Cutout animation

Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations (made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani),[1] as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger.

The technique of most cutout animation is comparable to that of shadow play, but with stop motion replacing the manual or mechanical manipulation of flat puppets. Some films, including Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, also have much of their silhouette style in common with shadow plays. Cutout animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger studied the traditions of shadow play and created several shadow play film sequences, including a tribute to François Dominique Séraphin in Jean Renoir's film La Marseillaise (1938).[2]

While sometimes used as a relatively simple and cheap animation technique in children's programs (for instance in Ivor the Engine), cutout animation has also often been used as a highly artistic medium that distinguishes itself more clearly from hand-drawn animation.

Cutout animation can be made with figures that have joints made with a rivet or pin or, when simulated on a computer, an anchor. These connections act as mechanical linkage, which have the effect of a specific, fixed motion. Similar flat, jointed puppets have been in use in shadow plays for many centuries, such as in the Indonesian wayang tradition and in the "ombres chinoises" that were especially popular in France in the 18th and 19th century. The subgenre of silhouette animation is more closely related to these shadow shows and to the silhouette cutting art that has been popular in Europe especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.

While many cutout animation puppets and other material is often purposely-made for films, ready-made imagery has also been heavily used in collage/photomontage styles, for instance in Terry Gilliam's famous animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1975).

Lotte Reiniger, and movies like Twice Upon a Time (1983), used backlit animation, where the source of light comes from below. Animators like Terry Gilliam use light coming from above.[3][4]

Cutout techniques were relatively often used in animated films until cel animation became the standard method (at least in the United States). Before 1934, Japanese animation mostly used cutout techniques rather than cel animation, because celluloid was too expensive.[5][6]

Today, cutout-style animation is frequently produced using computers, with scanned images or vector graphics taking the place of physically cut materials. South Park is a notable example of the transition, since its pilot episode was made with paper cutouts before switching to computer software.

Short films
  • Lotte Reiniger made animated silhouette sequences for Die Schöne Prinzessin von China (1917), Apokalypse (1918. lost) and Der Verlorene Schatten (1920)[2]
  • Reiniger created her own short silhouette films Das Ornament des Verliebten Herzens (1919), Amor und das Standhafte Liebespaar (1920), Der Fliegende Koffer (1921), Der Stern von Bethlehem (1921), Aschenputtel (1922), Das Geheimnis der Marquise (1922, advertisement for Nivea), Dornröschen (1922) and Barcarole (1924, advertisement for Mauxion), before creating her first feature. After Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed she continued to make dozens of shorts. From 1938 to 1982 she worked and lived in the United Kingdom.[2]
  • Noburo Ofuji worked primarily with cutout animation, for instance using chiyogami (Japanese colored paper) in 馬具田城の盗賊 (Burglars of "Baghdad" Castle) (1926).[7]
  • Le merle (1958) by Norman McLaren is a combination of (white) cut-outs and (pastel) backgrounds to the music of the French folksong "Mon Merle".[8]
  • The Little Island (1958), by Richard Williams, a combination of both traditional animation and paper cut-out elements
  • Famous Studios' Modern Madcaps episode Bouncing Benny (1960) used paper cutout characters by animators Place and Feuer to create shadow effects
  • Yuri Norstein used cutout techniques in his famous animations
  • How Death Came to Earth (1971), by Ishu Patel
  • Tabi (1973) and Shijin no Shôgai (1974), two cutout animations by Kihachirō Kawamoto (who was otherwise primarily a puppet animator)
  • The Miracle of Flight,[9] (1974) by Terry Gilliam
  • Before co-founding Art And Animation Studio with her husband, Dagmar Doubková created several short cutout animations, such as Oparádivé Sally (1976) (broadcast in the USA as About Dressy Sally on Nickelodeon's Pinwheel and subject of a 5-year long lost media search on internetfora),[10] Sbohem, Ofélie (Goodbye Ophelia) (1978), Královna Koloběžka první (Queen Scooter First) (1981), The Impossible Dream (1983) and Shakespeare 2000 (1988)

Feature films

Television series

Music videos

Jim Blashfield used cutout animation in his music videos for Talking Heads' And She Was (1985), Paul Simon's Boy in the Bubble, Michael Jackson's Leave Me Alone (1989, winning a Grammy Award, a Cannes Golden Lion and an MTV Award), Tears for Fears' Sowing the Seeds of Love (1989, winning two MTV Awards) and others.

The video for Röyksopp's Eple (2003), features a specific kind of cutout animation, continuously zooming out and panning through many old (still) pictures that are seamlessly combined. The technique is a variation of the Ken Burns effect, which has often been used in documentary films to add motion to still imagery, but rarely as a standalone animated production.

Other music videos featuring cutout animation include Skindred's "Pressure" (2006), Serj Tankian's "Lie Lie Lie" (2007), B.o.B's "Nothing on You" (2009).

Internet
  • The humour animation site JibJab primarily uses cutout animation from photographs
  • Joel Veitch uses SWF cutout animation style on his website Rathergood.com
  • It's JerryTime! (since 2005) is an Emmy Award-winning diary series that uses cutout animation
  • Hallmark Cards' characters Hoops and Yoyo appear in E-cards and cutout-animated cartoons since 2003

Video games

See also

References
  1. Bendazzi, Giannalberto. "Quirino Cristiani, The Untold Story of Argentina's Pioneer Animator". Animation World Network. Animation World Network. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  2. "Lotte Reiniger – Women Film Pioneers Project". wfpp.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  3. Frame-By-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Puppet Photographic Animation Techniques
  4. Cinefamily resurrects Lucasfilm’s “Twice Upon A Time” (1983)
  5. Sharp, Jasper (2009). "The First Frames of Anime". The Roots of Japanese Anime, official booklet, DVD.
  6. Sharp, Jasper (September 23, 2004). "Pioneers of Japanese Animation (Part 1)". Midnight Eye. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  7. Armen Boudjikanian (February 26, 2008). "Early Japanese Animation: As Innovative as Contemporary Anime". Frames Per Second Magazine. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  8. McLaren, Norman (1958). "Le merle". NFB.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  9. The Miracle of Flight on YouTube
  10. "A 30-Year-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Holy Grail, "Clock Man", Has Been Found!". Zack Banack. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  11. "Toonhound - Alexander the Mouse (1958)". www.toonhound.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  12. Bresson (2017-11-14). "Animated Spotlight: Smallfilms". The Avocado. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  13. Malbus Moma (2015-11-25), Terry Gilliam explains Monty Python animations, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2019-07-23
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