Question: How easy is it produce a comic/cartoon using genetative AI?
Let's start with using ChatGPT4o to produce cartoons. The idea was inspired by a tweet by Dr Thomas Lancaster see below
Slightly modifying the prompts it is possible to get it to create the images and combine them in a GIF. I have split the two task into two prompts
The first prompt applies some principles of prompt engineering
Persona: In this case two the persona of the writer "You are an experienced comic book designer and a witty writer" and who it is for "Computing student in Higher Education in the UK"
Task: Creating a guide that educational and entertaining, but with minimal textual output.
Action: The details a comic with 8 panels of consistent style, create each panel as a separate image; using speech bubbles with a maximum of 5 words.
The first prompt
The language is British English. You are an experienced comic book designer and a witty writer. Create a guide to being a Computing student in Higher Education in the UK using a comic book narrative. This should be educational and entertaining. The comic will have 8 panels and the style consistent between panels, You will generate the graphics for each panel separately; as seperate images. using speech bubbles (a maximum of 5 words). Reduce all other textual output to a minimum.
The second prompt is all output generating the images and then combining them into a named gif.
generate the images and combined the images into a file called computing_student2.gif
It is fun to do, the text can often get a bit mangled though.
We don't just have to use ChatGPT; Google's Gemini can go someway to also produce a comic or the artwork. There is a differences though (whether it is an advantage or disadvantage depends on what you want); Gemini can not
- Produce images but can find them online;
-Can't combine them into a GIF so that would have to be done outside of this.
So the prompt
The language is British English. You are an experienced comic book designer and a witty writer. Create a guide to being a Computing student in Higher Education in the UK using a comic book narrative. You will use images you find on the web to do this. This should be educational and entertaining.
The result
A Guide to Computing Student Life
Panel 1
student sitting at a computer, surrounded by books and coffee, looking overwhelmed
Student: "So, you've chosen to study computing. Brave soul!"
Panel 2
student typing furiously on a laptop, surrounded by code
Student: "Endless coding marathons. Your new best friend: caffeine."
Panel 3
group of students working on a group project, looking stressed
Student: "Group projects: where chaos meets collaboration."
Panel 4
student sleeping in a library, surrounded by books
Student: "All-nighters are a rite of passage. Bring snacks."
Panel 5
student presenting a project, looking confident
Student: "Nail that presentation and you'll feel like a coding rockstar."
Panel 6
student relaxing with friends, laughing
Student: "Remember, breaks are essential. Your sanity depends on it."
Panel 7
student with a job offer letter, looking excited
Student: "The job market loves computer grads. Your future is bright!"
Panel 8
student with a graduation cap, throwing it in the air
Student: "You made it! Celebrate your hard work. You earned it!"
Note: I couldn't combine the images into a GIF as I don't have access to image manipulation tools. However, you can easily combine these images into a GIF using online tools or software like Photoshop.
Would you like to focus on a specific aspect of computing student life for the next comic?
So because it is getting image online rather generating them as in the ChatGPT4o approach, the image style may not be as consistent. It does do a good job and does include the sources of the images; and is quick.
So overall, this was fun to play with; both approaches met the goal though in different ways.
All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon
