Animation Workshop 2 - Cut Out Animation

For the second animation workshop, we were given an exercise that involved creating our own cut out animation that used a simple scenario. This scenario included two characters, one in a room which the other entered, the first character sits down and is passed an item by the second character. The second character then reacts to what they have been given before leaving the room. We worked in groups of two for this task. 

When planning our animation, we didn't follow this pathway exactly but did keep it simple and focused. We decided that the scenario would be a date, a man would meet a woman at a restaurant, passing her a bunch of flowers as the item. We then changed the flowers to a bunch of lollipops to make the scenario a bit different and decided the woman would react by having 'lollipop' style thought bubbles floating around her head as if she is thinking about her love for lollipops. This is how the title was thought of. 

At the beginning of the workshop, we were given a short presentation about different forms of cut out animation that already exist. These include using silhouettes for the characters and collage for the background settings. Some were also hand drawn characters and settings, if we had more time we might have considered doing this, building up the visual elements to create a series of cut outs. 

We made our characters and setting out of drawing on and cutting out coloured paper combined with collage imagery from magazines. 

Bunch of lollipops - item passed from first character to second character

Woman - first character who originally holds the bunch of lollipops

Setting drawing and collage - door leading into the restaurant 

Setting drawing and collage - beginnings of the restaurant setting

It took us the whole of the first workshop day to do all of the preparatory work for the animation. This included drawing and cutting out characters, props and setting. We made sure we had all the cut out elements ready for the following animation workshop when we would capture each frame and decide on speed, possibly adding some sound as a final touch.