Cutout Animation: Does Your Business Need One?
See why you may need to use cutout animations for your video marketing strategy
We can spend days and pages just talking about types of animations.
From motion graphics to kinetic typography, every type of them has its own specialty and characteristics to help you get your message across in your video marketing campaigns.
In this post, we’ll get more in-depth about another engaging type of animation. Yeah, you’ve seen it in the title: it’s cutout animation.
This engaging type of animation is quite interesting since it may look like stop motion — but it’s different. It can also look like flat 2D animation, but it can also be 3D objects more often than not.
Are you confused already?
We’ll get into more details…
What Is Cutout Animation
Cut-out animation is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: cut-out shapes arranged on a flat surface.
Cutout animation is actually a form of stop motion animation.
It uses materials like papers, cards, or stiff fabrics as the characters, pops, or backgrounds.
Those materials would be cut out and manually moved and re-positioned to simulate animation.
Originally, the technique of creating cutout animation was that you needed to move pieces of material cutouts under a fixed camera.
Next, you shoot it frame by frame as they come.
Well, pretty much like the stop motion technique — did I mention it’s a form of stop motion animation? 🤔
However, in this digital era, technology is constantly evolving, and cutout animation processes have also evolved with it.
While the traditional method requires you to cut the materials or images to animate, you can now do all the work with software on your computer, animating it digitally.
There, you don’t need to redraw frame by frame for each drawing.
The Pros and Cons
When you think that cutout animation is the right type for your explainer videos, short movies, or other types of videos, why don’t we get closer to the advantages and disadvantages you need to consider?
Pros
We’ve listed some advantages of cutout animation below so you can make an informed decision faster in choosing the right animation for your business.
#1. Attractive
Cutout animation is, hands down, one of the most engaging and attractive types of animation.
Of course, that’s because it creates the illusion of movement by combining art, motion, and metaphor to convey an idea.
#2. Fun to Make
Making moving images with the stop motion technique is gratifying and fun.
So, if you’re a fan of paper-cutting crafts activities, creating paper cutout animation can be so much fun.
#3. Bring Stories to Life
Cutout animation offers a captivating way to bring your stories to life.
This type of animation gives you more freedom to tell your stories by designing the cut-out pieces yourself.
That way, the range of subject matter is limited only by your imagination.
Cons
Besides those advantages mentioned above, there are some pitfalls too. Check them out:
#1. Take Quite Some Times
Generally speaking, how long the cutout animation process takes depends on the complexity of the design and the level of detail needed.
However, the fact that you need to draw, separate, and prioritize each element one by one, is a tedious process when you think about it.
That’s why the traditional method of creating cutout animation takes time.
#2. Need Skills in Drawing or Using Software
Animating 2D characters props is one thing, but animating a full cut-out paper is quite another.
The better design skill you have, the better the results you’ll get.
Also, if you don’t have zero design skills, you have to have at least a skill in using software to animate it digitally.
#3. The Animation Remains Stiff
The characters most likely remain quite stiff if you only animate them around their pivot points and always with the same point of view.
Therefore, you need to use your creative genius to make it more alive.
When Do You Need One?
Since it’s extremely challenging for animators to make the lip movements of a character to be synchronized with the audio, cutout animation is typically used for mimed stories.
So, if you’re looking for animation that includes voice-over or narration (instead of dialog and conversation, cutout animation may be one of the best options you have.
Not to mention that this engaging type of animation is also affordable as you can create it by yourself.
In other words, it can be a worth-considering type when you’re on a shoestring budget.
The Stunning Examples
Definition? Checked ✅
Pros and cons? Checked ✅
Characteristics? Also checked ✅
Now it’s time to explore some compelling examples of cutout animation, so you get an even more solid grasp on it and understand what it looks actually like.
#1. PostMM
This explainer video with digital cutout was created by Breadnbeyond for PostMM.
As you can clearly see, even created by computers, the characters and props look like it was just cut out from paper — unless they’re more colorful with a smoother transition.
#2. Coco
This video is a great example of a paper cutout animation.
With this kind of animation, all you need are colorful paper and a scissor.
After doing the cutting, the animator uses Adobe Flash to put all the pictures together to create animation.
#3. Cottonique
The video above is another example of digital cutout animation.
Whèn stop motion can be a popular form of cutout animation; this video uses motion graphics instead of the transition.
In this case, you know that creating the cutout animation digitally allows you to go the extra mile with your creativity seamlessly.
#4. South Park
This episode from the South Park series was originally made using paper cutouts but subsequently by computer animation.
The animators used software and intentionally made the images look cheap and amateurish, making the animation more “realistic.”
Check out our cutout animation YouTube playlist for more inspiring examples.
A video to sump up all the points above:
There you have it! That has been a quick guide to the cutout animation.
So, do you think it’s the right animation type for your business videos?
If you find it too difficult to create it for yourself, Breadnbeyond is here to help!
We can help you create digital cutout animation for marketing purposes, like explainer videos or intro videos, and more!
Are you convinced enough?
Contact Breadnbeyond now at https://breadnbeyond.com/contact/.
