Cutout animation
This article possibly contains original research. (January 2016) |
Cutout animation is a form of
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
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
- Edwin S. Porter used "jumble captions" in How Jones Lost His Roll, The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog, and Everybody Works But Father (all 1905). The Whole Dam Family also includes an animated silhouette of a dog with firecrackers attached to its tail.[7]
- 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]
- 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".[9]
- 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[citation needed]
- 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 puppet animator)
- The Miracle of Flight,[10] (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),[11] Sbohem, Ofélie (Goodbye Ophelia) (1978), Královna Koloběžka první (Queen Scooter First) (1981), The Impossible Dream (1983) and Shakespeare 2000 (1988)
Feature films
- El Apóstol (1917) by Italian-Argentine cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, was also the world's first animated feature film.
- The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger is a silhouette animation using armatured cutouts with backgrounds that were variously painted or composed of blown sand and even soap.
- No. 12, also known as Heaven and Earth Magic by Harry Everett Smith, completed in 1962, utilizes cut-out illustrations culled from 19th century catalogs.
- Lefty (1964) and Go There, Don't Know Where (1966), directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano
- René Laloux's early films made use of armatured cutouts, while his first feature La Planète sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973) is a rare example of unarmatured cutout animation[citation needed]
- Karel Zeman made several animated movies using cutout animation (Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice) as well as live action movies combined with cutout animation (The Fabulous Baron Munchausen)
- The opening sequence of L'armata Brancaleone (1966), a film by Italian director Mario Monicelli, features cutout animation, made by the Italian Emanuele Luzzati
- Twice Upon a Time (1983), an animated movie directed by John Korty and produced by George Lucas, 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
- Imaginationland: The Movie(2008) use computer animation to imitate cutout animation.
- Strange Frame (2012) relies primarily on an innovative cutout style combined with both traditional and 3D elements
- The Breadwinner (2017) uses digital animation to imitate cutout animation in the storyworld sequences.
Television series
- John Ryan's Captain Pugwash (1957–1966, 1974–1975) used cardboard cutouts that were manipulated with levers in front of painted backgrounds while filmed real-time
- Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms created and produced Alexander the Mouse (1957–1958, lost), Ivor the Engine (1959, 1975–1977) and Noggin the Nog (1959–1965, 1982). Their initial animation system used magnets on cutouts to move the figures around during real-time broadcasting.[12][13]
- Ten short episodes of an early black and white animated adaptation of Les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs) (1961-1967) by TVA Dupuis used cutout animation for many of its characters.[citation needed]
- Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) contained animation sketches with paper cut-out, as animated by Monty Python member Terry Gilliam[14]
- David McKee's King Rollo (1980)
- Words and Pictures, Numbertime, Rosie and Jimand Hotch Potch House
- the intro and outro of Charlie Chalk (1987) featured cutout animation, while the episodes featured stop motion puppetry
- Jan Sarkandr Tománek created several cutout animation series, including Medvěd 09 (Bear 09) (1988), Balabánci (1993), Dobrodružství pod vrbami (adaptation of The Wind in the Willows) (1999)
- Art And Animation Studio combined puppet and cutout animation in Hajadla (2006)[citation needed]
- Blue's Clues (1996-2006) used cutout animation for many of its characters
- South Park (since 1997) used construction paper cutouts in its first episode before switching to PowerAnimator and, later, Maya.[citation needed]
- Angela Anaconda (1999-2002) used black-and-white photographs of faces that were superimposed on computer-generated bodies and backgrounds
- Bill Cosby's Little Bill (1999-2004) used a mix of cutout animation and flash animation[citation needed]
- Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola (2005-2008) featured a collage style that mashed together 2D Flash animation, paper cutout, fabric design, real textures, photomontage, and archive footage
- Outer Space Astronauts (2009) blended live-action footage of actors' heads on computer-generated bodies against 2D and/or 3D backgrounds, a style that is associated with cutout animation
- Uncle Grandpa (2013-2017) featured photographic cutout character "the Giant Realistic Flying Tiger"
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
Internet
- The humour animation site JibJab primarily uses cutout animation from photographs
- Joel Veitch uses SWF cutout animation style on his website Rathergood.com
- Hoops and Yoyo appear in E-cards and cutout-animated cartoons since 2003[citation needed]
Video games
- Mushroom Kingdom. The commercial for the Nintendo 3DS game Paper Mario: Sticker Star(2012) also used cutout animation.
- Tails.
- The mobile game Sega Heroes features cutout sprite characters.[citation needed]
- PlayStation's PaRappa the Rapper features cutout characters, including its spin-off Um Jammer Lammy.
See also
- List of stop-motion films
References
- ^ Bendazzi, Giannalberto. "Quirino Cristiani, The Untold Story of Argentina's Pioneer Animator". Animation World Network. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
- ^ a b c "Lotte Reiniger – Women Film Pioneers Project". wfpp.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ Frame-By-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Puppet Photographic Animation Techniques
- ^ Cinefamily resurrects Lucasfilm’s “Twice Upon A Time” (1983)
- ^ Sharp, Jasper (2009). "The First Frames of Anime". The Roots of Japanese Anime, official booklet, DVD.
- ^ Sharp, Jasper (September 23, 2004). "Pioneers of Japanese Animation (Part 1)". Midnight Eye. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-9509066-2-1. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ McLaren, Norman (1958). "Le merle". NFB.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ^ The Miracle of Flight on YouTube
- ^ "A 30-Year-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Holy Grail, "Clock Man", Has Been Found!". Zack Banack. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ "Toonhound - Alexander the Mouse (1958)". www.toonhound.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ Bresson (2017-11-14). "Animated Spotlight: Smallfilms". The Avocado. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ Malbus Moma (2015-11-25), Terry Gilliam explains Monty Python animations, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2019-07-23