Cartoons beyond clipart: a computer tool for storyboarding and storywriting

This paper describes the motivation, proposal, and early prototype testing of a computer tool for story visualisation prior to storywriting. An analysis of current software for making various types of visual story is made; this identifies a gap between software which emphasises preset banks of artwork, and software which emphasises low-level construction and/or drawing. A proposal is made to fill this gap, and a prototype implementation of the proposal is described in the context of a school-based study with Year 5, covering ages 9-10 years. Results from this prototype study both validate the novel proposal made and demonstrate that children are capable of more complex graphical interaction than most current software permits.