Yuri Norstein's "The Overcoat"

[MarkBorok]

For those who haven't seen it, this is master animator Norstein's incomplete magnum opus. Made with layers and layers of cut-out pieces of paper.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/ti ... coat1.html

http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/ti ... coat2.html

[gavi dvan]

Wowsers, that is amazing, a couple of steps ahead of South Park. I thought the head movement was very impressive... shattered the amination is so small!

[jahnocli]

Wow. For cutout animation, that is seriously impressive. Shows what can be done with imagination, knowledge and patience!

[Barry Baker]

No need to patronise cut-outs. There is nothing second-class about what Norstein has achieved with cut-out animation. His great masterpiece, "Tale of Tales" is regularly voted by other animators as one of the top ten animated films ever made, and it is a beautiful and melancholic film that has haunted me ever since I first saw it as an art student.

[jahnocli]

Hey, I'm not patronising anybody. But 99% of cutout animation I have seen is not very impressive, so kudos to someone who can use it like a master...

[Barry Baker]

It's ok, I didn't mean to sound aggressive, I just thought that to add the qualification "for cutout animation..." was unnecessary. I know what you mean about 99% of cutouts, and it's not a technique I have done much with either, but the few true masters of the form - Lotte Reiniger was another - have long ago convinced me of its potential, to the extent that their work, especially Norstein, stands alongside that of the fully drawn and puppet animators without qualification.

I suppose it's also the technique traditionally chosen by beginners because you don't have to produce many drawings to make a film. It looks easy.



Article about Lotte Reiniger



Still (or perhaps pre-production art?) from "Tale of Tales"