1 Motion Comics In Digital Storytelling

Will Eisner has mentioned before that comic is merely a medium or means of communication by combining storytelling with texts and visuals while Arroio added that comic is not about creating illustrations, since comic artists are using their creativity to form a perfect combination of images and text in order to build narratives (Ekram, 2016). According to Morton, motion comics were a hybrid of animation and comics. It consists of multiple images in sequence just like what normal comic books looked like except that it is animated. The motion comic is deemed suitable for a digital storytelling medium, because it consists of elements such as animation, panels, text, and audio (Drew Morton, 2015)

In every comic book, panels are one of the most important things that helps in telling a story in sequence. The comic book narrative flow occurs within a system of panels, individual panels that depict scenes, and the artwork within those panels. This system was made to guide the sequential flow of the story. For motion comics, this visual layout was adapted into a screen-based format, which is typically landscape in aspect ratio. Some motion

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comic panels are adapted into a single screen moving image with no origins to their original comic book system or design layout, other motion comic panels might appear static on screen in multiple windows, or the panels appear on screen in multiple windows and are animated separately (Craig Smith, 2015).

The original plot of a comic book story might be entirely adapted in the motion comic. Other options include condensing the comic book tale into a shorter version, or developing the story from scratch in order to use motion comics as a promotional tool for a new television show, video game, or movie tie-in. A lot of story adaptations used motion comics as the digital storytelling approach and many comic book adaptations favoured the cinematic approach that discards comic book elements such as the speech bubbles and panels to imitate film. While some motion comic retained the comic aesthetics and combines it with AR (Augmented Reality) technology for viewer interactivity (Craig Smith, 2015). For instance, when Alan Moore adapted the Watchmen comic books into motion comics in 2008, prior to the release of the live-action Watchmen film, the total of Watchmen motion comics was sold for an approximate amount of 139,000 units during the release and it grossed over $2.5 million for Warner Bros Studio and DC Comics. It was an exclusive 12- chapter motion comic which consists of the origins and scenes that were never shown in the film, and it was distributed through a limited-edition DVD Boxset, targeted towards avid comic book collectors. In a way, the adaptation from the original printed comics to digital animated comics was proven to be successful with DC Comics (Drew Morton, 2015).

2.1.1 Animations style in motion comics

The animation style in a motion comic is different as it is considered as “limited animation” compared to animated films which is a “full animation”. Limited animation means that the movement and frame rates are much less than the usual animation that is seen on television. Even the camera works and views are limited, as the motion comic uses a lot of panning and zooming transitions (Drew Morton, 2015). Referring to Craig Smith’s study, he showed that within the field of motion comics, there are three distinct aspects of animated motion that can be observed. These aspects include separate layers of individually animated characters or objects within the screen-based image, static characters and backgrounds with animated effects, a roving camera which pans or zooms around the panel/panels, or a combination of them (Craig Smith, 2015).

Figure 1. The motion definitions of motion comics made by Craig Smith. (Craig Smith, 2015)

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2.1.2 Integrating Music With Motion

According to Josip Batinić, a lot of motion comics rely on animation to be presented. Examples of prominent comic book publishing houses like DC Comics, Marvel, and Dark Horse Comics produced motion comics that are entirely animated accompanied by soundtracks , sound effects and voice-over. They come in video formats such as mp4, avi or flv (Batinić, 2016). Motion comic adaptations also combine speech bubbles within a moving image, character voiceovers, and soundtracks. Smith explains that audio and soundtracks accompany the moving image. For example, when speech bubbles are present, the character voiceover may not be present, or when the speech bubbles are not present, the character voiceover is present. But it is also possible for the motion comic to have the soundtrack combined with both the voiceover and speech bubbles. This shows that the text, visuals and sounds should all be linked to form an effective motion comic. (Craig Smith, 2015)

Armelle Blin-Rolland stated that when sound (voices, music, and/or sound effects) is integrated, its association with the image is generally pre-synchronised, and it can be triggered by the experiencer, this is also described as “audiovisual” (Armelle Blin-Rolland, 2019). The sounds technically played an important part in motion comics, it does not only add movement and life to motion comics, but another dimension. While motion allows viewers to move with the action of the story, music and sound effects allow viewers to flow through the story and engage with it viscerally, adding realism and enhancing the illusion of life from the screens. This is because music and sounds can influence moods in people, either energise, inspire, or move the audience emotionally as it plays in the background (Explainer Videos | Educational Videos | Zedem Media, 2021).

2.2 The Involvement Of Motion Comics In The Digitalization Of The Malaysian Economy

Today, the presence of technology offers creative people to explore a lot of digital medium towards the modernization of the economy. What MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) did since 2006 by introducing the DC3 (Digital Content Creators Competition) formerly known as IPCC (Intellectual Property Creators Challenge) changed the landscape of our creative industry by introducing a lot of digital comics and animations until today. This not only contributes to the digitalization of the economy towards Malaysia 5.0, thus, this initiative supports a lot of creatives to sustain their business to experiment and create more intellectual property in art (The Malaysian Reserve, 10th August 2020).

