Paper Cut-Out Animation: What It Is, How It Works & Examples

Paper cut-out animation, also called cutout animation, is a form of stop-motion animation that uses flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from paper, card, fabric or photographs. The animator moves the pieces a little at a time and captures a frame after each move. Today the same look is often created digitally, with scanned or vector artwork in place of real paper.

It’s one of the oldest animation techniques there is: the world’s earliest known animated feature films were cut-out animations. Below we cover how paper cut-out animation works, its history, the main styles, famous examples, how to make your own and when the style suits a business video.

What is cut-out animation?

Cut-out animation uses flat, two-dimensional pieces as puppets. A character might be made of a separate head, body, arms and legs, joined so they can move. The animator arranges the pieces on a flat surface, photographs them, moves them slightly and photographs them again.

“Paper cut-out animation”, “paper cut animation”, “papercut animation” and “cutout animation” all describe the same family of techniques. Paper is the classic material, but card, stiff fabric and cut-up photographs are all used.

How paper cut-out animation works

1. Design the characters in parts. Each moving part, such as a head, arm or jaw, is drawn and cut out separately.
2. Joint the pieces. Parts are linked with a rivet or pin so they move in a fixed way, like a simple machine. In software, an anchor point does the same job.
3. Build the background. Flat painted or collaged scenery sits underneath the characters.
4. Light the scene. Some animators light from above; others light from below for a backlit, silhouette look.
5. Move, shoot, repeat. A camera above the table captures each small adjustment, frame by frame.
6. Edit and add sound. The frames are played back as movement, then voice, music and effects are added.

A short history of cut-out animation

• 1916–1917: Italian-Argentine cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, who had made a one-minute cartoon for Federico Valle’s newsreel in 1916, made El Apóstol (1917), the world’s first animated feature film, using cut-outs.
• 1926: Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed, made with armatured cut-outs, became the world’s earliest surviving animated feature. Read more about Lotte Reiniger.
• Before 1934: Japanese animation mostly used cut-outs rather than cels, because celluloid was too expensive.
• 1950s–1980s: British TV favourites such as Captain Pugwash, Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog used cut-out figures.
• 1969–1975: Terry Gilliam’s collage animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus made cut-up photographs and illustrations famous.
• 1997 onward: South Park‘s first episode was made with construction-paper cut-outs before the show switched to computer software that keeps the paper look.

Cut-out techniques were common until cel animation became the standard method, at least in the United States.

Types of cut-out animation

Type	How it looks	Example
Paper cut-out	Characters and sets cut from paper or card	Captain Pugwash, Ivor the Engine
Silhouette	Backlit black figures against a lighter background	The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Collage / photomontage	Cut-up photos and printed images combined	Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animations
Digital cut-out	Scanned or vector artwork moved in software	South Park after its first episode
Mixed media	Paper textures combined with 2D, fabric or photography	Charlie and Lola

Silhouette animation is a close cousin. See our guide to silhouette animation for more.

Paper cut-out vs silhouette animation

All silhouette animation is a kind of cut-out animation, but not all cut-out animation is silhouette. In silhouette work, the figures are lit from below so they turn solid black and only their outline matters. In most paper cut-out animation, the light comes from above, so you see the colours, patterns and paper textures of every piece.

Famous cut-out animation examples

• El Apóstol (Quirino Cristiani, 1917): the first animated feature film.
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger, 1926): the earliest surviving animated feature.
• Le merle (Norman McLaren, 1958): white cut-outs on pastel backgrounds, set to a French folk song.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1975): Terry Gilliam’s collage animations.
• Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973): a rare example of unjointed cut-out animation.
• Blue's Clues (1996–2006): used cut-out animation for many of its characters.
• South Park (since 1997): began in paper, then moved to software.
• Charlie and Lola (2005–2008): mixed paper cut-out, fabric, real textures and photomontage.
• The Breadwinner (2017): used digital animation to imitate cut-outs in its story sequences.

Cut-out animation in music videos and games

The style has a long life outside film and TV. Jim Blashfield used cut-out animation in music videos including Talking Heads’ And She Was (1985) and Michael Jackson’s Leave Me Alone (1989), which won a Grammy Award. Nintendo’s Paper Mario games (since 2000) use cut-out-style characters, and PaRappa the Rapper features flat cut-out characters too.

Digital cut-out animation today

Most cut-out-style animation is now made on computers. Artists draw or scan each body part, then rig it with pivot points in animation software so it moves like a jointed paper puppet.

The digital route keeps the handmade look while making changes far easier: a hand can be redrawn without reshooting a scene, and colours can be adjusted across a whole film.

Common tools include the free, open-source Synfig Studio, which animates artwork with digital tweening instead of redrawing every frame. Game engines such as Godot also include cut-out rigging, with bones and inverse kinematics (IK) so you can place a hand or foot and the rest of the limb follows. Animators can also mix in traditional frame-by-frame drawings for tricky parts like hands and facial expressions. Cut-out rigs are behind TV series such as South Park and Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and games such as Paper Mario and Rayman Origins. It sits naturally alongside other 2D explainer video styles.

How to make a paper cut-out animation

What you need: card (around 200–250gsm is stiff enough to survive lots of handling but easy to cut), coloured or textured paper, scissors, a pencil, removable adhesive putty such as Blu Tack, glue for anything that shouldn’t move, and something to make joints: paper fasteners, thin wire, or thread and tape. You’ll also need a phone or camera on a stand and a stop-motion app.

1. Plan a short scene. Sketch a few panels so you know what has to move.
2. Design the characters in overlapping parts. Decide where ears, mouths, arms and legs overlap the body, and cut each moving part slightly longer so the overlap can be fixed behind.
3. Keep the joints simple. Fewer joints are easier to animate and less likely to fall apart. Use putty for quick, flexible joints, or paper fasteners, wire or thread-and-tape hinges for parts that need to rotate cleanly.
4. Make the background big and rigid. Mount it on stiff card or board, and make it larger than the frame so important props aren’t stuck at the edge. Glue down anything that never moves.
5. Fix the camera above the table. A phone on a stand pointing straight down works. It must not move between shots.
6. Keep the light steady. Use lamps rather than a window, ideally in a darkened room, so the brightness doesn’t change mid-shoot.
7. Move a little, take a photo. Repeat for every movement, then play the frames back in a stop-motion or video app. Film and TV run at 24 frames per second, but 12 frames per second is a good starting point for beginners.
8. Fix mistakes with a cutaway. If something goes wrong halfway, carry on and shoot a close-up of a detail that you can edit in to hide the jump.

Start with something simple, like a character waving, before trying a walk. Our walk cycle animation guide explains the poses if you want to go further.

Pros and cons of the cut-out style

Pros	Cons
A warm, handmade look that stands out	Physical paper animation is slow, frame-by-frame work
Works well for simple, story-led messages	Jointed figures move in a more limited, “puppet” way
Pieces are reused from shot to shot, so it needs far fewer drawings than cel animation	Turning a character or changing its shape needs extra pieces for each stage
Digital cut-out keeps the look and makes edits easy	Needs strong design skills to look polished
Pairs well with collage, texture and typography	Very detailed scenes can feel busy

Using the paper cut-out style in a business video

The paper cut-out look can make a business message feel friendly, crafted and memorable. It suits brand stories, community or charity campaigns, education, and products that want to feel approachable rather than corporate.

For business work, the style is usually produced digitally, so scenes can be revised through review rounds without reshooting. For an overview of related techniques, see stop motion animation, claymation and the different types of animation.

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