Today, we printed the pages that we made on photoshop (seen in image two), and began to trace.  Printing, for some unknown reason, took an absurdly long amount of time.  When we finally had everything printed, we used the light table/window to trace our comics.  After they were traced in pencil, we went over it in pen.  This made the whole piece look a lot better.  We were only able to finish two pages today, but we are going to do the rest tomorrow.  We are doing them tomorrow, so that we have plenty of time to do touchups on Thursday.  After they were “inked,” we scanned them back onto our computers.  We then used photoshop to put them in our original panels.  I spent a lot of time lining the text up because what we had thought would be good placement for the text was actually not.  I think we will be in good shape if we finish tracing tomorrow.  I also just caught a typo in the one of the speech bubbles.  Also, I think I have to move some speech bubbles around. 

Today, we did a lot of work on laying out our final panels on the computer and finding images to trace.  We are making our comic pages with the help of photoshop.  Before lunch, we drew out all of our panels and text in photoshop.  Afterlunch we gathered images and layered them to fit our storyline.  We then placed them into their correct panels.  We also had to change some text around after seeing the images.  Overall, we made the whole comic a lot easier to read.  Now, our final step is to trace the images that we made, and put them back into photoshop.  I think that we still have a lot of work to do, but I plan on doing some on Tuesday night and Wednesday (when I have time).  If we work on the off days, I think we will get it done on time.  Tomorrow, we are going to do some final touch ups on the photoshop images, and then get right to tracing for the rest of the day.

Today, we worked on the rough draft of our “Green Car” comic.  We planned out all of the text and actions of the character.  By the end of the day, we had our rough draft done, and we were ready to go onto take the next step.  The rough draft helped reassure us that the panels and text were all in the correct places.  We did end up changing the position of a few panels, and we also added some more dialog on the last page.  This weekend, and part of Monday, will be spent gathering images to trace.  Tracing is a good alternative to drawing.  We will use the tools that we have learned in Photoshop to compile the correct images for our scenes.  We are also planning on typing our text because we do not have the best handwriting.  Typing the text will also allow us to have uniform and neat speech bubbles.   

Today, we planned out every panel and page in our comic.  We also completed our script.  The process of making the script helped up iron out the storyline.  We figured out what information would and would not fit in with the goal of the comic.  We also changed a few of our original ideas for the betterment of the story.  We made the potential car buyer a bigger part of the story.  Originally, he was just along for the ride, but now he brings up the other side of the argument.  He brings up points to counter what the superhero type guy is saying.  This helps us bring up more information about environmental effects.  We would not have been able to bring up these points without the car buyer trying to contradict the superhero.  Also, by planning out the panels and pages, all we have to do is draw.  We are planning on tracing most of our images because we are not very good at drawing.  We have already found a few images, but tomorrow is when we will begin tracing.  I think we are in a good place right now, and ready to make our first draft.   

Today, we spent the majority of our time planning our comic and developing a storyline.  We are going to have nine pages total that focus on exaggerated advertisements.  Most electric car companies advertise their cars as being very green and healthy for the environment.  Through research, we have found that this is not the case.  We are going to start our comic with an electric car driving through nature, surrounded by trees and wildlife.  We are then going to zoom out, and have the image on a T.V. screen (like an advertisement).  There will be two people sitting on a couch watching the T.V.  One person will say something about wanting to save the earth by buying an electric car.  After the person says that, a guy will come smashing through a window, and into the room.  We will come up with some sort of superhero name for him, so he can introduce himself.  He will then say something dramatic such as “If you want to see the truth... come with me.”  He will then peel back the car advertisement on the T.V. to reveal big factories with pollution pouring out of its smokestacks.  He will then step into the T.V.  These two people will then guide the reader through the actual process and environmental effects of making electric cars.  The story will start at a lithium mine (lithium is what is used to make the batteries) and end when the car is finished.  The storyline and conversations will not be a challenge for us to make.  The biggest problem that we will have is drawing.  I am very bad at drawing, so it will be very hard for me to put my thoughts on paper.  So far, drawing has been the only challenge we have encountered.

I am working with Jackson on a project about "environmentally friendly" cars.  We are researching if electric and hybrid cars are actually that much better for the environment.  We have already found a lot of information about this topic.  We discovered that the way electric cars and hybrid vehicles are made is actually worse than how gas powered cars are manufactured.  We also found a lot of online articles on this topic, and were able to extract a lot of valuable information from them.  At this point in time we know that electric and hybrid cars have a more harmful manufacturing process, but they are actually cleaner in the long run.  We have to do more research into this though because be do not know if this is accurate.  We don't know if the studies conducted factored in the way we make power (mostly by burning coal and fossil fuels).  I think that we are going to have our comic about how car companies advertise and portray their electric and hybrid cars as being really environmentally friendly, but in reality they are not as good as people think.