How to Make Paper People

on Sep 10th 2009 with 43 comments

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Stop-motion animation using paper cut-outs can take quite a bit of time to produce… unless you use The Paper People effect! This technique gives you similar results in a fraction of the time. With the use of a current version of AE, you’ll use the wiggle expression, hold keyframes, and the puppet tool to emulate the classic look of a beloved form of traditional animation.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 231MB

 
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Brandon Ray is an independent animator and editor. His current project is a weekly animated series called Paper People Jokes. Previously, he graduated from UT Austin's film department and worked as chief editor for a television station in Harlingen, TX. Currently, he supervises post-production at a video boutique in Houston, TX.  

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  • Abe

    This looks brilliant, gonna check it for sure, thanks!

  • Luciano

    thanks, very good tutorial man

  • wynboost

    This is unique!

  • mike

    Awesome tutorial. Thanks!!

  • http://www.youtube.com.br/ianhpiratao IANH – BR

    This looks Awesome!
    thats pretty good man!

  • Adam Sklar

    Scary. o.O

    :P
    Thanks for this.

  • Billy

    HEY! What about the paper crumpling effect that can be previewed after this preview is over???? Why aren’t we seeing that? That looks awesome!

    This is a bizarre preview…but the effect is unique and would have a ton of applications. But….as I said….bizarre preview!

    • adam

      cìmon gunners always

  • tearz

    Great video!!!
    really well done + some excellent tips :)
    thanks

  • Raoul

    GRREEEAAAAATTT !! It give a little of poetry to AETUTS + ^^

    Thans for sharing !

    go to see your serie :p

    Best from north east Paris (france)
    R.

  • Billy

    One specific comment as I’m watching the actual tutorial. He uses the “cartoon Effect” that is only available in CS4. If you only have CS3, like I do, you could accomplish the same thing with Red Giant’s ToonIt. But…you could also do basically what Brandon does here by applying a number of the color correction effects (curves, levels, brightness and contrast, etc.) to bring the color contrasts out into sharper detail. SO…..if you don’t have CS4 or even ToonIt….don’t dispair….you will still be able to do what Brandon is doing.

    Several more general comments. This is not a beginners tutorial….WHICH I LOVE….and he works really….really fast. Almost too fast and doesnt do the greatest job all the time explaining what he’s doing. If you have some AE experience that shouldn’t be much of a problem but if you don’t….you might struggle. Overall this is a fantastic technique! I have seen very, very few tutorials that address the puppet tool (which completely makes this effect work) and NONE that have even addressed Motion sketch. I am more impressed seeing how he does it than I ever was just watching the technique. Very unique! One of the better tutorials I’ve seen on aetuts in a long, long time.

    BRAVO Brandon! GREAT STUFF!

    • http://www.noisejunkies.net Rafael Guerra

      Hey, adding on that, I also have a BASIC tutorial on how to use the Caustics plugin, it is not deisigned to create a cartoonic effect, but it can “create some certain mess” in the colors and you can achieve a similar look too!

    • Abe

      Actually, John Dickenson of Motionworks did a good one on the puppet tool and motion sketch soon after it was released here
      http://www.motionworks.com.au/2009/02/the-dancing-can-part-1/
      This tut rocked!! Love the pace, get on with it, no dragging along, well done!!

      • Billy

        thanks Abe! I’ll check it out. I knew a few puppet tool tuts existed but had never seen one on motion sketch. Love Dickenson’s work. I’ll check it out, too!

    • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

      Hey there Billy,
      As cool as it’d be to ACTUALLY work that fast, most of the time when I’m using the pen tool I’m speeding the video footage up… I figure you don’t actually need me to make my masks at real-time speed, as what’s most important is the concept of how I’m doing it. Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it!

      To everyone else, I’m glad to hear everyone dug the Paper People effect. There’s all sorts of fun ways to use this workflow to create stop-mo-ish stylistic effects- and I’d love to see some examples of what others are doing with it. Also, like I said in the video, you can see this effect in action every Monday on my show Paper People Jokes (www.paperpeoplejokes.com). And if anyone out there’s up for the challenge, I’m looking for guest animations on the show… so if you know a good joke that you think would animate well with this technique, send it to me and I’ll feature you on one of my upcoming podcasts!

      • Billy

        LOL….I know you were ACTUALLY working that fast. That is funny though…and would be great if we could all cruise through the pen tool at lightning speed. My comments about how fast you were going through the tutorial were more general. About how quickly you were working through each effect, etc. I actually appreciated that you fast-forwarded through the pen tool stuff. My comment was not a criticism nor a complaint. My comments were just to advise anyone who hadn’t actually watched the tutorial yet. You actually posted the best tutorial I’ve seen around here in months! Again….great stuff! Seriously hope we hear from you again….and SOON! :)

    • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

      Ha! Yeah, I was thinking you thought I had the mutant ability to rock the pen tool at a speed matched by no other mortal. Like that was my X-Men ability or something. Man, that’s be pretty sweet!
      I know you weren’t complaining, and I think that’s good advice for people before they start the tut. The pause button may come in handy. Also, I’ll be the first to admit that there may indeed be an even better way to approach my workflow… in this tut, I just show what’s been working for me- which has worked pretty well thus far. And hopefully the efficiency of the technique will carry over to others now and help others make some pretty cool stuff they may not have tried doing before. Or they’ll combine aspects of this technique with their own brain-storming to make something even cooler. If you do, I’d like to see it!

