Computational Narrative

We present the potential of computational intelligence to empower authors and content creators in creating their own interactive animated stories.

In this short course, we present the potential of computational intelligence to empower authors and content creators in creating their own interactive animated stories. There are 4 key contributions towards realizing this goal. First, we introduce a novel event-centric representation of narrative atoms which serve as the building blocks of any story. Second, we present a graphical platform for story architects to craft their own unique story worlds. Third, we present CANVAS, a computer-assisted visual authoring tool for synthesizing multi-character animations from sparsely- specified narrative events. In a process akin to storyboarding, authors lay out the key plot points in a story, and our system automatically fills in the missing details to synthesize a 3D animation that meets author constraints. Fourth, we present extensions to our logical formalisms to enable the transformation of a passive narrative into an interactive story, and how computational intelligence may be leveraged to identify and automatically resolve conflicts in the story. We analyse the authoring complexity of different story formalisms to present the benefits and tradeoffs of each. This course targets both Basic and Intermediate level attendees, with a preliminary background knowledge of Computer Animation and Artificial Intelligence recommended.