Using ECPs for Interactive Applications in Virtual Cinematography

Abstract

This paper introduces an interactive application of our previous work on the Patterns language as creative assistant for editing cameras in 3D virtual environments. Patterns is a set of vocabulary, which was inspired by professional film practice and textbook terminology. The vocabulary allows one to define recurrent stylistic constraints on a sequence of shots, which we term ''embedded constraint pattern'' (ECP). In our previous work, we proposed a solver that allows us to search for occurrences of ECPs in annotated data, and showed its use in automated analysis of story and emotional elements of film. This work implements a new solver that interactively propose framing compositions from an annotated database of framings that conform to the user-applied ECPs. We envision this work to be incorporated into tools and interfaces for 3D environments in the context of film pre-visualisation, film or digital arts education, video games, and other related applications in film and multimedia.