I've long been fascinated by what puppets and animated characters have in common. Experimenting with digital puppetry has allowed me to both experience and study what happens when you put the two together. Working with UMBC's Imaging Research Center (IRC), animator Lynn Tomlinson and I created an award-winning iPad-based digital puppet app in 2015 that is a physically drawn, digitally animated character named Kendra. She has performed in theaters, classrooms, and festivals -- most notably at the outdoor production of Kendra's Bay at the inaugural Light City Baltimore International Arts Festival.
What is a digital puppet?
Digital Puppets are drawn characters (animated figures) performed live by puppeteers. Digital puppetry most often involves puppeteers/actors using motion capture suits and/or complex video-game-like controllers to make an image come to life. You can read about digital puppetry's use in the film industry in my essay "Unholy Alliances and Harmonious Hybrids: New Fusions in Puppetry and Animation" in The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, and in my book, A Galaxy of Things: the Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond.
What is a digital puppet?
Digital Puppets are drawn characters (animated figures) performed live by puppeteers. Digital puppetry most often involves puppeteers/actors using motion capture suits and/or complex video-game-like controllers to make an image come to life. You can read about digital puppetry's use in the film industry in my essay "Unholy Alliances and Harmonious Hybrids: New Fusions in Puppetry and Animation" in The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, and in my book, A Galaxy of Things: the Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond.
