The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Materials:
Plasticine, sugar paper, 
pastels, 3D animation 
rostrums and lights
Resources:
See previous worksheet.
Making a plasticine character

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Animation Styles
85
WORKSHEET: CUT-OUT FIGURES
Teachers’ note:
Cut-out animation is a technique for producing animations 
using fl at characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials 
such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs. Cut-outs 
are top lit to emphasize colours, textures, etc. Silhouette 
cut-out animation is backlit and hence the fi gure appears solid. 
Silhouette-style cut-outs are also discussed in the 
Shadow 
Puppetry
section that follows.
Working in teams of two, ask each student to devise a cut-out 
character. It is important that the character is designed to use 
the limitations of a 2D world to maximum advantage. It is easy 
to make a fi sh fl oat and swim, or a human fi gure walk in one 
direction. It’s impossible for a character to walk towards the 
camera!
Consider which parts of the character will have independent 
movement, if any. If the character has articulated limbs, they 
need to be drawn and cut out separately, with an overlap to 
accommodate a joint. The joints can be made using BluTak or 
paper fasteners.
Ask each pair of students to devise a short interplay between the 
two characters. Animate, review, discuss and reshoot if necessary.
Extension work:
Use these two characters as the basis for a short story. Ask each 
team to draw up a six-shot storyboard, then shoot the animation. 
The story is likely to require at least one background, which can be 
prepared using a sheet of sugar paper and pastels, or any other 
available art materials.