Cut-out animation tips from legend, Terry Gilliam

At Chocolate Films we love stop motion animation, but fewer and fewer people are doing it (it can be a little fiddly and messy - we get it!). So, it’s great when we discover a video where a great filmmaker talks about their love for the art, and shows how they make their work.

Terry Gilliam is an Oscar-winning writer and director (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King), whose surreal vision of the world found popularity in his stop motion animation sequences in the 1960s comedy series ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’. Like us, he likes to create content from paper cut-outs, magazines and found images.

We found him talking about his craft with Bob Godfrey is the Oscar and Bafta-winning creative force behind 70s children’s TV favourites (such as Roobarb and Custard and Henry’s Cat) in ‘Bob Godfrey’s Do-It-Yourself Animation Show’.

What we love about it is the focus on the sheer fun of animation. Rather than getting too bogged down in the details, these two greats show some great tips and tricks for how to make animation easier.

WARNING: SOME CONTENT MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN

Our key take-aways are:

Be Lazy

It’s very easy to get so focused on creating perfect-looking artwork. Terry Gilliam makes a point of singing the praises of laziness. Printing and colouring images, cutting up magazines and leaflets can have a great effect. Terry believes that the point is ‘Tell a story, make a joke, express an idea’, and that ‘technique doesn’t really matter’

Love the limitations of cut-out animation

You can print out images, cut up Christmas cards or snip images out of newspapers or take your scissors to pretty much anything to create the art work you’re going to animate. But you will get much better results if you respect the limitations of cut-out animation. Realistic walking or movement is extremely difficult, whereas many other (often funnier!) movements are quite easy. Spinning, bouncing, hitting etc can all be done quickly and with great results.

Find lo-fi solutions

Sometimes lo-fi is the way to go. For example, Terry Gilliam recommends making and using a scale to make sure that your characters move across the screen at the correct pace. It’s very easy - all you need to do is draw some lines on a strip of paper. Simple tricks such as this can make such a difference.

If you want to find out some more great stop motion animation tips, check out our other resources, or join us for a workshop.