ShortCut Comix a Java application for using video to simplify the production of comics by combining a video player that displays
multiple consecutive video frames with a comics editor for simpifying video images and editing attributed text in automatically-resizing comic balloons.

ShortCut Comix was invented and created by Jonathan Helfman for AT&T Labs-Research as part of "the Loop," an interdisciplinary team of researchers, social scientists, designers, and marketers focused on understanding the communications requirements of pre-teens and teens. By starting with video, users are free to focus on the story, characters, and dialogue, instead of mastering drawing, perspective, foreshortening, composition, anatomy, action, inking, and lettering.

ShortCut Comix uses the Java Media Framework for video sampling, the Java XML Binding framework for persistent storage, and Swing text editors and GUI components. ShortCut Comix also uses many features of Java 2D, such as antialiased fonts, antialiased splines for drawing smooth balloons, alpha channels for masking, and filters for image processing.

AT&T's Multimedia Indexing technology is used to convert video sequences into "story boards," which show representative images from each shot. Alternatively, the video sequence may be sampled linearly, which may be preferable for short sequences.

digital video files

Shortcut Comix starts with video. Like film, video is a stream of consecutive still images that when displayed in sequence provide an illusion of motion. Analog video sequences may be digitized by any of the standard video capture hardware systems, such as the Dazzle Video Creator II, which converts a taped or broadcast NTSC video stream into various digital video file formats, such as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. Alternatively, digital video files may be captured directly from digital video cameras.

the video player and sampler

The ShortCut Comix video player shows seven consecutive frames of video at a time. Other video players show just one frame of video at a time to emphasize the illusion of motion. Seeing several consecutive frames at once helps people understand how the illusion of motion is achieved from still frames and makes it easier to determine exactly which still image best portrays an action.

the video sampler

Next, the video is sampled to extract 35 still frames, which are displayed below the video player. The video may be sampled linearly, as shown above, or sampled with more sophisticated algorithms for shot detection and key-frame selection, which do a better job of selecting representative still frames for longer sequences.

The 35 still frames in the ShortCut Comix video sampler function as buttons that can be selected to jump the player to the associated frame (which also causes the player to display the three frames before and after the selected frame).

Algorithms for shot detection identify discontinuities between video sub-sequences caused by edits, effects, or fast camera moves. Key-frame selection algorithms choose a single representative image for each shot, such as the first stable image in the shot. Algorithms for shot detection and key-frame selection are commonly used in video database indexing systems, such as AT&T's Multimedia Indexing technology (which has been transferred to Excalibur Technologies) or the Center for Digital Video Processing, School of Electronic Engineering in Dublin City University, Ireland. Systems for shot detection and key-frame selection typically create timing information and digital image files for each key-frame.

After ShortCut Comix has sampled the video sequence, any of the sampler's 35 still frames may be changed individually to override the initial samples. Selecting any still frame while holding down the control key causes the player's current frame to be stored in the sampler instead of the selected one. This capability allows users to manually select and store specific still frames that may not have been chosen by the automatic sampler.

the comics editor

Any of the still frames in the player or sampler may be dragged into the comics editor, which supports several different types of layouts, fonts, balloon styles, and filters for simplifying the images so they look more like cartoons.

Shortcut Comix supports two ways to simplify images: masking and filtering.

Masks are usually used to separate images of objects from their backgrounds and make images non-rectangular. The eraser tool in Shortcut Comix makes it easy to create masks by clearing away backgrounds and edges so images don't have to be rectangular. Masks in ShortCut Comix use the Java 2D alpha channels so they do not modify the original image data.

Filters change the visual quality of an image. Filters can be used to simplify images to make them look more like a cartoon.

Text may also be added to the page with a variety of fonts and balloon styles. Lettering text for comics is an art in itself because the font, style, size, thickness, and placement of the text can convey a wide range of emotions. While traditional comic letterers might cringe, several fonts are now available for creating digital comics (e.g. see www.comicbookfonts.com).

ShortCut Comix may be printed on any color printer or output to the web to add animation and links.

For most of 2002 AT&T made ShortCut Comix available for a free download at theloop.att.com for people willing to agree to a rather prohibitive license. Sadly, AT&T has since taken down that server.

see also: samples of Jonathan Helfman's comics