All Topics  
Cutout animation

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Cutout animation
 
 
  Topics Cutout animation Topic Home

Cutout animation is a technique for producing animation
Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of Motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways....
s using flat characters, prop
Theatrical property

A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is any object held or used on stage by an actor for use in furthering the plot or story line of a theatrical production....
s and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper
Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, card, stiff fabric
Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
 or even photograph
Photograph

A photograph is an created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a Charge-coupled device or a Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor chip....
s. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations (made in Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
 by Quirino Cristiani
Quirino Cristiani

Quirino Cristiani was an Argentina animation film director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound....
); as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature.

Today, cutout-style animation is frequently produced using computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
s, with scanned images or vector graphics
Vector graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical Primitive s such as point s, line , curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent s in computer graphics....
 taking the place of physically cut materials.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Cutout animation'
Start a new discussion about 'Cutout animation'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Cutout animation is a technique for producing animation
Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of Motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways....
s using flat characters, prop
Theatrical property

A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is any object held or used on stage by an actor for use in furthering the plot or story line of a theatrical production....
s and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper
Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, card, stiff fabric
Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
 or even photograph
Photograph

A photograph is an created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a Charge-coupled device or a Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor chip....
s. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations (made in Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
 by Quirino Cristiani
Quirino Cristiani

Quirino Cristiani was an Argentina animation film director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound....
); as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature.

Today, cutout-style animation is frequently produced using computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
s, with scanned images or vector graphics
Vector graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical Primitive s such as point s, line , curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent s in computer graphics....
 taking the place of physically cut materials. The South Park
South Park

South Park is an United Statesn animation situation comedy, notorious for its toilet humour, surrealism, and often black comedy, which satirizes Subject matter in South Park including religion, politics, violence, abuse, sexuality, and mental disorder....
 TV series is a notable example (though first episodes were indeed made with actual paper cutouts) as are Angela Anaconda
Angela Anaconda

Angela Anaconda is a cutout animation television series that aired on the Fox Family Channel in the United States It centers around the adventures of a twelve-year-old girl named Angela, who lives in Oregon, has wacky brothers, weird friends, and hates a snobbish fake-French girl named Nanette Manoir....
 and more recently, Charlie and Lola
Charlie and Lola

Charlie and Lola are two characters in the series of books written by Lauren Child. They have now also been made into a T.V. series. They are suitable for all age groups and have even been mentioned in heat magazine....
. One of the most famous animators still using traditional cutout animation today is Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Norshteyn

Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn , or Yuri Norstein or Yuri Norshtein is an award-winning Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales....
. South Park is now made with Maya 3.0 and Corel Draw.

Examples of cutout animation

For more examples, see the List of stop-motion films
List of stop-motion films

Summary SummaryThis is a list of stop motion films from around the world organised in order of release date; theatrical releases as well as television movie and direct-to-video movies....
.


Feature films

  • The Adventures of Prince Achmed
    The Adventures of Prince Achmed

    The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 in film feature-length animation by the German animator Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film , and it featured a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera....
     by Lotte Reiniger
    Lotte Reiniger

    Charlotte Reiniger was a Germany silhouette animation and film director....
     (from 1926
    1926 in film

    Events*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan . The Vitaphone system used multiple 33? rpm gramophone record developed by Bell Labs and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
    ) was a silhouette animation
    Silhouette animation

    Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouette. This is usually accomplished by Backlighting articulated Paperboard cutout animation, though other methods exist....
     using armatured cutouts and backgrounds which were variously painted or composed of blown sand and even soap.
  • Thieves of Baghdad
    Thieves of Baghdad

    Thieves of Baghdad is a non-fictional account written by Col. Matthew Bogdanos about the quest to recover over a thousand lost artifacts from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad after the country's counter-invasion....
     by Noburo Ofuji (from 1926
    1926 in film

    Events*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan . The Vitaphone system used multiple 33? rpm gramophone record developed by Bell Labs and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
    ) was also an early example of cutout animation, by animating chiyogami (Japan
    Japan

    Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
    ese colored paper) cut-outs.
  • No. 12, also know as Heaven and Earth Magic
    Heaven and Earth Magic

    Heaven and Earth Magic is an United States avant garde feature film made by Harry Everett Smith. Originally released in 1957, it was re-edited several times and the final version was released in 1962....
     by Harry Everett Smith
    Harry Everett Smith

    Harry Everett Smith was an United States archivist, ethnomusicology, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaking, fine art, bohemianism and mystic....
    , completed in 1962
    1962 in film

    The year 1962 in film involved some significant events....
    , utilizes cut-out illustrations culled from 19th century catalogs.
  • The Soviet films Lefty
    Lefty (1964 film)

    Lefty is a feature film cutout animation film from the Soviet Union. The film is based on the The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea by the 19th century Russian novelist Nikolai Leskov....
     (1964) and Go There, Don't Know Where
    Go There, Don't Know Where

