Segmenting panels is a graphic design element of storytelling that's part of the artist's job. Doing it programmatically ignores its actual nature in storytelling - establishing the amount and direction of the story beats, helping the reader understand the right reading order, and establishing the important elements on the page (Which beat is the most important, etc).
It's an interesting tech but giving such an important creative job to a computer instead of an artist is a bad idea for any comic artist who cares about their work.
I half agree with you. Yes, the panel segmentation can be an element of the storytelling, but the truth is that lots of comics out there are not exploiting this ability, sticking to a square grid instead.
Yes, Bill Waterson used his fame to get out of the standard grid [1] but in a world where people read comics on their phones this technology is necessary. And if this stuff helps comic artists reach more readers, so be it. We can always hope that making simple tasks easy today will encourage artists to try harder things tomorrow.
> I half agree with you. Yes, the panel segmentation can be an element of the storytelling, but the truth is that lots of comics out there are not exploiting this ability, sticking to a square grid instead.
It is an element of storytelling. If the artist isn't doing it, its because they're doing a bad job for storytelling, or publishing in a standard format where the beats are always the same (like saturday morning comics in the newspaper, if those still exist).
It's an interesting tech but giving such an important creative job to a computer instead of an artist is a bad idea for any comic artist who cares about their work.