Past Project Evaluation - Cutout Style Animation in Cinema 4D part 1

Cutout Style Animation in Cinema 4D

In short, the brief that I was given asked for me to create a cut-out style animation (South Park, Terry Gilliam) which is normally created in 2D software or in a style of stop motion, In a 3D software creating a technique known as pseudo 3D. 

As this technique was completely new to me, I decided to research the techniques further and look at key practitioners of cut out animation.

Research

Cutout animation is a very traditional style of animation based around using flat, 2D characters, which could be made of paper, fabric, plastic or card.  To give more mobility to the character puppets, hinges were often used to join different segments of a character. Despite this, the animation style is very limited in movement, which gives it a unique style. Because of cut out animation’s success, it has been emulated digitally to help maintain quality and modernize the animation.

A good example of this would be with South Park as the animations started out as traditional cut outs and then proceeded to become digital as time passed and the show became more popular.

In order to further my knowledge of this style, I decided to conduct further research on both digital and traditional cut out animation.

South Park

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s highly successful animations are a prime example of how cut out animation has advanced with technology. When the show fiest aired in 1997, the pilot was created using cardboard and paper cutout characters and when it was accepted for TV, the animation was changed to a digital style that replicates the original cutout style. The animation was done in the program PowerAnimator to help maintain the animations art style until the animators chose to upgrade to AutoDesk Maya at the beginning of Season 5.

Terry Gilliam - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Terry Gilliam’s work animating for Monty Python is very influential in the cut out style even the South Park animators have cited Gilliam as an influence in their work. The surrealist styles of the animations mean that there is a vast array of styles to be influenced by and Gilliam’s use of mixed media helped to give more of an idea of which style I wanted to pursue.

Ishu Patel - How Death Came to Earth

This is a 1971 short animation that again uses the strange visual style of cut out animation in a psychedelic, surreal way. The animation is based around an Indian myth and several of Ishu Patel’s animations work around spiritual themes. The use of texture in this animation is especially prevalent adding to the surreal look of the piece.

The Kid Stays in the Picture

The cutout style of animation is used in a far less dramatic way here than other examples and uses the technique to create a sense of depth to still images. The depth and slight movement of the images helps keep the viewers’ attention due to the strange appearance of the animation. The images appear to have been separated into layers and move independently to give this effect, the effect being called the parallax scrolling.

Artists

After I had finished researching a variety of artists and their styles, I found the artists which I thought to be the most relevant to my work and chose to research them further. By doing this, I felt that I might learn new skills applicable to my own work and that by viewing more of the artist’s work that it might help with the creative process of my own work. 

Terry Gilliam

The main thing I liked about Terry Gilliam’s work was the surreal nature of his animations. Surrealism is one of the things I personally believe the cutout style of animation works with the best with. To further compliment this, Gilliam used an array of mixed media assets using everything from old photographs to watercolour paintings.

Despite the strange collection of assets, the animation still moved smoothly and used each asset to give another sense of life to the simulated world. As the majority of his animated career was spent with Monty Python, a lot of his animations work around humour, an aspect I wanted to try to incorporate into my own animation.

Cyriak

Cyriak is another British animator who uses Adobe Photoshop and After Effects to create surreal and pychadelic animations usually featuring celebrities or animals. A lot of Cyriak’s work uses geometry, for example, a cats leg splitting into two legs, then those legs splitting again. By doing this he makes it easy for his animations to escalate quickly and become more surreal. Cyriak’s animation are almost entirely contructed in a photomontage style, either as photos mixed with other assets he has created in photoshop or as video clips mixed together in a similar way.

One of the main things I tried to take from Cyriaks style of animation was the way his animations blend photos and video. For example if a photo asset is unavailable Cyriak creates one from other images. If I was to redo this project, I would like to emulate his use of music and sound as the sound in his animations always seems to be fitting to the visuals.

Animation Script

MAN carrying papers walking down a long dark corridor towards a door. As the MAN reaches the door he closes his eyes and inhales deeply before opening the door. The door opens to a large office room playing loud drum and bass music from huge speakers with several intoxicated people dancing.

MERKEL does not look up from her desk and finished cutting a line of cocaine in the shape of Germany. Just as MERKEL finishes snorting the cocaine she hears a sticky footstep alerting her to the MAN. The MAN extends the papers towards her looking visibly worried and MERKEL snatches them from him. A POLITICIAN finishes a bong on the desk.

MERKEL uses the papers to roll a joint, lights it and blows smoke into the MAN’s face  to his bewilderment and begins dancing wildly. The room begins to fill with smoke and clears to reveal the MAN dancing wildly looking very intoxicated and ill.

Outside the office, a PASSER BY walks past and looks confused about the muffled drum and bass music coming from behind the door. The PASSER BY pauses for a second then shrugs and carries on walking.

The MAN staggers back into a wall, slumping down next to an UNCONSCIOUS MAN and passes out.

The MAN suddenly sits up in bed panting and sweating as if awoken from a bad dream and stares at his door.

The door suddenly bursts open to reveal MERKEL dancing furiously and the room he was previously in.

Illustrator Storyboard and Scene Layout

As the animation only really takes place is two places (the hallway and the office) I created a set layout (left) allowing me to get a better understanding of how the scene will be set in a 3D environment. I think that creating a set layout helped me realise a lot about the production of the animation and made the production of assets and composition in 3D a lot easier.