Start from a source work: import, recognize characters, set character references, write personas

Three ways

There are three places where you can bring characters from a source work into your story. The steps are a little different:

• Home page: choose “Fan comic” as the mode in the lower-left corner of the input box. This is the fastest way. Upload images, recognize characters, and check names all in one window.
• Assets page: choose “Fan comic” under “New”. Recognize characters, set character references, and write personas step by step, then save them as a source pack for later.
• Story elements page in a comic: use “Import from source work” in the bottom toolbar, or drag screenshots directly onto the story elements page. This adds source work characters to a comic you already started.

What can fan comics be used for? Fan comics are only for personal, non-commercial use. Without permission from the rights holder of the source work, you cannot sell them or publish them behind a paywall. Original comics can be used commercially.

The home page path

① Upload images: after you choose “Fan comic”, an upload window opens. Drag in screenshots from the source work, or click “Choose image”. You can upload 1 to 10 images. Screenshots where the characters’ faces are visible work best. You can also drag screenshots directly onto the input box on the home page.

Your saved source packs also appear below. Click one to use it right away, without recognizing the characters again.

② Recognize characters: after you upload, Wapopo starts recognizing the people in the images automatically. This usually takes about 15–30 seconds and does not cost credits. You can close the window and write your story first. When recognition is done, the window pops back up.

If no one is recognized, try again with a clearer image of the character, such as a front-facing face with less blocking it.

③ Check names: the recognized people appear under one large image, like a roll call. Click a person, and Wapopo circles them in the image. If a name is wrong, edit it directly. Click × to remove anyone you do not want.

There is a field above called “Which source work”. Enter the comic name, and Wapopo will look up names online. It searches anime and manga databases for the cast list and official avatars of that source work, then compares them one by one. It only fills in names that match. It will not guess from the image. If it cannot recognize someone, you can write the name yourself.

Why leave it blank when Wapopo cannot recognize someone? A wrong name is more trouble than a blank one. One wrong name can get written into the synopsis and dialogue all the way through. So it is better to let you fill it in yourself.

In the art style row, you can choose “Use source art style” to extract a technique from the source screenshots. This does not cost credits. Or choose “Another set” to use a different art style.

Finally, click “Done”. These characters are saved as a source pack and added to your assets. Back on the home page, their avatars appear on the mode button, and the input box asks what you want to happen to them.

After you send

If you entered a source work name, Wapopo first looks up personas online. This usually takes about one minute, and the send button spins while it waits. If you do not want to wait, click the send button again to skip persona research and start right away. The personas on the cards may be empty, and you can write them yourself after entering the comic.

Then Wapopo creates the comic and turns the people in the source pack into character cards:

• For characters who already have character references in this art style, Wapopo uses the character reference images directly. This does not cost credits;
• For characters without character references, Wapopo draws one image in the comic’s art style based on the cropped appearance from the import. This costs 100 credits per character.

Character references: on the assets page and story elements page

When you import from the assets page or the story elements page, there is one more step after recognizing characters: character reference. Wapopo draws a single full-body portrait for each person in the art style you chose, then shows it next to the original image.

• If it looks right, click “Looks right”: this image becomes the reference image for this person in every panel from now on;
• If it does not look right, click “Draw another”. Wapopo draws a new one and shows it next to the others for you to choose. The current one stays for now.

Character references are one image per person, and each image costs 100 credits. If you draw another, it costs one more image.

Personas and relationships

On source work character cards, there is one more section than on normal character cards: “Persona”. It has four parts:

• Identity: real name, age or grade or job, and who they live with;
• Personality: what they are usually like, and how they react when things happen;
• Speech habits: catchphrases, sentence endings, tone, and dialect;
• How they address others: what they call each person, and what they call themselves.

If you entered a source work name, Wapopo looks up information online and writes these based on what it finds. Each part shows its source. If it cannot find something, it leaves it blank for you to write. Researching does not cost credits. Each source pack can be researched up to 5 times. “Research again” only replaces what the AI wrote. It does not change anything you wrote.

Relationships between characters work the same way: “A is B’s ___”, plus one line for “Dynamic”.

Why must personas be researched? We do not let the AI write from memory. If you ask about the same character three times, an AI relying on memory may write three different versions, and it may even invent sources. Writing from sources helps the character “act like” themselves.

Source work character cards

Source work character cards have a dark “Source work” label in the lower-left corner of the image.

• Appearance is locked: the AI will not change it, and every panel from now on will be drawn based on it;
• The assistant cannot change the name, appearance, outfit, or persona. If you want to change them, edit them yourself on the element card;
• The assistant cannot connect or change relationships between two source work characters;
• When writing dialogue, the assistant plays the character based on the persona and dynamic.

Source packs

Source packs are stored on the assets page. Each character is a book-style card labeled “Fan comic”. Open one to edit the name, appearance, outfit, persona, and relationships. Changes save automatically when you stop editing. The “Draw a fan comic” button at the bottom takes you back to the home page, switches to fan comic mode, and brings this pack and its source art style with it.

Changing a source pack only affects comics you create with it later. For comics you already started, make changes on that comic’s element cards.

External services used

When Wapopo looks up names and personas online, it sends the source work name and character names you entered to online search and anime and manga databases (Tavily, Bocha, AniList, Bangumi). See the Privacy policy for details.