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Linux Powers Digital Muppets

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the probably-a-little-more-expensive-than-socks dept.

Darren Alcorn writes "Red Hat and Jim Henson have teamed up to bring you digital animatronics through the use of Red Hat Linux." I bet thats a fun system to see in operation. The article is light on technical stuff, but discusses the computerized puppeteering system a little.

15 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. hmmm... by sugrshack · · Score: 5, Funny

    kernel the frog

    --
    I can't believe it's not lard!
    1. Re:hmmm... by craw · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pings in Space!

      Fork! Fork! Fork!

  2. Amazing Miraculous RedHat! by oldzoot · · Score: 4, Funny

    RedHat has restored Jim Henson to life? I KNEW linux was miraculous ! !

    Z

    --
    enough is too much
  3. I wonder... by Wonko+the+Sane+42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The article is rather vague, so maybe I'm not getting this right (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). But it sounds to me like they're saying that they're actually doing the work on software running under Linux? I'm just sort of wondering.. where are they getting this software? Last I checked there's not a huge abundancy of high-end digital animation production software floating around for Linux. It took me awhile to find software that would suit my own purposes for audio recording. Even then, I can do everything and about 3 times more on a Mac with ProTool/Logic or on a PC with SoundForge/ProTools/Cakewalk...
    I mean, not that I'm criticizing... it's major step forward for these companies to crank enough power out of RedHat servers to power a production studio. But the article is little more than a vague plug for Linux without some sort of specifics about what exactly is going on.

    Sorry... can't resist... seeing as this fell right after the article on transformers... does this mean that the new transformers will run under RedHat? Will Kermit know how to use them? The world may soon know...

    --
    The Internet, one place where if you're not right, someone else will set you straight... maybe.
    1. Re:I wonder... by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What they have is a mo-cap sort of device that a puppeteer moves around, causing the 3D image of the muppet to react on screen. I'm at a loss as to how to explain it. It's a device you stick your hand inside of that has several articulated sensors that sense a variety of positions. Your fingers end up in a clamshell shaped thing you can open and close, causing the muppet to move his mouth.

      I guess the reason that Linux is necessary for this is because it's a combination of hardware and software. Is it a big deal that it's Linux? I don't feel that way. Personally, I think the reason this made it to Slashdot was because they said they use Linux, as opposed to the real news that they're talking about using 3D to do puppet animations.

      This technology's not really very new either. It's been in use for aaaaaaaages. What's different today is that computers are powerful enough to render Muppets in real time now. This means that some very interesting, yet bizarre kids shows could start appearing soon. Heh. And you thought that Winnie the Pooh show was strange...

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:I wonder... by witten · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Hey, I'm one of the guys who works on these HDPS Linux systems. For modelling, we're primarily a Maya shop. Maya has had a Linux port for a while, and many other 3D animation packages have Linux versions, with the glaring exception of 3D Studio Max.

      As far as the rigs themselves, we run a custom 3D viewer based on Maya's Realtime SDK. As another poster has said, a puppeteer puts their hands in these sort of weird metal controls, and the character on-screen moves their face and head in realtime.

      Note that this is technically not motion capture. Motion capture involves reading the exterior movement of a body or face with either optical or magnetic sensors. And then the exterior of the CG model is moved accordingly. This is not very accurate at all for facial animation because you are just moving around the surface of the face. What we do is allow the puppeteer to drive the virtual muscles of the character's face with their hand movements, thereby getting a much better facial performance than is possible with motion capture.

      However, motion capture is very useful for body movement. And in fact, we have married the facial performance described above with traditional motion capture for the body, so that you can have one puppeteer performing a 3D model's face while another performer controls the body by dancing around a stage. All in realtime. It's quite cool to see in action.

      Keep in mind that we do much more than Muppet characters. We're sort of a service available to anyone who has facial animation they want done. We do video games, movies, TV, etc.

  4. heh by waspleg · · Score: 5, Funny

    one segfault ha ha ha
    two segfaults ha ha ha
    three segfaults ha ha ha

    -- The Count

  5. Not only Linux but... by The+Iconoclast · · Score: 4, Informative

    AMD!

    How's that for underdog geekiness. When I was at SIGGRAPH last year, the AMD booth had a display booth with a dude using the the Henson "Muppet-tronics" platform running on a AMD-Powered Linux workstation. I think the control software said something like version 0.8. It was pretty neat.

    --
    Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
  6. Warning, Heson's company has *EVIL* Lawyers by Zeio · · Score: 4, Informative
    A warning to all slashdotters, Henson's company is very much into this DRM/IP anti-fair-use anti freedom of speech thing.
    The other day something awful had to remove a parody of Muppet movies, with funny things like "DAS BERT" instead of "DAS BOAT," etc. Kyanaka received a letter, which is shown here.

    Needless to say I was shocked to see that someone who was making no money form parodying the Muppets, which are simply carpeting glued to wood, was asked to remove parody content.

    I would be very careful if I was RedHat. Its funny how companies like the Church of Scientology (The cult I mean) have more lawyers after the leader dies, in the SOC case, Hubbar croaks, and people are marauding around using racketeering and extortion on "worshippers." Such is the case, to a smaller degree obviously, with Henson. Because the magician, the creator, the worthy one is dead they assemble a cabal of lawyers to viciously and rabidly attack anyone "using" the franchise because they now are charge with protecting against something that is non-Novel, replaceable, duplicateable, old. On another note, Tolkein's son, who tries to "continue" the LOTR franchise by printing his father's notes, was against the move LOTR. JRR's grandson was for it. Its time to let go, and let more creative people take a stab at things sometimes - we are all glad that JRR's son wasn't able to stop the movie. Excerpt - I think some stories are meant to be read, not to be seen. Before seeing this Oscar-nominated movie, Tolkien's son Christopher said, "My own position is that The Lord of the Rings is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form." Filmmakers disagree. Two sequels based on Tolkien's Rings characters, filmed at the same time as The Fellowship of the Ring, are scheduled for release in 2002 and 2003. Ah, yes. The franchise cometh.

