Puppets aren’t new and while it might be possible that one day that robots could take over the roles of puppets in theaters and plays (robot actresses are already a thing), we have to wonder if we could get robots that could move with the fluidity, grace, and subtlety that we can expect from puppets, like the one in the video above which shows an incredibly animated finger puppet in action.
Created by Barnaby Dixon, this young man seems to have a natural talent when it comes to creating puppets. His latest creation is the finger puppet in the video above, which from what we can tell in video relies on both his hands and all of his fingers in order to operate. However the end result is a puppet that can move and dance so fluidly that it looks like it has a mind of its own.
Give it a backdrop of its own, some clever lighting, and you would never guess that it is controlled by a human. It is so detailed that all of its limbs can move. It can even open and close its hand, pick up objects, throw objects, and its mouth can open too, thus giving it a wide range of animations that other puppets might not have, at least not when it comes to puppets of this size.
According to Dixon, he has spent the past 2 months designing and building the puppet. He claims that this isn’t necessarily the final design, but it is at the stage where he’s happy enough to show it off to the world, which we reckon you should probably watch if you have a couple of minutes to spare.