Spellburst: A Node-based Interface for Exploratory Creative Coding with Natural Language Prompts

1Replit Inc. 2Stanford University
*Equal first authors
Spellburst teaser image.

Spellburst is a creative coding environment designed for exploration and iteration, powered by Large Language Models.

Video

Abstract

Creative coding tasks are often exploratory in nature. When producing digital artwork, artists usually begin with a high-level semantic construct such as a "stained glass filter" and programmatically implement it by varying code parameters such as shape, color, lines, and opacity to produce visually appealing results. Based on interviews with artists, it can be effortful to translate semantic constructs to program syntax, and current programming tools don't lend well to rapid creative exploration.

To address these challenges, we introduce Spellburst, a large language model (LLM) powered creative-coding environment.

Spellburst provides (1) a node-based interface that allows artists to create generative art and explore variations through branching and merging operations, (2) expressive prompt-based interactions to engage in semantic programming, and (3) dynamic prompt-driven interfaces and direct code editing to seamlessly switch between semantic and syntactic exploration. Our evaluation with artists demonstrates Spellburst's potential to enhance creative coding practices and inform the design of computational creativity tools that bridge semantic and syntactic spaces.

Modify with natural language and autocomplete suggestions

Iterate on parameters with auto-generated semantic sliders

Semantically merge multiple sketches

Visualize session in interactive canvas

Updates

BibTeX

@article{angert2023spellburst,
  title={Spellburst: A Node-based Interface for Exploratory Creative Coding with Natural Language Prompts},
  author={Angert, Tyler and Suzara, Miroslav Ivan and Han, Jenny and Pondoc, Christopher Lawrence and Subramonyam, Hariharan},
  journal={UIST},
  year={2023}
}

Research Collaborators

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