PuppetTool is an experimental software tool that allows users to generate highly expressive animated states unhindered by limits of gravity or elasticity. The animations created are not linear but rather cyclic and generative. By playing with parameters of speed, size, thickness, users can achieve totally personalized results ranging from the nearly realistic to the absurd and fantastical. The interface offers users a choice of several animated objects and simple pre-defined animations (walking, running, jumping, dancing) which can be modified and reconfigured onscreen in real-time by manipulating the articulated joints of the animated objects - be he man or beast, realistic or abstract. These animated states and physical behaviors are based on the subject's morphology and managed by the mathematical and physical laws embedded in the PuppetTool application. The location and orientation of these joints, therefore, has a direct effect on the kind of movement generated. By playing with parameters of speed, size, and thickness, users can achieve totally personalized results ranging from the nearly realistic to the absurd and fantastical. Replaced media can be used to fill the PuppetTool object with leaves, ferns, and other unexpected textures (see screenshots below and online). And a new random feature lets the program choose values for the animation parameters, making for particularly surreal effects. We strive to explore the rich domain of movement through experimentation that is based on, but not limited to, real gestures, forms, and figures. The PuppetTool offers an interactive experience that calls into question the very notion of the objective software tool as we know it.
Project