At the scene/sequence level media selection involves matching individual scenes and sequences to the most appropriate media. The detailed storyboard should indicate the medium used for each scene.

Translating information across media can present transmedia designers with signification challenges. For example, visual language – the tight integration of images, shapes, colors, and words – is widely used in graphic novels (comic books) and can be highly effective for expressing an author’s message. However, translating visuals from one style of graphic novel to another or to another medium entirely can diminish or destroy the information being communicated.

In traditionally drawn comics, for example, characters’ personalities, attitudes, and emotions are established through exaggerated images (Ellis & Martin Ellis, 2008, p. 26). The title character in the Dick Tracy comic strip (see Figure 57) (Staton & Curtis, 2011), for example, was a tough, square-jawed crime fighter with the exaggerated facial features typical of traditional comics.

The fumetti (photograph comic) Night Zero (see figure below) has sharp, high-contrast images that show realistic representations of characters and settings (Black-Mizuta, Hillis, & Winkle, 2011). Dark Red is another fumetti, but the photographic images are modified in Photoshop to adjust image color and texture, providing a distinctive feel to the artwork. Although each of these examples is considered a comic, the approaches used in one may not work in another. For example, the exaggerated features of characters in traditional hand-drawn comics do not translate across to the characters in a fumetti.

The color used in traditional comics like Dick Tracy differs from that of Night Zero and Dark Red. While the difficulties of translating between one style and another in a single art form like comics can be difficult, the challenges are even greater when designing the movement between media that are significantly different (i.e. still image to text, static web page to video). The designer (or design team) needs to understand the conventions of each medium used and work creatively to develop seamless, effective, and meaningful transitions from one medium to another.

Dick Tracy’s tough-guy character (top) is shown with exaggerated facial features (particularly the square jaw) characteristic of traditionally drawn comics. Night Zero (lower left) is a photographic comic book while Dark Red (lower right) is a photographic comic in which the images have been altered in Photoshop. Each style is distinctive.

Sources: 

  • Dick Tracy – Joe Staton & Mike Curtis
  • Night Zer0 – Eli Black-Mizuta, Jansen Hillis & Anthony Van Winkle;
  • Dark Red – Lynn French & Joanna McKenzie