Puppets

There are many different types of puppetry:

Glove/Hand/Sock Puppets:

One of the most traditional types of puppets.  For me they remind me of childhood:

 - The class Punch & Judy - one of the oldest puppets in British history

TV show Sooty & Co.

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The Muppets

Ventriloquist:
The use of a puppet (often an arm puppet) which is brought to life by a person animating the puppet & changing their voice to make it appear as though it is coming from the puppet itself -  usually whilst being part of the act.  This is famously used in the film Chicago:

Nina Conti - Comedian & Ventriloquist artist who uses a monkey puppet as part of her act.  

Shadow puppets:
A flat jointed figure worked by rods and sometimes transparent, whose shadow is presented to the audience on screen.


Lior - I'll Forget You (feat. Sia).  Puppetry video by Stephen Mushin:

This music video won 'Best Music Video' at the Heart of Gold International Film Festival' in 2009.

Other work by Stephen Mushin:

I love the intricacy of these puppets and how detailed they are.  It really adds the enchantment as a shadow.  These pictures are fascinating - the view from in front of the screen & how it looks behind the screen.

Behind the scene

Surf TV Advert!

Another great example of enchanting shadow puppetry put to use in a TV commercial:

Pilobolous

An interesting twist on shadow puppetry - rather than using puppets controlled by rods, this is a professional dance company who use their bodies to create scenes/stories through shadows.  

Marionette Puppets:

Puppets which are manipulated from above by strings:

Thunderbirds & Stingray!

Diet Coke Advert with John Paul Gaultier

Water Puppetry:

I saw this whilst travelling in Vietnam.  Villagers used to entertain each other with these puppets when the rice paddies flooded every year.  Up to 8 puppeteers stand behind a split-bamboo screen, decorated to resemble a temple facade, and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface.

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 filmmaking 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 among puppeteers and computer graphics designers, 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.