  • MINIMUS

    I’ll make my ‘SOUTH PARK’ cartoon now.. :-)

  • Guto Bittencourt

    Very gooooooood ! Proffessional !

  • http://www.jepirkola.com Janne404

    Very nice tutorial, and interesting technique. Can’t wait to try it myself.

  • cjyvfx

    Great!!

  • naimalwan

    i take my hat of to you, great tut, perfectly presented.

  • Curt

    Well done, Sir!
    Cheers.

    • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

      Thanks everyone, I’m glad y’all dug it!

  • Hooper

    Thanx for this great tut!

    As an added bonus,we don’t have to watch Billy boy whine.

  • Aboubakar

    great tut i like it thanx

  • Billy

    Hooper….don’t be a douche bag. You don’t like my comments…..show me where I’m wrong. I’ll gladly engage you in some discourse…anytime you feel up to it!

    You apparently don’t pay close enough attention….because I have praised many, many tutorials since aetuts.com has been around. In addition, almost every single tutorial that I have criticized has been roundly criticized by countless others. So….you might try paying closer attention so you don’t look lost and confused.

    cheers!

  • Roberto

    Hey man, great tut!

    Man, weird stuff, but your voice definitively doest match your picture, hehhe.

    • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

      Yeah, I’m still sporting that grizzly beard right now. Maybe next time I’ll narrate my tutorial in a Yosemite Sam voice to make my whole audio/visual presence gel together better…. That might be kinda distracting though.

  • Bello

    Hi. U can make the same effect with VirtualSub´s plug-in. It´s amazing with AVI files.

  • Hooper

    You don’t like my comments…..show me where I’m wrong.

    Where did I say you were wrong “Mr. Captain Kiddie Assumption Turd.”
    (hmmmm….reading is hard for you I can CLEARLY see)

    I said we didn’t have to listen to you whine.

    p.s.
    Get a friend to read this post to you so your day won’t be so long and difficult and frustrating.

  • Hooper

    Oh and I won’t be back on here till about November……so just keep sounding words out on your own….you’ll get the hang of it!!!

    • Billy

      Hooper…..you are an imbicile. I hope you are back before November….because I would miss the chance for us to discuss what each of us knows about AE. See, if you say someone is “whining” about something you are generally saying they are complaining for the sake of complaining. If I am “just complaining” I would like you to show me where I’m wrong. If I am pointing out legitimate issues with tutorials and/or issues with the quality to the tutorials and I am right….then I am not whining. Criticism isn’t whining if it is correct.

      I don’t recall ever seeing you post. Which either means you don’t post often or what you have to say is so painfully inconsequential. But at any rate….we should talk. You can regale me with your AE knowledge and point out where I am wrong. Because if you can’t…it is you who is just sounding out words. But….I’m sure you are man enough to back up your comments…..right?

      Uh…..no….I seriously doubt it.

  • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

    In case anyone’s interested, here are the links to the actual episode of Paper People Jokes where I used the clip we made together in this tutorial (as you’ll see, I modified them a wee bit)

    Vimeo:
    http://vimeo.com/6542282

    Youtube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W8RO_TFM-M

  • viktor

    brilliant!!!!! I LOVE IT

  • http://www.abcanimation.org arlington cruz

    Thanks A lot for the tips and yet another awesome Tut. And Guys don’t fall victim to the flame wars in posts. Some people just write stuff to provoke us and create more arguments. Don’t fall into their traps. (I think that’s called Internet Trolls)

  • http://www.brandonray.net B. Ray

    HEY!
    Anyone interested can vote for their favorite Paper People Joke of 2009!
    Here’s how:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=292gQBwiO7Q

    The winning joke-teller is going to get fame and riches (or something equivalent to that in my world). I’d really appreciate input from the AE community on which PP Joke worked the best for 2009!

    You can see ‘em all here:
    YouTube —- http://www.youtube.com/user/paperpeoplejokes
    Vimeo —– http://vimeo.com/channels/paperpeople

    Thanks!

  • saman

    it’s very good….

  • http://www.cbtbapparel.com Lee

    Hey B. Ray,

    I just stumbled on this tut a few weeks ago and I must say that this technique is awesome. Thank you for sharing it with us. Also, as I was following your tut I ran into a problem and I’m not sure how to correct it. I’m hoping that you can help. I’m trying to synchronize the audio with the movements from my character’s mouth but I keep getting an error message. (A NULL interface pointer has been dereferenced) I’ve googled this issue and seen some possible solutions but none worked for me. What would you suggest?

    • http://www.paperpeoplejokes.com B. Ray

      Hi Lee,
      I know it’s a little late, but I just finally saw this message- have you solved the problem yet? Sounds kind of wacky, maybe you could email me a screenshot of the error message if you’re still having these problems. (jokes@paperpeoplejokes.com)

  • http://gstoned.wordpress.com/ Gladston

    Really helpful tut.. :D

    Regards
    Glady

  • Some guy

    That’s creepy.

  • las7las5

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