StoryFlow: Tracking the Evolution of Stories

Abstract

Storyline visualizations, which are useful in many applications, aim to illustrate the dynamic relationships between entities in a story. However, the growing complexity and scalability of stories pose great challenges for existing approaches. In this paper, we propose an efficient optimization approach to generating an aesthetically appealing storyline visualization, which effectively handles the hierarchical relationships between entities over time. The approach formulates the storyline layout as a novel hybrid optimization approach that combines discrete and continuous optimization. The discrete method generates an initial layout through the ordering and alignment of entities, and the continuous method optimizes the initial layout to produce the optimal one. The efficient approach makes real-time interactions (e.g., bundling and straightening) possible, thus enabling users to better understand and track how the story evolves. Experiments and case studies are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the optimization approach.

Egocentric Analysis of Dynamic Networks with EgoLines

“…Our work is also related to techniques using lines to show temporal patterns. StoryFlow [26] and StoryLine [34] visualize entities in a story as timeline paths to illustrate their dynamic interactions. A similar design was used in TimeNets for genealogical data [24].…”

“…Each actor (the ego and alters) in the network is represented as an actor line from the time step when the actor first joins the network to the time step when he/she last appears, where dashed lines indicate temporary absences. Representing temporal information as lines has proven intuitive and effective [26,34]. It allows a user to identify the lifespan of an actor in the ego-network and pinpoint the events of entering and leaving the network (A1).…”

Safeguarding and Accessing Drama as Intangible Cultural Heritage

“…Along centuries, drama scholars have produced a large amount of interpretations, but they mostly accounted for the philological references or for the latent meaning of the work (see, for example, [Bloom 1998] and [Kott 1974]). Drammar does not take into account these theories, because they are concerned with the historical relevance of the work rather than with its structural elements.…”

Computational Psychometrics Meets Hollywood: The Complexity in Emotional Storytelling

“…Characters' emotions are important because the entire movie narrative depends on the expressed and received emotions. A history narrated in a movie can completely change by expressing the emotions experienced and transmitted by the characters in a different way (Liu et al, 2013). …”