Brave new world of puppetry, part I
Like it or not, the world of Motion Arts is going Virtual. Puppetry, the ancient art of manipulating things, is alive and well in today's world of virtual, computer-generated images.
However, the software being written for those who manipulate virtual beings, such as Maya, Softimage, MotionBuilder, Lightwave 3D, 3DStudio Max, Cinema 4D or even Animation Master, is designed for Animators, artisans of a much more recent Artform based on Cinema, Comics (and occasionally Sculpture). Animators, whether the 2D illustration or the 3D puppet variety, are thinking in terms of single photographs or frames. Traditional puppeteers do not think in frames -- their performance is continuous and in real-time, like those of actors, dancers, mime artists, or even stuntpeople.
Computers and Frame-based Arts go hand-in-hand. Digital things broken up into pieces are what computers eat for lunch. The interfaces into computers are like this also -- individual keystrokes, the coordinates of a mouse (or drawing tablet) over time, images from a digital camera, etc. Those that are somewhat useful and common enough are designed for the standard one-hand mouse and one-hand on keyboard that we've been locked into by the legacy of the Desktop GUI invented by Xerox in the early 70's.
For real-timers like actors or puppeteers, there are few options to manipulate the virtual world that virtual puppets live in. Products do exist, such as the DataGlove™, various 3D coordinate tracking sensors by Ascension™, Polhemus™ & Vicon™, and even musician-oriented mixing boards, or remote-control car joysticks and videogame controllers can be coerced into a form of puppetry interface. However, this is not ideal for the Puppeteer, whether shadow, hand, rod, talking mouth, or marionette.
We need real-time TWO-handed computer controls built specifically for puppeteers, and software written that can enhance the motion in ways impossible with real puppets.
Of course, very method of control (interface) has its stylistic nuances. Animation looks like animation, captured motion off a human being looks like that human being, stop-motion has its own look too. Some of this nuance is physical, but the rest is in the training philosophy adopted by the performer. Animators tend to adopt the Disney/Nine Old Men "Principles of Animation." Puppeteers adopt similar principles. Actors, Dancers, and Mime artists have many philosophies to choose from within each of their circles. There is a criticism many classically-trained Animators have about the real-time approaches to Virtual Puppets. Using a glove makes the mouth move "like a Muppet." True to some extent, except that software can be modified to make the motion style more flexible. IF such software existed.
Advantages of Real-time over Frame-based control
There is always the question -- why bother? Well, if these controls existed and were cheap enough and did what I propose, you could do some things the Frame Artists cannot do:
* Live Virtual Puppet Theatre! There is something magical about seeing things live, even if they are on a screen.
* Improvisation!
* Faster scene takes (for larger CG productions)
* Give children something more to do with their computers than just play standard, violent videogames, such as Virtual Puppet storytelling. This could even be done over the Internet...
Technological Hurdles, and the Future
Alas, despite the power of 3D graphics cards available only within the last few years, we are still not up to the point where one can cost effectively create an entire Muppet Show, even one scene from the show, on a computer using real-time tools. It's still more viable to use socks, cheap video cameras, and real sets. But while we wait for the machines to get fast enough, someone needs to build good real-time puppet controls and software for them.
Here's a good start by MIT researcher Andy Wilson.
After all, why should Animation have the monopoly on Virtual Character motion?
However, the software being written for those who manipulate virtual beings, such as Maya, Softimage, MotionBuilder, Lightwave 3D, 3DStudio Max, Cinema 4D or even Animation Master, is designed for Animators, artisans of a much more recent Artform based on Cinema, Comics (and occasionally Sculpture). Animators, whether the 2D illustration or the 3D puppet variety, are thinking in terms of single photographs or frames. Traditional puppeteers do not think in frames -- their performance is continuous and in real-time, like those of actors, dancers, mime artists, or even stuntpeople.
Computers and Frame-based Arts go hand-in-hand. Digital things broken up into pieces are what computers eat for lunch. The interfaces into computers are like this also -- individual keystrokes, the coordinates of a mouse (or drawing tablet) over time, images from a digital camera, etc. Those that are somewhat useful and common enough are designed for the standard one-hand mouse and one-hand on keyboard that we've been locked into by the legacy of the Desktop GUI invented by Xerox in the early 70's.
For real-timers like actors or puppeteers, there are few options to manipulate the virtual world that virtual puppets live in. Products do exist, such as the DataGlove™, various 3D coordinate tracking sensors by Ascension™, Polhemus™ & Vicon™, and even musician-oriented mixing boards, or remote-control car joysticks and videogame controllers can be coerced into a form of puppetry interface. However, this is not ideal for the Puppeteer, whether shadow, hand, rod, talking mouth, or marionette.
We need real-time TWO-handed computer controls built specifically for puppeteers, and software written that can enhance the motion in ways impossible with real puppets.
Of course, very method of control (interface) has its stylistic nuances. Animation looks like animation, captured motion off a human being looks like that human being, stop-motion has its own look too. Some of this nuance is physical, but the rest is in the training philosophy adopted by the performer. Animators tend to adopt the Disney/Nine Old Men "Principles of Animation." Puppeteers adopt similar principles. Actors, Dancers, and Mime artists have many philosophies to choose from within each of their circles. There is a criticism many classically-trained Animators have about the real-time approaches to Virtual Puppets. Using a glove makes the mouth move "like a Muppet." True to some extent, except that software can be modified to make the motion style more flexible. IF such software existed.
Advantages of Real-time over Frame-based control
There is always the question -- why bother? Well, if these controls existed and were cheap enough and did what I propose, you could do some things the Frame Artists cannot do:
* Live Virtual Puppet Theatre! There is something magical about seeing things live, even if they are on a screen.
* Improvisation!
* Faster scene takes (for larger CG productions)
* Give children something more to do with their computers than just play standard, violent videogames, such as Virtual Puppet storytelling. This could even be done over the Internet...
Technological Hurdles, and the Future
Alas, despite the power of 3D graphics cards available only within the last few years, we are still not up to the point where one can cost effectively create an entire Muppet Show, even one scene from the show, on a computer using real-time tools. It's still more viable to use socks, cheap video cameras, and real sets. But while we wait for the machines to get fast enough, someone needs to build good real-time puppet controls and software for them.
Here's a good start by MIT researcher Andy Wilson.
After all, why should Animation have the monopoly on Virtual Character motion?
Labels: digital puppetry, puppetry
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