My Dream App

Someone wrote that the judges were being kind of harsh. I was a bit nervous when I went to read their comments on my app.

Overall I thought their comments were fair and very supportive of Puppet Constructor. I’ve really only had a few negative comments since the beginning of the contest.

So I am really surprised at how the voting has gone.

Comments? Anyone out there with 1,000 friends who can lend support?

Yikes!

Just wanted to give an outline of what the user experience could be for Puppet Constructor.

1. Software opens revealing a default “stage”, tools palette, parts library, timeline and part control preview window.
The stage is a window with a swapable background and potentially props for the puppet to interact with. The tools palette includes drawing tools and tools used to connect the puppet parts together directly (hand connects to arm) or animatedly (right arm movement connects to left arm movement).
The parts library contains premade complete puppets, full arms, legs, heads, as well as individual pieces. (could be a hierarchy of pieces that can be added as a group or separately.) To add a piece, you simply drag it into the scene from the library. Parts are tagged as hand, lower arm, leg so that you could right-click on a hand and swap that hand for any other hand, since they have the same tag.

2. Go into test mode to try out the puppet.
Once the puppet is assembled, you click a button to go into “test” mode. (or use a key command) In test mode you’re controlling the puppet - using mouse movements, keyboard controls or combinations of both. The part control preview window - separate from the stage, is a mini version of the scene, but also highlights which piece of the puppet you’re controlling. Could also include a mini version of the keyboard to show you which command keys have been assigned to different parts.

3. Once you’re comfortable controlling the puppet, go into show mode to record your performance!
Timeline has visual representation of recorded puppet movements. Saved movements could be edited, copied and pasted, looped or moved along timeline. Timeline also shows sound wave for imported or recorded sounds. The movements can be multitracked - you can first control the head, then rewind and control the left arm, etc. Individually recorded movements show up as different layers in the timeline.

4. Once you’ve got the show completed, you can export the performance as fla, mov, etc.

Additional notes:

A. Could have a puppet construction wizard, where you are guided through the process of building the puppet through a menu of heads, bodies, arms, etc.

B. The finished puppet itself (without a recorded performance) could be saved in a format to appear in other programs using plugins or a stand-alone puppet player. Examples: Load the puppet as an iTunes visualizer - the body jumps to the music, but you can also control parts yourself. Or your Puppet could appear as an overlay in your video blogging software using core animation. (You know I had to mention core animation at some point… )

Just looked at a post about why the initial judges are developers. One word: Feasibility. Among other things, they’ll be chiming in on whether the chosen apps are too difficult to create.
I have to admit, this makes me a little nervous. (It’s part of the reason I didn’t include the “mind control” option in my description of Puppet Constructor.)
Forget all the cool options I mentioned before, the real draw of my program idea is how the pieces work together in a fluid way and how much fun it’ll be to control those pieces with a simple push of the mouse. The pieces are linked and they’re elastic - the user can attach them together and make them dance… come alive… react to each other in a fun way.
Forget 3D. Forget texture mapping. Nobody needs that stuff to get engaged in an animation anyway. (watch Southpark and you’ll know what I mean)
Once that’s accomplished, bring on the options! Online puppet shows with your friends! Puppet iSight invasion!

Biofeedback control!!

Not sure whether to add things to my entry in the forum or in this blog… Here is a repeat of my last forum post for blogcentric.

Just wanted to add some thoughts about Puppet Constructor that didn’t fit into the 800 character limit. A number of these are unessential but I wanted to get them down and see what people’s thoughts were.

Inverse Kinematics
I mention in the description that the puppet parts would be “flexible and stretch” - IK would allow realistic movement with joints. But because I think it would be better to have the puppet’s movement be “cartoony”, it’d be cool to have the parts have the option to stretch as well.

Related Movements
I’m sure there’s a real term for this in animation, but basically this would be the ability to link the movement of two or more non-connected parts. Example 01: When the mouth opens you could make it so the eyebrows move up a bit. Example 02: Moving the left arm moves the right arm in a mirrored version of the left arms movement. (essential for having the puppet do the macarena)

Collision detection or Layers
Would the parts bump against each other or would they overlap? Both?

Multiple Mouse Support
Borrow a 2nd mouse from a friend - or dig up that “hockey puck” mouse you hated. Plug them both in and control different parts of the puppet at the same time. (is this even possible?)

Export to Flash
Completed animation could be exported to flash.

Sound Input
Parts react to sound input from microphone (which can be recorded and added to the soundtrack). Loud sounds make the part move further in predetermined direction. Example 01: mouth opens as you speak. Example 02: Hips move along with Shakira.

Control keys
Control which parts you are moving with the mouse from a keyboard shortcut. Example 01: Holding down the ‘L’ key while moving the mouse moves the left leg. Holding down the ‘R’ key while moving the mouse moves the right leg. You could walk the puppet by alternating the ‘L’ and ‘R’ keys while moving the mouse.

Gravity
Move the hand and the rest of the arm dangles like a real puppet. (could be turned on or off)

Motion Looping
Once a movement has been “recorded” allow it to loop or reverse loop. (great for repetitive dance moves - “the bump”)

Stylish Whistling Dog Puppet with RSS Newspaper Desktop Game Launcher and Organizer Thingy
Whistling Dog Puppet (in a well organized outfit) reads RSS feeds from a newspaper while shooting your icons from it’s desktop launcher. Just joking!

More thoughts to come. Any one else have ideas?

Whoa! Can’t believe I’ve been selected out of so many entries. This is crazy.

My Dream App “Puppet Constructor” is inspired by two things. Some unusual animation techniques from the past (and present) and how difficult (and boring) most animation and graphics software is.

Anyone remember Space Angel with those freaky talking mouths!? That’s an unusual animation technique. INSANE. Great and weird short-cut for realistic acting animation. Looked totally surreal, but mesmerizing in it’s own way. Definitely an inspiration.

There are some other inspirations that I’ll get into later, but another point I’d like to make has to do with the how difficult and tedious in a lot of graphics and animation software is.

I’m a graphic designer by profession and when I first start up the latest version of Photoshop what is the first thing I try? Filters. Trouble is almost all of them are painfully boring. Similar problem with the first time I tried to create an animation in Flash - it was sooo tedious.

Lots of people want to do some character animation, but it’s so hard to do. It’s should be as fun and easy as playing with a toy.

That’s where Puppet Constructor comes in.