The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

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WORKSHEET: SHADOW PUPPET ANIMATION
Teachers’ note:
Shadows have always fascinated people. Shadow puppets originated 
in China and records show that puppets were fi rst demonstrated 
around 2,000 years ago. Putting hands and fi ngers into a beam of 
light can turn them into mysterious animal heads or monsters. A 
whole world can be conjured in moments by cutting simple shapes 
out of black card and placing them on an overhead projector.
Coloured cellophane or acetate is a quick and effective way to 
add colour. Figures made of black card can have coloured eyes 
or decoration added by cutting holes in the card, and glueing on 
coloured gel over the holes. Figures can be jointed to allow them to 
move and perform gestures.
3.4 SHADOW PUPPETRY
A still from Dreams by Holly Sandiford. See the companion website.

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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Students can also experiment with painting effects by using glass 
paints or marker pens on clear acetate sheets. These can be cut 
up to make moveable puppets or used for backgrounds. All kinds 
of fabrics, translucent materials and found objects can be used to 
create interesting textures, when placed on the projector.
Invite the students to cut out shapes like a sun, a hill and trees then 
place the pieces on the overhead projector. These can be used as 
your background.
It helps if the background is quite simple. Often strips of coloured 
cellophane to depict sky and grass work the best.
Next, ask the students to make characters using thin black card or 
acetate sheets and marker pens. Remind them to keep each puppet 
small in size. It must fi t on the overhead projector.
If the students want to tell their stories live they will need to add 
handles to each puppet so they can be moved in real time. (Pipe 
cleaners or modelling sticks are ideal for this.) Ask them to create 
short dialogue-based scenes using the puppets, around a given 
theme.
Extension work:
The live improvisation is a good introduction to the medium. It can 
then be developed into an animation, by adding a video camera 
framed on the screen and linked to single frame capture software.
This opens up a further set of creative possibilities. Puppets no 
longer need handles to articulate them. All kinds of additional effects 
can be explored via stop motion. Animation and live action can be 
combined in the same project, if desired.