Zelo-Jade Rael’s 
Santa Fe Indian School Seniors Honors Project: 
Uprooted Natives: How Art Can Ground Us

What Is It?
Paper Animatic – Animation simulated by paper cut outs that are moved with an individual’s hands.

You Can Make One Too!
Can be used for creative projects, telling a story, demonstrating a hard to process concept, and anything else you can think of! You do not need any degree, grade, or other background to do this project, you only need to be willing to be curious! (And maybe you’ll need a little time.)

What You Need:

• Blank Piece of Paper (this will serve as your background)
• Tape (you will need this to tape down your background to a flat surface)
• Blank Piece of Paper (you will draw on this paper)
• Pencil (used to sketch out your drawings)
• Pen (used to outline your drawings)
• Eraser (used to erase your sketches after outlining them)
• Colored Pencils/Crayons (optional: used to color your drawings)
• Printed Images (optional: if drawing is too difficult or needs to be super specific, for example like a logo, you can print out a picture and cut it out)
• Scissors (used to cut out your drawings)
• Videotaping Device (this can be a phone, an iPad, camera, etc)
• Video Editing Software (optional: if you need to edit the final video product)

Getting It Started:

• Start by clearing a flat surface, this will be your studio space where you will place all of the necessary materials listed above.
• Once you have a space cleared, place down a Blank Piece of Paper and Tape it down to the flat surface. This will be the background you will be moving your paper cut outs on.
• Brainstorm your video idea. What is the goal of your video? What characters and props will you need? How will you indicate your scene or where your characters are? (Will you write ‘school’ to indicate your characters at school? Will you draw/print out pictures of buildings? Be creative and think outside of the box!

The Creative Process:

• Using the Pencil, sketch out all the characters, props, and scenes needed for your video on another Blank Piece of Paper.
• Outline your pencil sketches with Pen and using the Eraser, erase the pencil lines.
• If using Colored Pencils, color in all the things you’ve just drawn.
• If using any Printed Images, search online for your desired image and print as needed.
• Cut out all finished drawings and printed images.

The Recording Process:

• Set up your scene, place your characters and props, and start recording! Your hands will be the main source of ‘animating’ the paper cut outs. You can roll a continuous video moving your characters and props in real time, or you can position characters, props, and scenes and take pictures for a more choppy effect. In the “Uprooted Natives: How Art Can Ground Us”, Zelo did a blend of this where they recorded multiple clips (moving different cut outs) and then connected those clips together through a video editing software.

Share Your Amazing Artwork!

• Once you have a single video tied together, you can download it onto a computer or phone and share it with your friends in Flipgrid. To get started, click on the tab called "Flipgrid Response." Thank you for creating with us!

Need help uploading a pre-recorded clip from your computer or mobile device? Click here to learn how.