Puppetry has been the most ancient and successful form of entertainment. However, it has lost its position and essence over the years due to introduction of various other forms of entertainment but puppetry is still alive in many parts of the world and will be alive. Puppetry is a very ancient art form, probably first originating about 30,000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs of human societies.Some historians claim that they pre-date actors in theatre. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BC when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to perform the action of kneading bread. Wire controlled, articulated puppets made of clay and ivory have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Hieroglyphs also describe 'walking statues' being used in Ancient Egyptian religious dramas.The oldest written record of puppetry can be found in the written records of Xenophon dating from around 422 B.C

Puppets have long been a favorite with kids. They are handmade dolls of cloth that represent various objects like people, animals or objects. They are made to look like those objects being represented. This type of toys are
movable in all respects. For instance as for the puppet of a man, the hands, legs, often eyes and head are movable.These movements are made using threads, sticks or by wearing the puppet directly on the hand. The people who
conduct these movable objects are called puppeteers. Puppeteers generally make the puppets move like a real character. One or more puppeteers synchronize and make them perform on a song or story. This is called puppetry.

In puppetry there are various kinds of movable toys involved. It’s just like a theater play where various puppet characters play different roles and the voices are given by artists or even the puppeteer at times.

Traditionally, India has a rich heritage of puppetry. The history of puppetry in India dates back to around the 5th century B.C. The early puppet shows in India mostly dealt with histories of great kings, princes and heroes and also political satire. Religious portrayals in puppetry developed in South India with shadow puppets performing stories from Ramayana and Mahabaratha. Besides dealing with religious themes, Indian puppetry also conveys useful
messages from Panchatantra and other mythological and historical epics.

DIGITAL PUPPETRY:

Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in film and television production, but has also been utilized in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.

The exact definition of what is and is not digital puppetry is subject to debate within the puppetry and computer graphics communities, but it is generally agreed that digital puppetry differs from conventional computer animation
in that it involves performing characters in real time, rather than animating them frame by frame.

Digital puppetry is closely associated with motion capture technologies and 3D animation. Digital puppetry includes sub-categories Performance Animation, Living Animation, Live Animation or Real Time Animation. Machinima is another form of digital puppetry and Machinima performers are increasingly being identified as puppeteers.

TYPES OF DIGITAL PUPPETRY:

Waldo puppetry - A digital puppet is controlled onscreen by a puppeteer who uses a telemetric input device connected to the computer. The X-Y-Z axis movement of the input device causes the digital puppet to move correspondingly. A keyboard, mouse or joystick-like device is sometimes used in place of a telemetric control.

Motion capture puppetry (mocap puppetry) - An object (puppet) or human body is used as a physical representation of a digital puppet and manipulated by a puppeteer. The movements of the object or body are matched correspondingly by the digital puppet in real-time.

Machinima - A production technique that can be used to perform digital puppets. Machinima involves creating computer-generated imagery (CGI) using the low-end 3D engines in video games. Players act out scenes in real-time using characters and settings within a game and the resulting footage is recorded and later edited in to a finished film.

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