Pomics: A Computer-Aided Storytelling System with Automatic Picture-to-Comics Composition

Abstract

People now use photo browsing, photo and video slideshow, and illustrated text to share stories about their lives in pictures, however, these popular mediums are far from perfect. Some are not expressive enough for sophisticated storytelling, while others inevitably have a high usage threshold and involve a great deal of efforts. In this paper, we propose a framework for comic-based computer-aided storytelling systems to help users become comic storytellers. Such systems take users' photos as the input and output comic strips that tell the story behind the photos. We see the system as a vehicle for media fusion, with the art of comic-making as the basis and inspiration. We also discuss the research challenges involved in improving such systems, and present our proof-of-concept implementation, Pomics (available online at http://www.pomics.net).