The generation of engaging visual representations for interactive storytelling represents a key challenge for the evolution and popularization of interactive narratives. Usually, interactive storytelling systems adopt computer graphics to represent the virtual story worlds, which facilitates the dynamic generation of visual content. Although animation is a powerful storytelling medium, live-action films are still attracting more attention from the general public. This project explores a new approach to create more engaging interactive narratives, denominated "Video-Based Interactive Storytelling", where characters and virtual environments are replaced by real actors and settings.
Status:
Contributions:
- Explored a new approach to interactive narratives, denominated "Video-Based Interactive Storytelling", where characters and virtual environments are replaced by real actors and settings.
- Proposed a new method for video-based interactive narratives that uses video compositing algorithms that run at truly interactive frame rates.
- Presented a system of intelligent agents that perform the same roles played by filmmaking professionals.
Publications:
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Edirlei Soares de Lima; Bruno Feijó; Antonio L. Furtado. Video-based Interactive Storytelling Using Real-time Video Compositing Techniques. Multimedia Tools and Applications, Volume 77, Issue 2, p. 2333–2357, 2018. [DOI]
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Edirlei Soares de Lima. Video-Based Interactive Storytelling. PhD Thesis. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August, 2014. [PDF]
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Edirlei Soares de Lima; Bruno Feijó; Antonio L. Furtado; Cesar T. Pozzer; Angelo E. M. Ciarlini. Automatic Video Editing For Video-Based Interactive Storytelling. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2012), Melbourne, Australia, July 2012. pp. 806-811. ISBN: 978-0-7685-4711-4. [DOI] [PDF]
Video-Based Interactive Narratives:
- The Princess Kidnapping: an interactive narrative made for Interactive TV. The project is an experiment designed specifically for Interactive Broadcast Television. It gives the viewers the power to participate more actively and interact in the story. The most important characteristic of this interactive narrative is that it was made so that every viewer can choose the path they want to follow during the story, and still finish watching it at the same time (respecting the principle of air time on broadcast television). With this application, I won an "Honorable Mention - Innovation" from ITU (International Telecommunication Union) in the "ITU IPTV Application Challenge" competition.
- Raider of The Lost Videogame: an interactive narrative made for Interactive TV. The objective of this project is to propose new ways of producing interactive content for Interactive Broadcast Television. The story was written so that the interactive choices would appear naturally, and the way it was shot also gives the impression that the viewer is playing a videogame. Perhaps, following this kind of storyline can engage more effectively the viewers to interact with the content. This project suggests a new genre of “movie-game”. The theme of the story and the way the viewer “watches” the content, gives the opportunity for the viewer to act as a videogame player (puts him right inside the action). The viewers can interact with the content as a videogame player. It’s a new way of watching TV, in which the viewers are called to participate in the storytelling.
- Little Gray Planet - Interactive TV Comics: an educational interactive story that tells the importance of preserving the environment and the consequences that harmful acts have in the world environment. The story is set in an indefinite future, where the world is plagued by massive pollution caused by human interference. The main character, Pauline, is a girl who is always curious about the times when "the sky was blue" instead of the gray sky of her time. She wonders if it would be possible to have the world reverted to that previous condition. The user follows Pauline as she walks through different scenes, having the opportunity to interact with certain elements. When an ecologically friendly choice is made, it will help improve the natural environment and the user will be able to see the enhancement in the environment's quality (otherwise, the bad consequences of not choosing the right actions are shown in the same way).
- Modern Little Red Riding Hood: an adaptation of the famous Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale produced to validate the proposed approach to video-based interactive storytelling. It tells a modern and comic version of the original story, with funny and unexpected outcomes. The story takes place in three main locations: the Little Red Riding Hood house, the forest, and the grandmother’s house. The prototype is able to generate a considerable number of diversified stories to comply with the users' desires. In the more conventional stories, the narrative evolves following the traditional fairy tale plot with the Big Bad Wolf tricking Little Red Riding Hood and getting to her grandmother's house first, eating the grandmother, and attacking Little Red Riding Hood when she finds out what happened. In stories with a more unconventional outcome, Little Red Riding Hood celebrates the death of her grandmother, and then shares her basket of goodies with the Big Bad Wolf. In stories with a more comic outcome, the Big Bad Wolf eats both Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, and then gets a stomach ache.
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