As a result, from the competition endorsed by MDEC and PENJANA (The National Economic Recovery Plan) in 2020, The Echoes Beneath Motion Comic series was introduced by Banina Design Studio with the purpose of bringing together local independent music and digital comics. In the efforts of making an animated comic, and telling stories from a new perspective, the creator of this motion comic believes that it serves as a new digital platform for local performers and their music to be featured in a digital comic format, which helps in an innovative way of promoting the indie music scene to a wider range of audiences from both the comics community and the music community on Youtube. (The Echoes Beneath Ko-Fi Page, 2021).

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3. Research Methodology

This study approaches on the integration of indie music with the motion comic on a digital platform. The qualitative method will be applied in observing the design of The Echoes Beneath Motion Comic from the visual perspectives and how it incorporates the promotion of independent music in general. This analysis will be done by going through Youtube.com to watch and observe the elements that can be found in this motion comic that helps to feature local musicians.

4. Findings

The researchers discovered that there are certain unique elements in The Echoes Beneath Motion Comic that helps to integrate Malaysian independent music with the visuals. Throughout this observation on Youtube, it is deemed as a suitable website to publish motion comics as motion comics are in video formats like mp4, avi or flv.

The Echoes Beneath consists of 5 Episodes in the duration of 10 minutes or less each including the theme song and end credits. Visually, this motion comic retains the elements of a comic book such as text or speech bubbles and panels. Other elements like voiceovers, soundtracks and sound effects are also present throughout all of the episodes.

The story is fictional and tells about a character named Leyya, an independent musician who was excited to be playing music at her brother’s café in Sungai Petani. Everything went wrong after her brother Ajam and a group of indie musicians (Senja Band) went missing. With no one to be in charge, Ajam’s café was put out of service. Soon, Yid a recording artist manager stepped in to help Leyya with her music career. Throughout the story, a suspicious eatery by the name of “Yum Yum Tomyam" was to be investigated for the suspiciousness in town, Leyya soon uncovers the secrets of the underground music in this comedic motion comic.\

4.1 Pop-up song features

One of the first elements that captures attention is the black and green box on the bottom left of the video. It pops up whenever a song is played in the background of the scenes and displays the song title and name of the indie band or performer. This is a unique feature as it tells the viewers which band or performer made the music.

Even though the song was played for less than 30 seconds, but from there viewers can look up and search for the band to listen to their full songs. This is a simple yet a very straightforward feature that helps people to discover new artists and performers from watching this motion comic.

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Figure 2. The figure above shows the pop-up feature that displays the artist and the title of the songs that are being played in the background.

4.2 Band Cameos

Another interesting element is that the creator of The Echoes Beneath actually inserts the performers and bands into the story as featured characters or ‘cameos’ as what the films called it. Independent bands such as Rainmen Blues Brada, Senja, Yubi Official 7 and Blackwood Confidential were seen to be featured in the episodes. This somehow shows some appreciation to the indie musicians out there through a cartoon portrayal of themselves.

Figure 3. The figure shows visuals of bands being portrayed as cartoons in the motion comic.

4.3 Indie Band Identities as Background Elements

Throughout the story there are some indie music elements that can be spotted in the backgrounds of the scenes in this motion comic that promotes the independent bands. For the followers of the independent music scene, they can quickly identify the logos of the bands in the scenes. For instance in the 1^st and 2^nd Episodes where the band logos and some wall posters are visible, this also shows a representation of the bands involved in the motion comic. Some people might not notice these elements, but the details are being illustrated in the motion comic.

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Figure 4. The figure above shows the small details that represents the indie musicians in the comic scenes.

5. Conclusion

Based on the findings, it is concluded that The Echoes Beneath Motion Comic has its flaws in helping out the local indie music community. It may not be the best platform to help them in generating income, but through this motion comic, their music gets more exposure to not only the music community, but also the comics community.

In retrospect, this motion comic is doing something that is not only innovative, thus it helps independent musicians to gain more supporters through a different digital medium by integrating their music and the art on a digital platform that is free and accessible through the Internet.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for providing the Digital Creators Challenge Grant (Project Number: MDEC/MBSD/GMD/L/IM/2020/11/128). The authors would also like to thank the College of Creative Arts, UiTM Shah Alam for the tremendous support in making the efforts of this study possible.

References

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https://www.audionetwork.com/content/the-edit/expertise/what-is-indie-music

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Appendix

A.1. Motion Comic Link

The Echoes Beneath Motion Comic can be viewed here through Banina Design Studio’s Youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/c/BaninaDesignStudio