Methods series

A hands-on animation workshop that invites participants to look at discarded materials in a new light. Old magazines, newspapers, notebooks, and more become sources of inspiration and material for cutout animation. Participants will learn to create characters and scenes by composing layered images from these scraps, and then animate them using simple stop-motion techniques.

We will:

a. Scavenge through printed materials to find textures, colours, and elements.

b. Compose images by combining cutouts into collaged figures, environments, and abstract forms.

c. Mount their compositions onto ivory sheets for stability.

d. Create movable joints using rivets or pins to allow for articulation and character movement.

e. Animate short loops or sequences using basic stop-motion photography techniques.

This workshop works on the principles of reuse. It focuses on an intuitive approach to animation - one that doesn’t rely on drawing skills or digital tools, but on your ability to find rhythm, personality, and gesture in everyday scraps. It’s a scissors and glue animation. Participants will be asked to bring all kinds of paper scraps that they’re willing to cut - old magazines, books, newspapers, etc.

Note: It is a beginner-friendly workshop.

Short Bio:

Adheep Das is a mixed-media artist, filmmaker, and occasional puppet-maker. His work interrogates the boundary between the inanimate and the animate, focusing on the moment an object appears to gain agency - when a lifeless form is imbued with presence. Increasingly, he finds himself drawn to the idea of "breath" - the ephemeral force that animates otherwise inert matter. Initially trained in Chemical Engineering, he became immersed in theatre and performance, which led him to study film direction in Pune. In film school, he gravitated toward mixed-media techniques, seeing film as a porous, elastic space that could be stretched and reconfigured to reveal new ways of seeing.