A Cinematographic Approach in Interactive Storytelling

This report focuses on the research possibilities of Interactive Storytelling, concretely in the potential of developing different cinematic tools w ithin a storytelling system, with the intention to provide strong, advanced and coherent narrative capabilities in a virtual environment where stories are generated with virtual actors. The context of the proposal is a virtual scenario, developed with the Unreal TM game engine, where virtual actors and virtual agents manage to generate a story that results from AI formalisms, such as planning techniques. The possible applications include computer-games and improved storytelling systems based in game engines. The basic idea behind the proposal is to use and explore the cinematic language, and its elements, since not only the language has different formalisms that make it adequate to be translated to a computer system, but it is successful among both users and spectators when they experience a story that is being told. Even though users need not to be familiar with the formalisms of such a language in terms of a knowledge of its principles, they are already familiar with its results and effects in the overall storytelling process. The exploration of the cinematic language, here with focus in the narrative elements and cinematic support of a virtual storytelling system developed with a game engine, is in conformity with the intentions of the doctoral program this document is linked to. The research and ideas proposed want to concentrate on the study and experimentation of digital media and the use of film language, with a combined approximation between engineering –our formal background-and humanities. This research report concentrates in the potential advantages and challenges that developing a cinematic system represent, in the context of interactive storytelling. The aim and proposal is, roughly, to define a set of tools, or system, that can provide cinematic capabilities to a storytelling scenario, where virtual actors generate a story and where a strong narrative is needed, in order to maintain the appeal and the coherence of any given story virtually shown and generated. The proposal involves the development of a system capable of adding-or providing-cinematic capabilities within a storytelling system, supporting the narrative, being it a development made with the Unreal™ game engine and its extensions, and having virtual actors and virtual agents capable of creating a story (or a set of stories) based on AI formalisms, such as could be planning techniques or other decision-taking mechanisms. Regarding its …