Sluggo the Virtual Puppet: Part 1

Winter 2025 Review: Sluggo the Virtual Puppet

Actual Sluggo meets Virtual Sluggo

I recently completed an interactive project to learn more about MediaPipe, a Google-developed set of open source tools used for computer vision tasks such as face tracking and hand tracking. For this project, I designed and built a physical puppet, digitized it, rigged it, and developed a tool in Unity to control it with hand gestures.

The Physical Sluggo

The first step in this multimedia project was to design and produce a physical hand puppet, affectionately named "Sluggo."

Step 1: Research and Inspiration

Inspirational reading from my home library

I immediately took inspiration from the Henson Muppets for this project, which was a great excuse to peruse some of my books on the subject. Jim and Jane Henson and their earliest collaborators pioneered their own new, distinct style of puppetry, breathing fresh life into an ancient art form.

I settled on a "mitten head" style hand puppet, with the lower jaw operated by my thumb, much like Kermit the Frog. This would be made of a soft material like felt or cloth and the character would be malleable and organic. I decided against adding rod hands (like Kermit) or live hands (like Cookie Monster) as I felt that tracking a second hand may be beyond the scope of this project.

Step 2: Design

Cutting felt for two halves of the head and neck

I found some puppet patterns online that I used as a base for designing my own pattern. I assembled the paper pattern together to make sure that everything fit correctly, then disassembled it before I remembered to photograph it for my process report (oops). I chose brown felt as I originally had in mind to create a dog character, inspired by Rowlf the Dog, the first Muppet to become a "star." I traced my pattern onto the felt and cut out each piece.

Step 3: Production

Sewing the felt halves together

A folded, cardstock oval serves as the puppet's mouth (see photo, above), giving the soft felt a bit of structure. I sewed felt loops to the top and bottom of this piece to better give my fingers a grip when operating the puppet. I used craft glue and a needle and thread to assemble each piece together.

This puppet is expressive, but the head is collapsing

I tried to design pointy ears to add expressiveness to my dog, since it didn't have any arms to move around. My index and pinky fingers fit into these "ears" and I can easily move them in different directions.

The only remaining step was to design a pair of eyes, which I thought I would place on the head much like Kermit the Frog. It was at this point that I realized that the soft puppet was just too soft.

Step 4: Refinement

The "skull" designed to fit inside the head

I quickly cut some craft foam into a "skull" to provide better structure to the puppet's cranium. It needed a couple of holes so that I could fit my fingers through to operate what I still thought of as "ears." 

The puppet was nearly complete, but I had a serious problem. This doesn't look much like a dog! This strange puppet looks more like a slug to me, so Sluggo he must be.

Step 6: Sluggo Lives!

Ready for his close-up

I stole some lightweight, air-drying clay from my kids' craft kit to create the eyeballs, adhered to the eyestalks (formerly, ears) with craft glue. Two black circles with a Sharpie marker completed the process, and a new star is born!

Next Step: Digitization

"Digitization? That sounds like it's gonna hurt!"