Dakob

FLAVOR FOLEY wanted Miki to look robot-y, and wanted something visually different from her official designs.

I immediately got to sketching some, but you can already tell what the problem is. ITS JUST A VARIATION OF HER 2009 DESIGN (BECAUSE ITS GOOD AS HELL AND IM BIASED)

I did also sketch what the refrain would look like– I immediately knew she needed different expressions for each version, with a big cute smile at the end!!! SHE'S HUMAN SHE'S REAL SHE'S HAPPY

Thankfully FLAVOR FOLEY gave me some more constraint ideas for Miki's design (i thrive on contraints): fluffy hair like her 2025 design, “weird eyelashes”, stars, “if we can have navy that’d be cool”, “ROBOT LINES!!! ROBOT JOINTS!!! THIS IS NON NEGOTIABLE!!!!!!”

And finally rice (member of FLAVOR FOLEY) sent me a “vibe sketch” they made forever ago. And it clicked

This is it. The evangelion plugsuit. A body that’s breaking down, cables visible through the wear and tear. And a cool, pristine jacket, lovingly taken care of, perhaps belonging to someone dear to her

We all worked together to make the colors fit, but here are some variations for your viewing pleasure

Mandatory sans undertale palette

With the character design done, I got to making a simple storyboard, which didn't end up requiring many changes. Thank you FLAVOR FOLEY for letting me Do My Thing!!!

I worked as an animator for many years, and this was pretty simple animation… I had a lot of fun. I hadn’t animated hair in a while though, so this video saved my bacon

👉 How to animate Blowing Hair (And the seaweed exercise)

And after that, I just animated the whole video!!! From the concept art to finishing the animation, this took me like a week. Which is great because i had one week of break to rest from making my visual novel lol

(it's called Truth Scrapper, you can wishlist it if you want <3)

1. I keep important plot, character details and backgrounds (e.g. if they're rivals, anything like if one's a prince, setting, etc.) in the Greeting/Prompt since I believe c.ai goes back to the first message a lot, so it's a good basis for how the bot should go. I'm so glad they extended the character limit lol.

The Greeting also sets the tone for how the narrative will go and follows the format of whatever’s written. In my case, I like adding my character’s thoughts in italics throughout the story as like a “behind the scenes” for the users aside from just dialogue and narration.

C.ai doesn’t always keep the thoughts in the replies, but most of the time they do, or I reinforce it by choosing replies that have both dialogue and that thought bubble.

Regardless, a detailed yet not overcrowded Greeting does wonders for your bot! 2. If I need to refer to the character or the user, I use {{char}} instead of any names and {{user}} because I think this doesn’t confuse the bot. I’ll add more to this in further points and you’ll see how it’s used.

3. For the Description portion, I put the appearance, personality traits, and other details I want to prioritize, or even a quick backstory A) Appearance: I usually add the hair, eye, skin colour and then, anything specific to be noted like scars or tattoos. Sometimes I add the height and build if needed. Unless what they wear is important to the story, I don’t bother adding it. B) Personality traits: I tend to just use basic, one-word adjectives or how I want them to act. Examples that I use often include: Quick-witted. Tsundere. Cold, stoic, stern, calculating. Sweet. Flirty. Teasing. Obsessive. Likes to bicker. Physically attracted to {{user}}. Delusional. Crazy in love with {{user}}. Bratty. Whiny. Cocky. Cheeky. Playful.

Since my bots aren’t in 2nd Person POV, I use {{user}} instead of “you” (e.g. In love with you) but I’ve seen other bot makers do either of the two and I think the bots go well regardless. C) For other details, it can be: - A one-sentence backstory to the character or your plot, like where the bot is from, their occupation, the past between them and the user, even their age either specifically or just if they’re older or younger or even the same age as the user if it matters - How they act or treat the user or why they act a certain way, if you think it's important to how they should act throughout the story - You can also make the personality more defined, such as "flirty but in a subtle way" or "teasing but hides their feelings" In general, these are all important details of how your character will act or remember more, regardless of whatever situation is thrown at them, and it's the "core" personality or how they react to situations, I'd say. 4. For basic plot bots, I've only been using the Greeting and Description to form the bot, and I think it’s been going well. If your bot isn’t lore-heavy, this is fine. You can totally stop reading here, but if you want to reinforce or specify things, then this is where the Definition portion comes in!

A few coding things to note: There’s a difference between using [], {{“”}}, () or (()) in the Definition. I’ve seen other people say [anything like this] is hard coded whereas {{“these”}} work for choices or ((these are optional)). I’ll be honest, this is confusing, and I’ll only talk about how I do things since I’m not super sure about everything either.

For the Definition portion, here’s a few things I do:

My first line is always {{char}} = Name just so the coding is aware of the character, to be safe.

A) I reinforce my character’s role and also the user’s role. In general, I’ve been focusing on only using [this format] with concise sentences that I want to stick with the bot.

e.g. [{{char}} is {{user}}’s roommate.] [{{user}} is a princess.]

B) [This method] is also what I’ve been using for other important details that either didn’t fit in the Description or that I want the bot to keep remembering, so I add it everywhere. I don’t add too much of this since the coding can only remember certain things. I add whatever I think is relevant to the character or the plot.

e.g. [{{char}} doesn’t drink human blood.] [{{char}} flirts with {{user}} a lot, but won’t admit his feelings.] [{{char}} is from the Kingdom of Dauros.]

C) If you want to limit the bot’s choices or answers to a specific thing or pool of things, this is where the {{“”}} coding comes in for me! This is especially useful for keeping track of specific names, lists, goals, and such. I feel like this really codes the bot to only choose this thing or act in line with what’s added here.

I think goals really reinforce how a character acts, in any situation. So if you feel like your bot needs to do more of a thing or direct them towards a path, I’d suggest this.

In this case if needed, I use the character’s name instead of {{char}} just because I don’t know how it works if it’s {{{{char}} <- like that lol. Anyway, here’s examples!

{{Name’s goals: “be the very best”, “love {{user}} completely”, “hide his feelings”, “fight well”}}

{{Name’s kingdom name: “Dauros”}}

{{Name’s family members: “Name”, “Name”, “Name”}}

{{Signs that Name is stressed: “smokes”, “fidgets a lot”}}

{{Name’s appearance: “Black hair”, “Grey eyes”, “Scar on right cheek”, “Only wears black clothes”}}

D) A few other things I've added to my Definition portion include: setting, backstory, a brief overview of other relevant people and their personalities so my character is aware, even sometimes longer and detailed statements that the bot can maybe study. E) If I really want something to stick to how my bots act in particular, I also use the {{char}}: coding instead. Since it gets read as dialogue that has already happened, it's something your bot likely remembers. It could either be in narration, a sample of how dialogue works, or even thoughts.

I think that's all for how I make my bots! ♡ When it comes to training your bot, just keep talking to them, rate replies you like, and reply to the best ones. I don't usually rate 1 stars for replies I don't like, I just ignore it, and focus on rating 4 stars for the ones I do like.