Experiential Comics – phil caridi

October 14, 2021

Save Us, Cactus

The final deliverable for Experiential Comics was to create a representation of what our idea of an interactive comic would look like. I wanted to keep the the page layout and the concept of the panel the same, I also wanted to use speech bubbles. For me, these three elements represent what is at the very core of a comic.

Utilizing the touch gestures of tap and swipe the viewer would be able navigate around each panel after selecting it. In moving into the panel, the view will be able to see other events or conversations happening outside the frame of the panel. These other events that happen outside the frame of the panel are extra to the storyline, allowing a deeper dive if the viewer desires. If the the choice is made not to view the extra content, nothing will be lost form the main story.

The magenta highlights and arrows represent the gestures made in each panel to select or move. There are three types of pages contained in the hierarchy of the comic. The navigation page which contains multiple panels; the main story arc page which has speech bubbles; and the explore pages which allow the viewer to move throughout each panel. Floating doorways inside of each panel allow the viewer to exit back to the navigation page.

I used a combination of Unity and Rhino to create the environment. Most assets were purchased from either KitBash3D or from the unity store. Frames were rendered individually and then annotated in Illustrator.

September 16, 2021

Artifact

After some more development with the class on the MURAL board, we were tasked with coming up with the description and attributes of an artifact on the board.

September 9, 2021

Origin-Character

The infrastructure of Hamburger City is coming along. A few characters have been introduced. My contribution is Thalmond Rowe. Full character origin is below.

Thalmond Rowe

Born the only son of Talhrian immigrants, pale and feeble as a newborn, he was given up for adoption at 13 days old. Left at the Time Center wrapped in a tattered blanket placed in a pink cowboy hat. His childhood was riddled with taunting and name calling because of his origin as an orphan and a Talhrain. Now, dear reader, please realize Talharians present as human for the most part, save for the piercing neon green eyes and skin the color of the Void. Thalmond outgrew his pale skin, shedding it like a snake does to reveal a complete void of darkness with little no light reflecting off his skin. Talharians also possess a keen sense of smell rivaled only by African Elephants and perhaps the best eyesight in the known universe. So it comes as no surprise that Thalmond is aces with a rifle. He has taken to thinking of himself as somewhat of a gunslinger for hire, if you will. Most would call him a wetworker or assassin. When not on the job he still wears that pink cowboy hat.

He never had much of a taste for education so once he aged out of the system studying was a thing of the past. He hustled any way he could for many years. Billiards, cards, you name it he tried. His antics got him caught up in a slightly sticky situation, where he allegedly played the part of the fool in a card game gone wrong. His debt couldn’t be paid in any traditional manner, but it did make him the man he is today. He became the assistant/apprentice to Ol’ Larry Grouper. Grouper was considered to be the best there was when it came to killing. He often quoted the Great James Howllet, “ I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do Isn’t very nice”. Now, Thalmond didn’t take to this type of gunman-for-hire type of mentality, well, he took to it in his own way and only killed for the greater good of society. On the “good guys side”, you might ask yourself how did he know he was on the “good guys side”? ANd the answer to that my friend is simple, if one day you find yourself asking that question, then you sir, are not on the “good guys side”.

He doesn’t and hasn’t ever taken payment for his “duties” and as he says “I always seem to be taken care of”. He really believes that is righting wrongs that have befell Hamburger City, and the people agree with him. He works alone, against governmental bodies such as the AI and Thought Police as well as private citizens that cause harm to the good people of Hamburger City.

Quick action figure custom of what I imagined Thalmond Rowe to look like.

September 2, 2021

A Place…

Welcome to remote collaborative world building. 18 students met for 7 weeks to collectively build a world in which an interactive comic would live. Using only the facilitation skills of Prof. Tony Patrick, a MURAL board, and the imagination of the class.

Below you will find the link to the MURAL

https://app.mural.co/t/ecnyu4647/m/ecnyu4647/1633523465005/dbe278db1be6cd8c24d8b8762e10ef5a6605d71c?sender=ufecae28906feaa1885492071

Give the origin story for a place located in the Hamburger City world.

The Life Factory

In the failing light of 2068 the LIFE FACTORY (LF) exists to prolong and in some cases duplicate life. A vast monolithic structure stands in the dry sands of the desert, adorned with little to know detail save for the piercing blue light emanating from small rectangular openings in the surface of the structure. A single door sits as close to the left side on each of four faces of the building. The door stands twice that of any being still living on this dying planet. Running the length of the door and only a few inches wide a dimly illuminated stripe sits just raised for the surface of the door. One can postulate that this stripe is how you would gain access into the LF, however, the LF is reserved for those considered to be Methusela’s children.

Great flying objects hover over the monolith and descend into the structure, oddly enough this seems to be a one-way entrance. There must be some subterranean passageway that leads from the lower levels of the LF. In the great silence that is the desert the whirring of the LF is barely audible but still produces an unsettling feeling to those who dwell miles from the source. About 150 yards from the monolith lies a ring of small, about a foot in diameter, holes which constantly produce a copper colored gas, thick as the ash that falls from the north. The noxious smell associated with the gas can be sensed from as far away as 10 miles, within one mile of the monolith a breathing device is recommended for those who still have olfactory senses. It burns the eyes and causes irritation in the throat.

One side of the building is home to a large pipeline, it must be 25 feet in diameter and raised at least 200 feet off the ground. The assumption is this pipeline delivers water to the LF. Water is the life-giver and thus must be used in the processes within the LF. Great statutes whose features have been worn away by time, parallel the pipeline on each. Stabbing nearly shoulder to shoulder as they fade into the distance. No one has been to the end of the pipeline, the distance too great to travel by any means the lower class possesses, and the upper classes don’t care where it comes from, only that they are entitled to the use of what it carries for their own personal gains.