Cut-out animation turns still collage pieces into motion through a series of small changes: arrange flat shapes, photograph them, shift them, and photograph them again. To evoke Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animations, build your first exercise around a sudden entrance, reveal, or visual gag rather than trying to make a figure glide gracefully.
What is cut-out animation?
Cut-out animation is a form of stop-motion animation made with flat pieces placed against a two-dimensional background. The pieces can be paper, cardstock, fabric, or similar materials. Move them between exposures and photograph each new position; played in sequence, the still images create movement. The National Film Board of Canada describes this move-and-shoot process and presents cut-out animation as a method broader than any one artist’s style.
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For a first project, paper or cardstock is enough for a figure and a simple background. The technique depends on changing the arrangement from image to image, not on a complicated supply list.
How do you make a simple cut-out animation?
Make a brief action with a clear visual change. The sequence below is a practical way to apply the basic method; it is not a particular camera setup or production recipe attributed to Gilliam.
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- Arrange the scene. Place your background and cut-out pieces on a flat surface. Keep the composition simple enough that you can see what changes between images.
- Take a photograph. Record the starting position before moving the pieces.
- Shift the pieces. Move one or more shapes a small amount, or make a more abrupt change if the action calls for it.
- Photograph each new position. Repeat the move-and-shoot cycle for the length of the action.
- Play the images in order. Review the sequence and adjust the positions or timing if the movement is hard to read.
The essential unit is a changed arrangement followed by another photograph. The sources do not establish a frame count, frame rate, camera, software, lighting arrangement, or required movement distance, so choose those to suit the project rather than treating them as rules of Gilliam’s process.
What makes the approach feel like Gilliam?
Choose the method for the idea
Open Culture’s account of Gilliam’s 1974 appearance on Bob Godfrey’s Do It Yourself Film Animation Show says he valued cut-outs for their spontaneity and their relative ease and low cost compared with traditional animation. The page reproduces his explanation: “The whole point of animation to me is to tell a story, make a joke, express an idea. The technique itself doesn’t really matter. Whatever works is the thing to use. That’s why I use cut-out. It’s the easiest form of animation I know.”
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- The entire Python gang star in this hilarious retelling of the Knights of King Arthur and their quest for the Holy Grail.
That is a useful starting principle for a beginner: decide what the image should communicate, then let the technique serve the joke or idea. Gilliam’s rationale is not a claim that every cut-out animation must look like his work.
Favor a sudden visual change
Open Culture summarizes Gilliam’s view that graceful, elegant movement is difficult with cut-outs, while swift, sudden movement is easier. For a first exercise, try a figure popping into the frame, a collision, an abrupt transformation, or an unexpected reveal. These actions make the change between still positions part of the effect, instead of asking flat pieces to imitate continuous, fluid motion.
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The National Film Board of Canada’s examples show that cut-out animation extends well beyond Gilliam’s collage style. Its selections include Le Merle by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart, Gerald Potterton’s My Financial Career, and Evelyn Lambart’s Mr. Frog Went A-Courting. The NFB also identifies The Hungry Squid as digital cut-out animation, a reminder that cut-out describes a method that can be physical or digital.
These works illustrate the breadth of the technique; they should not be taken to share Gilliam’s particular visual style. A simple paper or cardstock exercise is enough to explore the physical version yourself.
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