Cut-out animation is a method of animation that was first pioneered by the german stop-motion animator Lotte Reiniger, who produced the first feature length animation in history 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' in 1926. After escaping the Nazis and emigrating to England she was commissioned by The Post Office to produce advertisements up until her death in 1981.
Terry Gilliam is the animator/director who is possibly best known for his work on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' used cut-out animation almost exclusively in early stages of his career. He used cut-outs from magazines because it was the "quickest" and "easiest" method of animation he could find. He would get his cut-outs from magazines, newspapers and scrapbooks. He used to voice all of his animations which are usually high pitched, abstract sounds and impersonations.
In other popular culture cut-out animation featured in the American animated sitcom South Park.
This method of animation was used for the early series and as the series progressed the producers used flash animation instead. Other notable animations are Angela Anaconda and Charlie and Lola.
Below is a video from the 70s where Gilliam explains how he comes to produce his cut-out animations:
Here's one of his animations that originally featurtes on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.
I began by sourcing magazines and then looking for images that stood out to me.
I cut out an image of a leaf-headed women so I decided that my stop-motion animation will be based on nature.
I then found a body of a female model wearing similar colours.
