Support for seamless linkage between less detailed and more detailed representations for comic design

Abstract

Through a study of comic design practice, we observed that comic designers created three components-character-config, plot, and storyboard-and used a trial-and-error approach with iterative progression from less detailed to more detailed representations during the early stages of design. However, existing comic design tools do not support these tasks very well. In the light of these observations, we created a system that helps comic designers in the early stages of design. Our prototype supports sketching input, allows seamless movement backward or forward among the different granularities of representations across the three components, and concurrent use of multiple related sheets. We performed an informal evaluation with one professional designer and found that she reacted positively to the concept and was interested in using such a system in her work