Friedrich posted a nice example of real-time animation control using Moviesandbox and Arduino. Two sock-puppet bend sensors (connected to the computer via Arduino) control the movement of the mouths of the digital characters in real-time, allowing for live performance and expressive control by the human puppeteers. As Friedrich and Jake talk, we see their words being mouthed by the on-screen fish. There’s even a real-time depth-of-field filter (Gaussian blur) being applied to give an aquarium feel to the rendering. Overall, it’s a great example of using Arduino for continuous, real-time control over a 3D animation.

Moviesandbox is a new open-source tool for real-time 3D animation, with or without physical control and input. It allows you to sketch 3D models using drawing tools, then add a skeleton (bones) for animation control. You can even import data from the Kinect!

For more information about Moviesandbox, check out the tutorials page or FAQ.

Finally, please consider supporting the development of Moviesandbox on Kickstarter. Friedrich would like to dedicate the next two months to full-time development on Moviesandbox, and your support would be a big help.