Comic Chat

Basic NLP: a handful of keywords and punctuation is used to estimate an action for the character. Such as smileyfaces, frowns, all characters being uppercase, shortcuts like "lol," and key words like "greetings."

A priority system is used to deal with conflicts in NLP features that cannot be rendered. For example when asking for a character to point to themselves and to someone else, but the sprite bank is unable to accomodate.

Sprite that will be used is shown to the user while typing. They can override the software's selection by dragging a puck on an "emotion wheel" and see what sprite the software will use instead.

Only 0-5 characters fit in a frame, so the software has to make decisions about who to show.

Not all characters need to be on screen at all times. But everyone who is talking needs to be in frame.

Uses a numerical optimization process to figure out how to compose a scene. Scores based on if characters are facing those they appear to be speaking to, based on if speech is directed toward a particular character or the whole group. Characters talking to one another should be nearby and facing. Though a character not targeting a message may speak to the entire group (on screen) instead of a single person.

Placement of chat bubbles matters; comic reading order is top down left to right and bubbles are placed using this method.