Cutout animation

Animation produced by arranging cutout pieces of paper or fabric (or any ﬂat object for that matter) is known as cutout animation. Since the rise of computer animation, cutout

animation can now incorporate digital as well as physical Terry Gilliam’s animated sequences from the Monty Python series and objects. When executed correctly, cutout animation can be

films were made using cutout

a very efﬁcient way to bring your character to life.

animation.

In 1992, the pop culture phenomenon South Park was ﬁrst conceived using cutout animation. The prototype incorporated real paper cutouts for a University of Colo- rado project by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Since then,

Animation with Scripting for Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Studio Techniques

South Park has become a wildly popular television series with 14 seasons currently under its belt. Although South Park is now produced digitally (using Photoshop, Illustra- tor, and Maya), it maintains the simple cutout style of its roots. The success of shows like South Park has led to a proliferation of simply produced, cutout-style animation.

Cutout animation is an efﬁcient and popular Flash animation technique. The use of symbols in Flash facilitates easy manipulation of discrete pieces of artwork. Symbols can

easily be moved and scaled to quickly render new frames. In the late 1990s, the Internet became the “wild

The Flash Animation Boom

west” for animators (cutout and traditional) thanks to a simple vector-based animation program called

Choosing a Technique

Flash. The first Flash-based animated series on the Now that you know the animation techniques available, Internet was The Goddamn George Liquor Program

by John Kricfalusi (creator of Ren & Stimpy). More let’s consider how best to design your character in Flash.

Flash animation began to sprout across the Inter- Your animation can be as simple or as complex as you want net, such as the popular series WhirlGirl, which was

it to be. You can borrow from one style to simplify your also simultaneously televised on the cable network

animation and borrow from another to add an extra bit of Showtime. The popularity of Flash on the Internet

grew exponentially with Happy Tree Friends, The nuance. Given Flash’s great capacity for creating cutout-

Critic , Joe Cartoon’s Frog in a Blender, Queer Duck, style animation using symbols, you’ll focus on creating and a handful of clever shorts by JibJab and the

a character using this approach. However, you will also Brothers Chaps (homestarrunner.com).

utilize tweening, as well as techniques from traditional animation, to create an entertaining but not overly labor-

Since then, Flash has continued to spread through-

intensive character.

out the Internet and continues to expand its imprint on television. Some of the more notewor-

So, without further delay, let’s dive in to the deep end of thy series to utilize Flash are Home Movies, Mucha

the Flash pool and examine how to conceptualize a charac- Lucha! , Xiao Xaio, Foster’s Home for Imaginary

ter and bring it to life.

Friends , Atomic Betty, Little Einsteins, Yin Yang Yo, Total Drama Island , Growing Up Creepy, and El Tigre, to name just a few.

Designing a Character

Years of creating visual content across a variety of media will teach any animator that successful design doesn’t always follow a set of rules. This book focuses on designing characters for interactivity, and therefore some rules are necessary, but these rules should not become strict limitations. Keep your options open when you’re start- ing to design your character. You can always narrow your focus later.

Chapter 2 Character Animation

Cutout animation