    Go There, Don't Know Where is a feature film cutout animation film from the Soviet Union. It was directed by the "Patriarch of Soviet animation", Ivan Ivanov-Vano, at the Soyuzmultfilm studio....
     (1966).
  • René Laloux
    René Laloux

    Ren? Laloux was a France animator and film director.He was born in Paris in 1929 and went to art school to study painting. After some time working in advertising, he got a job in a psychiatric institution where he began experimenting in animation with the interns....
    's early films made use of armatured cutouts, while his first feature Fantastic Planet
    Fantastic Planet

    Fantastic Planet is an animated 1973 in film science fiction film directed by Ren? Laloux. The film was an international production between France and Czechoslovakia and has been distributed in the United States by Roger Corman....
     is a rare example of unarmatured cutout animation.
  • The feature films of Karel Zeman
    Karel Zeman

    Karel Zeman was a Czech animator and filmmaker. He is considered the co-founder of the Czech animated film.He started to be interested in puppet theatre while studying at business school....
     (Czechoslovakia
    Czechoslovakia

    Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
    ), which combined cutout animation and landscapes with live actors.
  • The opening sequence of L'Armata Brancaleone
    L'armata Brancaleone

    L'armata Brancaleone is an Italy comedy movie released in 1966, written by the famous duo Age & Scarpelli and directed by Mario Monicelli. It features Vittorio Gassman in the main role....
    , a film by Italian director Mario Monicelli
    Mario Monicelli

    Mario Monicelli is an Italy director and screenwriter, one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana ....
    .
  • Twice Upon a Time
    Twice Upon a Time

    Twice Upon a Time is a 1983 in film animated movie directed by John Korty and Charles Swenson. This film had an unusual history in terms of release and editing, but it has been named one of the most important films in the history of stop-motion animation....
     (1983), an animated movie directed by John Korty
    John Korty

    John Korty is an United States film director and animator, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time....
     and produced by George Lucas
    George Lucas

    George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an Academy Award-nominated United States film director, film producer, screenwriter and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the Epic film Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones....
     (of Star Wars fame). The film uses a form of cutout animation, which the filmmakers called "Lumage," that involved prefabricated cut-out plastic pieces that the animators moved on a light table.
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is an animated satire comedy/musical film released in 1999 in film and based on the list of animated television series South Park....
     uses computer animation to imitate cutout animation.


Other

  • Monty Python's Flying Circus
    Monty Python's Flying Circus

    Monty Python?s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, Wiktionary:risqu? or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines....
     is famous for its animated sequences created by Terry Gilliam
    Terry Gilliam

    Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several well-regarded films including Brazil , Twelve Monkeys , and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ....
    .
  • Kihachiro Kawamoto
    Kihachiro Kawamoto

    , born in 1925, is a Japanese animator and maker of stop motion animation films and puppets. Previously an illustrator and doll maker, he has collaborated with Tadasu Iizawa and trained under Tadahito Mochinaga and, later, Jir? Trnka....
    , primarily a puppet animator, made two cutout films Tabi (1973) and Shijin no Shôgai (1974).
  • Angela Anaconda
    Angela Anaconda

    Angela Anaconda is a cutout animation television series that aired on the Fox Family Channel in the United States It centers around the adventures of a twelve-year-old girl named Angela, who lives in Oregon, has wacky brothers, weird friends, and hates a snobbish fake-French girl named Nanette Manoir....
     combined black-and-white
    Black-and-white

    Black-and-white is a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses....
     photographs with cutout-style CGI
    Computer-generated imagery

    Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, Television commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media....
     animation.
  • South Park
    South Park

    South Park is an United Statesn animation situation comedy, notorious for its toilet humour, surrealism, and often black comedy, which satirizes Subject matter in South Park including religion, politics, violence, abuse, sexuality, and mental disorder....
    s Paper-cutout style is more traditional, as is     Blue's Clues
    Blue's Clues

    Blue's Clues is an United States children's television show which aired on Nickelodeon . It premiered on September 8, 1996, and ran until 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries, most notably in the United Kingdom....
    .
  • The TV series of Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola
    Charlie and Lola

    Charlie and Lola are two characters in the series of books written by Lauren Child. They have now also been made into a T.V. series. They are suitable for all age groups and have even been mentioned in heat magazine....
     uses a complex combination of photographic and drawn elements to imitate the collage style of the books.
  • Joel Veitch
    Joel Veitch

    Joel Veitch is an England Flash cartoon and member of the humor website B3ta. Veitch is owner of the web site , where he showcases many of his animations....
     uses this animation style on his website Rathergood.com.
  • Strange frame
    Strange frame

    Strange Frame is a labor of love between two old friends musician Shelley Doty and filmmaker GB Hajim. It began in 1999 when they decided to collaborate on a project using their individual talents and their passion for science fiction especially that of John Varley and Shinichiro Watanabe....
     relies primarily on an innovative cutout style combined with both traditional and 3D elements.