Infinite Canvas

I happened to think about Scott McClouds theories around Infinite Canvas in web comics the other day; experimenting with other formats than ordinary page layouts for the web. I believe that web comics not only could, but should differ from printed comics:

• Reading is a bit cumbersome – we do not have the same instruments of turning pages (mouse vs hand)
• We do not have same amount of fixed space as a printed page (16:9 widescreen vs 4:3 screen, resolutions and so on)
• The storytelling is a bit closer to video than print

Infinte canvas is a very interesting approach to web comics. One of the best examples I’ve seen in this area is the Röyksopp’s music video (even though it doesn’t actually tell a straigth forward story). If this had been created as a frame-by-frame story, where the user has to interact, the story could even be told as a hypertext fiction (or even a game ?)

Technically speaking, this could be a very interesting  conecpt to explore. Unfortunately, it would is quite hard to achieve with standard Javascript techniques (maybe using SVG or Canvas, anyone?). Flash should be able to solve this problem nicely, but that would mean that that the graphics have to be drawn as vectors (most artists I know draw by hand). In addition Flash is not available to some platforms (ie. mobile phones).

Hopefully, one day… I will return with examples, if and when I find out more..
–
Aksel