Today’s Google doodle celebrates what would have been Jim Henson‘s 75th birthday by letting you try your hand at digital puppetry:
As the video [below] explains, it’s the result of a collaboration between Google and The Jim Henson Company, to let Google viewers experience Henson Digital Puppet Studio, the software that is used in such shows as Sid the Science Kid. Here’s what the Jim Henson Company says about the software:
Digital Puppetry provides immediate real-time performance of 3-D generated characters by a puppeteering system, allowing an unprecedented level of spontaneity, quality and interactivity. Through a combination of proprietary hardware and software, the technology allows a puppeteer (or one primary puppeteer plus assistants) to perform live 3-dimensional computer graphics.
The system consists of three major components: mechanical hand controls, a control computer, and a digital puppet workstation which renders the live on-screen image of the character. The final product allows animation to be composited into computer-generated environments in real-time. The system’s animated characters are therefore also “directable,” like actors, and the animation can thus be used as a pre-visualization tool as well as a final product. The animation can be broadcast, or streamed, taking advantage of either local digital networks or the global internet infrastructure. The animation can also be applied to many mediums, including web-broadcasting, computer games, television and film.