Henson Digital Performance System

The Henson Digital Performance System or HDPS, allows puppeteers to bring digital puppets to life in real time. Through a combination of hardware and software, HDPS allows a puppeteer (or a primary puppeteer and an assistants) to perform live 3-dimensional computer graphics.

Developed and created by they Jim Henson Creature Shop, the patented Henson Digital Performance Studio provides immediate real-time performance of 3-D generated characters by a puppeteering system. The system allows an unprecedented level of spontaneity and interactivity when compaired to traditional computer animation.

"we’re having, I got to say, so much fun; because we can improvise...What’s great about puppets are that they are spontaneous, and what we’re trying to do in our 3-D animation, is to really be spontaneous. So we’re really working the material in front of the camera. And we have big projectors, so they can see what [the computer] sees. We’re doing performed animation, and it’s a lot of fun."


 * -Brian Henson

The system consists of three major components: mechanical hand controls, a control computer, and a digital puppet workstation which renders the live on-screen image of the character.

Productions that use HDPS

 * MuppeToons (web)
 * Frances (television)
 * The Skrumps (television)