The Family Factory: Developing New Methods for Live 3D Animation

Abstract

“The Family Factory” is the experimental part of a PhD project in multimedia research concerning the creative integration of interactive digital media in the performing arts. It is a play combining animation, virtual puppets and modern puppet theatre. The play was developed through an interdisciplinary artistic process and combined academic multimedia research, animation and theatre production. Production as research, or research as production has become a widespread method to investigate the functional and aesthetic potential of new digital tools and media. In many cases the only way to obtain a proper object to study is to produce it, since it simply did not exist before. Throughout history most art forms such as film, theatre, music and dance have established a clear distinction between production and academic research, but the rapidly changing and multifarious nature of computer-based multimedia often forces artists and researchers to cross the borders.