The Story Builder Assistant

Cece Jiao and Weiyan Huang

2026

We designed a Story Builder Assistant with Claude (https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/3dacf82e-8b4a-4b5d-8722-30bf2750cc8b). 

Final story arc: 

A bilingual student (fluent in human and fish languages) attends a sky university where bird language dominates. Facing academic pressure and isolation, they're tempted by genetic editing but it conflicts with their values. When peers notice their struggle, they form a study group that blends languages - and the student discovers their "difference" offers valuable perspectives. The message: celebrate diversity, reject erasure, find your people.

MAIN CHARACTER – LOCKED REFERENCE (do not change):

A bilingual student, early 20s, slim build.

Ambiguous gender presentation.

Light-medium skin tone. has fish ears

Short blue hair, slightly wavy, chin-length, natural texture.

Large observant eyes, gentle but anxious expression.

Wears a simple student outfit: loose neutral-colored jacket, soft shirt underneath, comfortable pants, practical shoes.

Carries a worn shoulder bag.

Style: semi-realistic comic illustration, clean linework, subtle shading.

Facial features, hairstyle, outfit must remain identical in all scenes.

WORLD & STYLE LOCK:

Comic panel illustration.

Fantasy sci-fi setting: floating sky university among clouds.

Architecture incorporates bird imagery, feathers, curved soaring structures.

Visual language system:

- Fish language: flowing, wavy symbols, bubbles, fluid motion, blue tones.

- Human language: standard text, neutral tones.

- Bird language: musical notes, feather-like glyphs, airy curved lines, light gold/white tones.

Graphic novel aesthetic, cinematic lighting, soft atmosphere.

Consistent color palette across scenes.

comic:

Cece's refection:

I used ChatGPT to generate prompts that would work for Sora. The visual outcome from Sora looks fine to share the idea visually. In some design parts, it provided me with ideas to refine the design. For example, there are two languages in this story, the fish language and the bird language. GenAI visual outcome depicted these two languages in each image and embedded them not only in the speech bubbles but also in the contents and backgrounds.  Although I was not satisfied with the design of the visual symbols of the two languages, it is an opportunity for me to improve the visual narrative and learn.  

However, the generative comic also led to a hallucination that this generative comic is good enough for some viewers or students, which may discourage students from revising, learning, and redesigning. For example, when I prompted ChatGPT with the scenes, ChatGPT provided a specific scenario for Scene 5. The generated dialogues between the classmate and the student are too common and lack originality. But since the generated comic as a whole looks visually good to show, I don’t continue changing the scenario. This generative process didn’t push me to improve the story design, which should be part of learning and making in this creative process.  

If generative AI tools are implemented in comic learning in higher education, future teaching should provide students with more prompts in reflecting and critiquing the generative images to encourage students' learning, rather than accepting a well-looking commercial quality outcome done by generative AI tools.

Weiyan's reflection:

Using the Story Builder Assistant provided a helpful scaffolding for my comic-making process, particularly in establishing the initial scope and scene breakdowns. However, I found that the tool lacked narrative cohesion; the absence of scene transitions and the inconsistent script formatting forced me to step in as a heavy editor. While this created extra work, it actually became a valuable reflective exercise. By manually bridging the gaps between scenes and refining the script to be 'production-ready,' I gained a clearer understanding of narrative flow. Ultimately, while the AI serves as an excellent starting point for beginners to visualize a path forward, it reinforces the idea that the creator’s hand is essential for a compelling, polished story.