Virtual Marionette

[vimeo 110452298 w=580&h=326]

Demonstration of full hand control for expressive digital puppetry

This video shows how to animate a digital puppet in real-time with just one hand in an expressive manner.
It is part of a PhD research in the digital puppetry field.

Stringless hand controller (a metaphor for the marionette controller)
Hand + 5 finger controls different aspects of the puppet

Hand: position and orientation of the puppet
Pinky finger: Eye Pupils rotation in all directions
Index finger: Eyelashes rotation in the +Y and -Y axis (open and close)
Middle finger: Right Eyebrow blend shape deformation for character expressions
Ring finger: Left Eyebrow blend shape deformation for character expressions
Thumb: Mouth (open and close) blend shape deformation

There are different degrees of freedom (DOF) for each finger mapped to a certain puppet control.
The Hand as 6 DOF (position and rotation), you can move your hand freely around the tracking area but must be carful with the occlusion problem;
The pinky finger has 3 DOF for rotation of the eye pupils, and although controlling the pinky finger independently as some constraints, for this kind of small motion is more then adequate.
The middle and ring fingers are have more constraints and it is very hard to controlled them independently, so I mapped just 1 DOF (up and down) of each finger to the eyebrows.
The index finger as more potential because you can control more degrees of freedom, I tried using the index to control the eye pupils but the results were not so great. Instead, the index finger is mapped to the eyelashes rotation with just 1 DOF (up and down)

This is a good direction for digital puppeteers that have full control of the character expressivity. It require some training to act like a character, but that´s the magic of puppeteering.

This prototype can animate two different full controlled puppets for interaction.
A powerful model for performance animation using digital puppeteering techniques.

Hardware: Leap motion device for hand tracking and a macbook
Software: Unity Engine

Tagtool is an creative toolkit for IOS

An incredible tool for artists that can draw and animate in very few steps.

You can even produce performance animation…

The Porto International Marionette Festival (FIMP) is out there again showing the diversity of puppetry from all the world.

Although the puppetry plays are quite interesting I´m delighted with the documentary film cycle called the Marionnettes du Monde from Acrobates Films where I had the opportunity to learn more about puppetry in Taiwan and Poland.

Marcelo Lafantona won the award for best male performance with Prometeu at the 16th International Puppetry Festival in Varna – Bulgaria.

The renewed Prometeu system was performed with great success by the hands of Marcelo. A great performance presented to the Bulgarian audience. The Juri although not knowing the spoken language as chosen Marcelo´s performance as the best male performance.

The new system is more stable and flexible helping Marcelo to be more focus in his performance. Marcelo is the one man show, controlling lights, sounds, video and animation and all the puppeteering. And although it was very complex to create all the stuff is changed by the puppeteer in real-time with just one button.

A very important recognition from one of the oldest Eastern Europe festivals with a great tradition in the art of puppetry.

Congratulations to Marcelo Lafontana.

Photos from TMPC – Varna, Stage Filial – Drama Theater Stoyan Bachvarov

Visting Varna in Bulgaria to the 16th International Puppetry Festival.

Lafontana Formas Animadas was invited to present the Prometeu shadow play at this festival. One of the oldest Eastern Europe puppetry festivals with 45 years old.

We built a new compact version of Prometeu which travels inside a flat case  developed to go around the world. It was our first challenge and it passed with distinguish, Marcelo Lafontana won the award for the best performance. We were very happy to present our show at Varna.

From the 1th Octobre to 7th October I have had the privilege to watch 11 great performances from puppetry companies from all over the world.

From string to direct manipulation, from the most classical puppetry to the most contemporary approaches the Varna festival presented a wide range of puppetry aesthetics  and puppetry methods for all audiences.

I would like to congratulate the organization for there professionalism handling with all cultural differences representing 10 different countries.

Here is a list of all the puppetry shows that I was able to see,  all of them contributed in some way to opening my eyes to this wonderful theatrical art.

La Mar de Marionetas – Madrid, Spain
SPEAK, YOU´RE NOT ALONE

Sofia Puppet Theatre – Sofia
TALE OF THE WANDERING KING

Batumi Puppet and Youth State Theatre – Batumi, Georgia
COLORED FOG’S SEASHORE

State Puppet Theatre – Varna
LITTLE WIZARDS

Harpe en Perigord & La Mar de marionetas – French-Spanish co-production
SHAKESPEARE’S DAUGHTER TELLS HER MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Puppet Theatre Haet-Sal – Suwon, Korea
HEUNG-BU JEON

Baruti Teatro – Athens, Greece
MOMENTOS

Sofia Puppet Theatre – Sofia
THE TEMPEST

State Puppet Theatre – Plovdiv
THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE LITTLE CROCODILE

State Puppet Theatre – Varna
SILENT LEGENDS

The Key Theatre – Tel Aviv, Israel
WHEN ALL WAS GREEN