Character placement, the choice of gestures and expressions, and word balloon construction and layout, were all chosen automatically. The algorithms used in Comic Chat attempted to mimic some basic illustration techniques of comic artists (particularly Jim Woodring). It was an experiment in automatic illustration construction and layout. Ĭomic Chat started out as a research project, and a paper describing the technology was published at SIGGRAPH '96. Later, tools became available that allowed user-created characters and backgrounds.
All of the comic characters and backgrounds were initially created by comic artist Jim Woodring. Comic Chat's main feature, which set it apart from other IRC clients, is that it enabled comic avatars to represent a user this character could express a specified emotion, possibly making IRC chatting a more emotive and expressive experience.
