How To Make A Speech Bubble

There can be many different applications of picture-manipulation in JES. One of the best
applications is making a comic strip. In these comic strips, there are often characters that say
things. To indicate that a character is speaking, a speech bubble is often used. JES can be used to
make speech bubbles for these characters. This tutorial is a step-by-step tutorial that will show an
example of how to make a speech bubble.
Our desired result is as follows:
Assuming that all of this should be done inside of one function, then there are three main steps
required in order to obtain the above result:
1) Make the canvas
2) Make & copy the character onto the canvas
3) Make the speech bubble & add it to the canvas.
Making The Canvas
First, we have to define a function: let’s call it makeSpeechBubble. Also, be sure to set your
media path to the place where your character and canvas are located. We will also assume that
we are making a picture from a pre-existing canvas, which has a size of
640x480 pixels. Once we add the canvas, we want the entire background to be white. So far, this
is what our code looks like:
def makeSpeechBubble():
canvas = makePicture(getMediaPath("640x480.jpg"))
canvas.addRectFilled(white,1,1,640,480)
Making And Copying The Character Onto The Canvas
After making the canvas, the next step is to copy a character onto the canvas. In order to do this,
first, we have to make the picture, which is similar to making the canvas.
caterpillar = makePicture(getMediaPath("caterpillar.jpg"))
The easiest way to copy the caterpillar onto the canvas is using two for loops. For each pixel
(x,y), we will copy it onto the canvas at location (targetX,targetY), where the first value for
targetX and targetY will start at the value where the top-left corner of the image should appear.
targetX = 300
for x in range(1,getWidth(caterpillar)):
targetY = 20
for y in range(1,getHeight(caterpillar)):
c1 = getColor(getPixel(caterpillar,x,y))
setColor(getPixel(canvas,targetX,targetY),c1)
targetY = targetY + 1
targetX = targetX + 1
This means that we will copy the caterpillar onto the canvas, and the top-left corner of the
caterpillar will appear at (300,20) on the canvas.
Making and Adding The Speech Bubble Onto The Canvas
Now that we have a character that is copied onto the canvas, we have to make a speech bubble
for the character. In order to make the bubble and add it to the canvas at the same time, there is a
built-in JESS function called addOval. This function takes in five parameters (in the following
order): color, startingX, startingY, width, height. This will give you an oval
canvas.addOval(black,235,5,95,45)
Now that we have our actual speech bubble, we need to put the speech inside of it! Just like there
is an addOval function, JES also has a built-in addText function. The parameters for the addText
function are: color, startingX, startingY, “text”. It is best to specify the startingX and the
startingY somewhere inside the bubble. For example, the speech bubble itself starts at (235,5), so
starting the text at (235,5) would not be a good idea. Instead, starting the text at (255,22) ensures
that the entire text will appear inside the speech bubble. Since I was “CS1315!” to appear in a
new line, I will start that text at (260,28). This will give the appearance that “CS1315!” is
centered under “Hello! I love”.
canvas.addText(blue,255,20,“Hello! I love”)
canvas.addText(blue,260,38,“CS1315!”)
After all of this is done, it is important to remember to return the canvas. If you want to save the
final result, you can put in a writePictureTo statement, which will write the canvas to a file.
However, if you want it to be executed, it must be placed before the return statement.