We present AnimaStage: a hands-on animated craft platform based on an actuated stage. Utilizing a pin-based shape display, users can animate their crafts made from various materials. Through this system, we intend to lower the barrier for artists and designers to create actuated objects and to contribute to interaction design using shape-changing interfaces for inter-material interactions.
We introduce a three-phase design process for AnimaStage with examples of animated crafts. We implemented the system with several control modalities that allow users to manipulate the motion of the crafts so that they could easily explore their desired motion through an iterative process. Dynamic landscapes can also be rendered to complement the animated crafts. We conducted a user study to observe the subject and process by which people make crafts using AnimaStage. We invited participants with different backgrounds to design and create crafts using multiple materials and craft techniques. A variety of outcomes and application spaces were found in this study.