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Description
Cutout animation is a 2D stop‑motion technique in which characters, props, and backgrounds are physically cut from flat materials—typically paper, card, fabric, or photographs—and animated frame by frame on a tabletop or multiplane stand.
The method relies on hinged or replaceable parts (arms, legs, mouths) that are repositioned between exposures, producing motion without redrawing each frame. Its look ranges from delicate silhouette fairy‑tales to irreverent collage comedy, and in the digital era the same principles are emulated with rigged “cutout” puppets in software.
In short: it is animation built from cut materials—paper, card, or photos—moved incrementally under the camera.
History
Early experiments with flat articulated puppets appeared in the 1910s, but the technique became widely recognized through the pioneering silhouette films of Lotte Reiniger in Germany, culminating in The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). These productions established many hallmarks of cutout craft: jointed parts, backlit silhouettes, and multiplane camera setups for layered depth.
Across Europe and the Americas, animators adapted cutout methods to varied aesthetics—from refined fairy‑tale storytelling to avant‑garde collage. Norman McLaren explored playful paper transformations, while Polish artists Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica developed a graphic, satirical cutout style. In the USSR, Yuri Norstein refined richly textured, layered cutout on the multiplane stand to achieve painterly depth.
Terry Gilliam’s cutout collages for Monty Python’s Flying Circus popularized the technique’s comedic, subversive potential on television. Elsewhere, directors blended cutout with live‑action, photomontage, and typography. The approach remained attractive for short films and TV due to its speed compared to full cel animation.
With desktop tools (e.g., Flash, After Effects, Toon Boom), artists reproduced cutout logic digitally—rigging jointed puppets, swapping mouth shapes, and tweening parts. The South Park pilot began with literal paper cutouts before moving to a faithful digital emulation. Web cartoons and educational shorts adopted the style for its quick turnaround and distinctive, graphic look. Today, cutout persists both as a tactile craft and as a rig‑based digital workflow.
