Automated creation of storyboards from screenplays

摘要

Computing resources may automatically generate a rough draft of storyboard by using textual analysis to extract meaning from a screenplay. The storyboard may be accompanied by spoken dialog, sound effects, and a soundtrack. Users may provide pre-production decisions regarding appearance of characters and backgrounds. The users may include a community of different individuals who contribute content and suggest modifications to the storyboard. The computing resources may also access logic to select visual elements for the storyboard from libraries of existing content or from custom content prepared by one of the users. Pagination of the screenplay and location of dialog and action on the pages of the screenplay may be used to create a timeline for the storyboard and any accompanying audio.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a storyboard from a screenplay, the method comprising:
receiving, by one or more computing devices, the screenplay from a first user, the screenplay comprising one or more pages of text that include one or more sluglines, a character dialogue, and one or more screenplay descriptions, the one or more screenplay descriptions corresponding to a description of a character, scene or action;
creating, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, a timeline having a predetermined amount of time associated with each page of the screenplay, the timeline comprising one or more scenes, each scene beginning at a time point corresponding to a location of one of the one or more sluglines on the one or more pages of the screenplay;selecting, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, a background image for one of the one or more scenes based at least in part on text contained in a slugline indicating a beginning of the scene;associating, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, a facial expression from a plurality of facial expressions to at least one character based at least in part on the one or more screenplay descriptions or the character dialogue, wherein each facial expression of the plurality of facial expressions comprises a predetermined, anatomically-based facial appearance; associating, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the facial expression with a character image for the at least one character based at least in part on the one or more screenplay descriptions or the character dialogue; positioning, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the character image in front of the background image; creating, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, one or more audio tracks comprising speech corresponding to the character dialogue; synchronizing, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the one or more audio tracks with the timeline based at least in part on a relative length in fractions of the pages of the character dialogue; and compiling, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, the storyboard based at least in part on the background image, the character image, the timeline, and the one or more audio tracks.