By Fred Wells
Someone once said to me during a discussion on the various types of animation, that the cut out type is certainly a cheap way for the would be animator to start with, practice the art and gain experience, but it is very restrictive when it came to more advanced techniques, such as metamorphosis (the change of shape from one object to another).
I agreed that cut out animation is often jerky in appearance due to its rigid outlines but there should be no reason why cut outs can’t be used in such a way.
It so happened that at my Club at that time we had a competition coming up with a set theme – FOOD AND DRINK – (a lot of our members also make wine) so I took this theme and let it wander around my head. I decided that I would take the word FOOD and during various stages change it to DRINK, in the following manner;
The Power bar of the F moved up and down the upright and then after a few cycles changed into a pair of teeth.
These teeth chased the OOD around the frame, eating up the OO like doughnuts.
When it came to eating D, that letter changed to a hook.
The hooked teeth “grew” a fish body a piece at a time (the hook gets “lost” in the process).
A net (I used actual netting) was inched up from the bottom.
The net, by substituting strips of card eventually became a frying pan and by the same process –
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