LeapMuppet is a digital hand puppet based on the Leap Motion interface.
It was developed with the new skeletal tracking in Unity.

An inspiration on the traditional glove puppet, in particular the muppets, from the great Jim Henson.
This is a digital puppetry proof of concept. The ideia is to bring the art of traditional puppetry manipulation to performance animation.
Not real´istic animation, but believable animation…
Do not believe that the puppet is for real, just believe that the puppet is alive.

A simple character made in Maya, which is real-time animated with the motion of the hand.
I use a skeleton to drive the nose and the head of the puppet (position, orientation), and blend shapes to control the mouth and the eyebrows.
The palm of the hand drives the head (direction free); the index finger drives the nose (direction free); the thumb controls the mouth (up and down); the ring finger controls the left eyebrows (shrink / expand); the pinky finger controls the right eyebrows.

With just one hand you can give great expression to the puppet. Imagine what you can do with two hands ?

Let´s have some fun with virtual puppets.