So the church I am currently the puppet director for recently purchased a digital puppet. Being the builder at heart, I wasn't content with just using one, so I researched the program that they used, now have it. Modeling is no problem, I took 3D animation in college, but I am having issues figuring out how to make it do live action with a controller. Has anyone had experience creating digital puppets? \

Any 2D or 3D character (in my opinion) are  puppets. They are inanimate objects given apparent life by their manipulators. cel drawings are pushing the technical limits a bit as they are a series of drawings and not a character that is manipulated.  'Cutout' characters and  'stop motion' characters fit the manipulated character concept.  I do 2D animation with  2D 'Digital puppets' . One makes a character with either images or vector parts, bone them together and then manipulate them in time. I used Anime Studio for a long time, but now use Synfig to animate, and prepare I my characters in Inkscape, (both programs are free).  Blender is a great free program for 3D. My son does  the  '3D puppet' thing as a profession. He builds and rigs and then animates. The term 'digital puppet' seems to me to be just a marketing  term to sell you ready made a 2D or 3d character for those who don't want to or can't make their own. DAZ or Poser characters are like that, and  Animestudio also in 2D. That is how I got into Animestudio. You can get stared quickly, but you find that the characters are limited, and you have to start making your own anyway. And the success of the operation is not just the ready made character, it's the animation or manipulation of the character that counts, and to do that well...you get into the levels of expertise where you really should be building your own characters. Out of the box 'Digital Puppets' are a good place to start, but if you are serious, save your money and learn the whole process.

I do mines using 2D characters and programming in AS2 (flash), so when you use the mic the mouth opens depending on the loud of the sound and all the moves are in the keyboard, so much fun and I put it free on the web for every one to try it. 

I use 3D Studio max I build and deign my own. Honestly any program you are familiar with will work for you.

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thanks for the input, hoping to figure it out pretty soon.