91福利

Rinata Aimaletdinova, a student of Applied Informatics in Design at 91福利, has developed an electronic publication based on the book Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, consisting of an interactive map, text and illustrations. Based on the website, she has created more than 20 illustrations, some of which are animated and have interactive elements, an adaptive version for mobile phones, an interface and design of the seven main characters of the book.

The e-book is based on the fantasy cycle "Wheel of Time" by American writer Robert Jordan. Its first edition was "The Eye of the World," which tells about friends who escaped from their native village. They go on a long journey to confront the forces of evil, face the cruelty of the world and the frightening truth about themselves and their destiny. Rinata's project presents the modern design of the book, which was published 35 years ago, and involves attracting a new audience.

"The project has no direct analogues. Combining an interactive map and an illustrated book is a unique feature of the project that enhances immersion in the work. Fans of fantasy cycles often make interactive maps so readers can access them when confused by the narrative. But this happens on a separate resource and is not integrated into the book," Rinata explained.

According to the author, the main themes of the book are friendship, duality of magic, search for oneself. The uniqueness of the world order of the cycle lies in the idea of the Wheel of Time, thanks to which time moves in a circle, reincarnating souls, repeating the events of the past over and over again. Each turn of the Wheel is an era that has its own Great Pattern - a pattern containing the past, present and future, predetermining the fate of people. The image of the era as a tapestry, where the brightest threads are the key figures of time, weaving and changing the pattern around them, is an important stylistic feature. That is why threads and gold patterns have become a key element of the interface.

The target audience of the project is young people from 16 to 26 years old. It is they who, according to Rinata, have a request for an interactive and graphically filled format. It helps to hold readers "attention. The book solves this problem. The table of contents is designed as an interactive map, where you can find out interesting information about the fantasy world and trace the route of the heroes. All elements are clickable, chapter icons are transferred to a new page with text when pressed. Also in the table of contents you can adjust the font size, sound, music, automatic bookmarks, interactive illustrations, go to full screen mode.

The author of the book laid archetypes in her heroes, which are revealed over 14 volumes. Therefore, Rinat built the character design not only by description, but also based on their characters. At first glance, they are similar: dark eyes and hair, simple woolen clothes, direct look. The main challenge for the student was to reflect the uniqueness of each hero and, with the help of detail, lay hints of future storylines and internal conflicts in their appearance. The images are made in the style of semirealism, bordering between realistic image, copying, and stylization. The unity of text and drawings is achieved due to the fact that parts of the illustrations go beyond the main boundaries. This creates a smooth transition from read to image.

Rinata began work by developing a series of sketches with illustrations that show the main storylines and acting heroes. Further, according to the sketch, she created a more elaborate sketch outlining the main composition. The work took place in black and white to focus on the chiaroscuro pattern. Then she detailed the faces, outlined the main volumes and tonality of the clothes and painted the characters using a gradient map and layering modes. The final stage was background drawing and color correction. In a special program, Rinata performed skeletal animation using pseudo-3D technology, which helps to achieve the effect of full depth without complex three-dimensional modeling.