Bitstrips

Registration: Registration is not required to play around with Bitstrip. Exploring is limited to pre-selected scenarios with the body of the character already positioned for the situation. However,  by registering, the user can select the number of panels, create depth of perspective with the character, manipulate the characters, etc. The creator can also take part of the social networking that is provided on the site such as create an avatar, and post his/her strip to the various genres to be reviewed or commented on. By creating a user account, the user can get full access.

Background: The background feature is quite extensive. It is packed with landscape, city, indoor and stereotypical scenes. However, creating a background from scratch is not one of the offered features.

Body Language: In the creation of a character, several body shapes can be selected. The style of hair, eyes, mouth, nose, etc, can be chosen and made large or small by clicking on each body part. Once created, the body can be positioned at different angles such as face forward or a side to side angle. However, when creating the comic strip, there are several options to put the body in motion and change the facial features. Hands, arms, legs, body and head can be placed in various positions. The user can choose ready-made facial expressions or can go through several buttons to change the expressions to his/her preference.

Clothing: The selection of clothing is limited for both sexes. Tops/bottoms, shoes, sock, glasses, hats are limited to 3 or 4 items. There is no detail on any of the items. However, there are multiple of colors that can be used on most of the articles of clothing. There are some pieces that are considered to be part of the clothing ensemble but are in themselves not clothes. These would be called props and there is a decent selection found in this comic creator.

Devices: Bitstrip calls their devices "effects," and there are enough effects to choose from to make an interesting comic. There are such effects as speed lines, surprise or annoyance lines, question mark, and jump lines to name a few effects.

Lettering: Bitstrips lettering is quite basic. There is only one font style, with underline, bold and italic provided. Coloring is also one option, and the size of the text ranges from 4 to 98. For beginning creators, having simple options can make the creation experience easier.

Speech Balloons: Bitstrip refers to speech balloons as text bubbles. There are six text bubbles available, and interesting enough, each bubble's purpose is described in the bubble itself. This is a helpful when teaching the creation of comics to novices.

Gutters: The gutters for Bitstrip are always of the same width even when stretching and shortening the panels. However, the color of the gutters can change.

Panels: Panels can be stretched to overlap other panels. The selection of panels ranges from 1 to 8. The panels can be in solid color or have a background added to them.

Focus: Each panel has several features that allows the reader to focus on the landscape, the character or situation. There is a zoom feature that places the character up close or far away and this same feature also works with the landscape.

Stereotypes: The stereotypes that are provided in Bitstrips are mostly found with the backgrounds and the props. There is a section where famous and recognizable real life people can be used in the creation of a comic strip.

Accessibility: Once created, Bitstrips can be emailed to friends, linked to Facebook, placed on blogs and a list of other social networking sites.

Intended User: The age group Bitstrip aims to attract are adults or teens. With the level of detail in the creation of characters and overall structure and content of the panel, this comic's complexity is best put to use in the teen to adult sphere. The need for username and password suggests privacy and the immediate connection to the social networking that is built into the site is also access to possible questionable content. Teachers could use Bitstrip to creat comics for lessons plans. Librarians could hold comic creating contest that not only weighs creativity but also content.

Summary: Getting around this comic creator is quite easy. The overall structure allows easy transition from the making-comic section to reading other-user-comics section. There is enough variety to create comics for the various genres (sci-fi, pop culture, politics/news, drama, humour, etc). There are a few advertisements, but these are located on the main page and no where else. Access to the comics is available to all through email, blogs or other social networking sites.