    I really hate when opportunists feed on the carcasses of things. This sort of activity as displayed by the Muppets franchise is so completely wrong. Its not as if Disney was slandering Henson, or parodying and making money off the parody. This company will go so far as to harass independent site owners on the web, they have lawyers trolling to make trouble. I cant say how upset I am at the Henson franchise.

    My letter to Henson:
    "Henson" is a completely wrong for making www.somethingawful.com remove your "intellectual property." [http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/muppetmov ies/index.htm]

    There are those who search for medicines, cures, new technology, more fuel efficiency and try hard to make things for the betterment of humanity. There are those who comfort me, who engineer better things in life. There are those who make my life better.

    Then there are those who piss and whine about intellectual property rights and wont even allow a fair use parody of their stupid stuffed animals whose creator is DEAD. You are a puppet company. C'mon, is there that much gravity to all this?

    You are un-American. He wasn't making money off your "beloved" puppets, he was making fun of it without even being NASTY about Henson or Muppets.

    Read up on Thomas Jefferson, Madison about "copyright" and realize the Henson's are now representing COMMUNISM.

    I'll never solicit Henson garbage again. Or Disney, until these disgusting companies realize copyrights are for those who have things worth protecting, not for a puppeteer with stuffed animals or Mickey Mouse.

    This is going to promote piracy, fueled by Asia, and create RESENTMENT in your potential consumers, by trying to squeeze blood from rocks. The RIAA, SSSCA, CDPTA, DMCA, BSA and all the other Gestapo Waffen SS goons for the corporate elite will be resisted, and WE THE PEOPLE will win over time. IT only takes time. Its just funny that a bunch of Asians who pirate and knock off you "intellectual" property will teach you the most American lesson of them all, if you don't do new and innovative , YOU GO AWAY, YOU LOSE MONEY, its that simple. Do something NEW and INNOVATIVE for once instead of invoking a cabal of lawyers to screw with our first amendment.

    You dishonor Henson's memory. "Sam the American Eagle (C)(R)TM" should get a HAMMER AND SICKLE to CRUSH THE LIFE out of the American public.

    - Extremely upset

    Mna mna nah - do do doo doo. Mn my money mna ma - I'm a money grubbing goon. Mna mna nah. Sh sh shylocka a nah. I want my pound of flesh. Mnah mnah.

    --
    Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
  7. OLLLLLLLLD by sinserve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft has been powering the puppets in D.C for ages.

    --

  8. A little more information by morhoj · · Score: 4, Informative
    Here is the official press release from Newsforge. Its not actually the whole studio, just the Creature Shop. Specific use is for the HDPS product.


    Says they chose Redhat due to the RHN software update feature... obviously they haven't used it recently :)

  9. Grumble, gripe, grumble by BurritoWarrior · · Score: 4, Funny

    The two grumpy guys up in the balcony are now Ballmer and Gates.

  10. We did digital puppets for Henson back in 1988 by Thagg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back in 1988, Graham Walters and I, at PDI, built a system in collaboration with Jim Henson and his creature shop, and with Kirk Thatcher (who since went on to greater things at Henson), to build the 'Waldo' character for The Jim Henson Hour. The idea was that this character would be controlled by a waldo, which would sense the position, orientation, and mouth angles, and display the character, blue-screen keyed onto the image on the screen in real time.

    The beauty of this system is that Henson puppeteers always work by watching their images on TV monitors, so this kind of digital character wasn't even second-nature to them -- it was exactly how they'd been performing characters all along. Among the nice things about Waldo is that he didn't have to hang out at the bottom of the screen with all of the rest of the other puppets. This system was implemented and run on an old Power Series SGI borrowed from Sheridan College.

    I saw Davey Goelz (Gonzo, and others) at Siggraph this year, at the Henson booth on the show floor. They're selling a somewhat improved version of the same waldo mechanism that we used 14 years ago. Davey got us out of a jam on the first Henson Hour show, as somehow we lost the mouth-opening information from the tracks that Henson recorded on the set. Davey lived right near us at PDI, and came down and laid those back in, mimicing Jim's style. I don't think that he ever found our, and it's tragically too late now.

    Anyway, The Jim Henson Hour was too good, and perhaps a little too different, for American TV, and only 12 episodes were ever made.

    thad

    --
    I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
  11. Old news..bleh by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 5, Funny



    Come on.... I've been using Kermit in Unix for close to a decade now.

    ;)

    Cheers,

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  12. A word from the sysadmin by witten · · Score: 4, Informative
    Hey guys, I'm the sysadmin who runs all the Red Hat machines that this article talks about. We've got four "rigs" on wheels, each with two shock-mounted AMD machines running a customied Red Hat 7.x with an RTLinux kernel. Each side of the rigs has a flat panel LCD and a keyboard. One side let's you puppeteer a computer-generated character on-screen in realtime with custom controls. The other side is for a technician to set everything up. Right now we're transitioning to a dual-processor rig with a single machine and only one keyboard.

    This stuff is really neat to see in person. Using HDPS, a trained puppeteer can create computer graphics facial animations in realtime that might take a team of animators several weeks. There are some images of our system in use available.

    You can email me (dhelfman at la.creatureshop.henson.com) if you've got any questions.