Music video for the song Lake Tahoe, from Kate Bush’s latest album 50 Words For Snow. The shadow puppetry in the video was created by Robert Allsopp and Associates.

Via NPR.

This is some truly elegant and beautiful shadow puppetry from Poko Productions in South Africa. I want to see more of their work.

These beautiful hand shadows are the work of Georgia’s Hand Shadow Theater Budrugana. Everything you see in the video is done live with nothing more than the puppeteer’s hands. You can see more of their work on YouTube.

Another great find via Sons of Punch.

Following up on Wednesday’s post about digital puppetry using the Kinect, this “Augmented Shadow” project is another (albeit less conventional) example of digital puppetry. I love how more and more artists are experimenting with using technology to create projects like this!

Via Mark at Great Small Works.

Back in November I wrote about those Kinect digital shadow puppets that went viral. Well, Kinect hacking has come a long way in the few short months since then and the potential implications for digital puppetry are huge. I was at a small meet-up for Kinect hackers here in Toronto last night and tried a very rudimentary version of “Kinect puppetry” that an animator I know has been working on and it was very cool. Affordable, accessible digital puppetry is here, it’s real and if you already have a computer and a little technical know-how you can do it yourself for under $200.

Here’s an impressive demo of Kinect puppetry using the previously-blogged Japanese “Vocaloid” Hatsune Miku using the Kinect and free software from the VPVP Project:

Aside from the Kinect itself (which retails for around $150), most of the software needed to try this yourself can be downloaded for free. You will need some sort of 3D program like Blender and a 3D game engine; fortunately “lite” or “learning” versions of commercial game engines like Motionbuilder and Unity can be downloaded for free and some people are using Ogre 3D, which is free and open source. The exact methods to make your own digital puppets will vary depending on which software you use, but lots of tutorials can be found by searching online.

Not all digital puppetry with the Kinect has to be three dimensional though. Here’s a neat 2D demo done in the style of shadow puppetry. It’s part of a project called Virtual Marionette:

Although I do think this is huge step forward for open, accessible digital puppetry there are still some problems to solve before Kinect can be used to create truly emotive, expressive characters. For one thing, the skeletal tracking in these demos is very simple without individual finger movements or any kind of facial expression. Those problems aren’t unsolvable though and I have some ideas on how to tackle them, but that’s another post.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in this rapidly emerging field, be sure to subscribe to my other blog Machin-X: Digital Puppetry, which focuses exclusively on digital puppetry, real-time animation and related technologies.

Last week I posted the demo reel of Australian shadow puppeteer Stephen Mushin (see previous post). This is the music video for Lior’s I’ll Forget You. which was featured in Stephen’s reel.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at the making of I’ll Forget You:

Special thanks to Hil for discovering this!

A beautiful show reel of shadow puppetry by Australian puppeteer Stephen Mushin.

This is from a new campaign that Coke is launching in India featuring Bollywood heartthrob Imran Khan. Is it just me, or is shadow puppetry becoming more and more popular?

Look at What the Light Did Now is a new documentary about the creation and touring of Feist’s hit album The Reminder. The movie focuses on Feist collaborators during that period, especially Canadian artist/puppeteer Clea Minaker. Feist has never made a secret of her love of puppetry (see previous post for just one example) and her tour in support of The Reminder featured extensive shadow puppetry and shadow effects created by Clea and a team of puppeteers that included Kathleen Fortin, Dianne Montgomery and Noah Keneally.

Photo galleries with examples from Clea’s collaboration wit Fesit can be found on her website here and here. Look at What the Light Did Now is available in stores and online today.

Via Torontoist.

I really like the video from Sia for Soon We’ll Be Found. It’s a beautiful use of hand shadows and black light. I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Via Danette.