Today someone sent me a link to an old article at LinuxDevices.com about the Henson Performance Control System (HPCS), the computerized control system used by the Jim Henson Creature Shop to control both the company's physical (animatronic) and virtual (3D animated) characters in real-time. The article is about three years old and written with a Linux-oriented audience in mind, but provides a really interesting technical overview of how the HPCS works. The article includes photos of the rig used by puppeteers, a screenshot of the system's GUI and a schmatic diagram.
I believe (although I'm not 100% certain) that this article refers to an older version of the Creature Shop's computer control system. The current version seems to be called the Henson Digital Performance System, which I mentioned back in September.
If you have an interest in HPCS-like digital puppetry systems and/or some technical knowledge in this area, there is beginning to be some serious discussion about designing an open source (freely available) system that could be used to control both animatronic and digital puppets. If you'd like to know more send me an email and I'll fill you in on all the details.
