--- name: papercut_explainer_videos description: "Make papercut explainer videos end to end: write a timed script as flat paper scenes, build jointed paper figures and layered sets, shoot frame by frame under an overhead rig, record voice, and edit to a finished export. Use when someone asks for a papercut, cutout, paper cut-out, or silhouette explainer, or wants a topic explained with paper figures shot on a table." --- # Papercut Explainer Videos ## Purpose Take one topic from a blank page to a finished papercut explainer. The method covers script timing, storyboard, paper builds, the overhead rig, frame by frame shooting, voice, edit, and export as one workflow. It does not cover digital cutout animation in software, clay or puppet stop motion, or live action. Cutout animation is old and proven. Lotte Reiniger set many of its standard practices with Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens in 1919, and her feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed from 1926 is one of the oldest surviving animated features. The appeal for explainers is simple: flat shapes read clearly at small sizes, every idea becomes a physical object you can move, and a scene can be rebuilt in minutes when a script line changes. ## Workflow 1. Lock the one idea and time the script. Write the sentence the viewer should be able to repeat after watching, in one line. Draft narration at about 150 words per minute and treat that pace as a ceiling, not a target. A 60 second video holds about 150 words, a 90 second video about 225 words, a 30 second video about 75 words. Read the draft aloud with a timer. If it runs long, cut whole ideas, not adjectives. Split the surviving script into scenes, one idea per scene, and mark each scene heading in the script file. Run `scripts/plan_shoot.py` on it to get seconds and capture frames per scene before you build anything. 2. Storyboard as paper scenes, not drawings alone. For each scene draw a small rectangle at the final aspect ratio and place the shapes that must appear, in the order they appear. Write three lines under each panel: the narration line, what moves, and what stays still. If a scene needs more than three moving pieces, split it. The still layer is what sells the motion, so every scene needs at least one anchored element the eye can trust. Full panel template and rules are in `references/storyboard-and-shooting.md`, a printable sheet is at `assets/storyboard-sheet.txt`, and a complete worked explainer with a timed script you can run through the planner is in `references/worked-example.md` with its script at `assets/worked-example-script.txt`. 3. Build figures and sets flat, layered, and repairable. Use cover stock for anything that moves and lighter text stock only for flat background detail. As a guide, 65 lb cover is about 176 gsm, 80 lb cover is about 216 gsm, and 100 lb cover is about 270 gsm. Gsm compares across grades, while US pound ratings only compare inside one grade, so order by gsm when you can. Joint arms, heads, and tools with split pins through punched holes, thread hinges, or tape hinges on the back, and test each joint through its full range before the shoot. Build backgrounds in layers on separate sheets so a foreground hill, a midground house, and a sky can slide at different speeds. Keep a spare blank of every hero figure. Paper tears, and a spare built early costs minutes while a rebuild mid shoot costs the light match. Build details and joint recipes are in `references/paper-and-joints.md`. 4. Set the overhead rig and lock the light. Mount the camera or phone directly above the table, lens parallel to the paper, on a stand that cannot be bumped by a sleeve. Tape the background sheet to the table at all four corners and mark its corner positions in pencil. Use continuous artificial light from two sides at about 45 degrees, block windows, and turn off overhead fluorescents. Set the camera to full manual: focus, exposure, white balance, and ISO all fixed. Auto anything is the main cause of flicker between frames. Wear dark clothes, step clear of the set for every capture, and shoot a 30 frame test of the empty set first. Step through the test frames. If brightness shifts, fix the light or the camera setting before a single real frame. Rig checklist is in `references/storyboard-and-shooting.md`. 5. Shoot frame by frame with onion skin on. Work at 12 frames per second for a first explainer, shooting on twos if the motion is slow, which means each pose is captured twice and the pose count halves. Turn on onion skin in your capture app, such as Dragonframe or Stop Motion Studio, so the previous frame sits as a ghost over the live view. Move one thing at a time, in small increments: fast actions get wide spacing between poses, slow actions get narrow spacing, and every action eases in and out with smaller steps at both ends. Capture 6 handle frames before the first move and after the last move in each scene. Play the scene back at full speed every 20 to 30 frames. If a move jumps, reshoot those frames now. Finding it in the edit means rebuilding the set. 6. Record voice after a rough picture cut exists. Assemble the frames, watch the rough cut, then record narration to picture so pauses land where paper moves. Record in a quiet room with soft furnishings, keep a fixed distance from the mic, and do two full takes plus a third take of any line you stumbled on. Edit out breaths only where the cut sounds clipped. Keep music well under the voice and cut music entirely under any line that carries a number or a name the viewer must remember. 7. Edit, check, and export. Assemble frames with FFmpeg or your editor, trim handles to the voice, add captions burned from the final script, and run the QA pass in `references/qa-and-export.md`. A standard assembly command is: `ffmpeg -framerate 12 -i scene01/frame_%04d.jpg -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p scene01.mp4`. For the final mix, aim for about minus 14 LUFS integrated loudness with true peak at or below minus 1 dBTP for YouTube, which turns loud uploads down but does not turn quiet uploads up. Export a 1920 by 1080 MP4 master, plus a vertical crop only if the storyboard was planned for it. Papercut scenes rarely crop well after the fact. ## Output Contract - A finished MP4 at the planned runtime within 10 percent, at 1920 by 1080 unless the brief says otherwise, with no visible flicker, no hands in frame, and no torn or curled hero figure. - The timed script file with scene headings, the storyboard panels, and the shoot sheet from `scripts/plan_shoot.py` saved with the project, so a reshoot can match the original plan. - Captions that match the recorded voice word for word, checked against the audio, not copied blindly from the draft script. - A QA note recording the flicker test result, the loudness reading, and any frames reshot. ## Operating Rules - Never shoot on auto. One auto metered frame can shift brightness for the whole scene, and no edit fixes flicker cheaply. - Never move the camera, the background sheet, or a light after the first frame of a scene. Mark positions, and if anything moves, restart the scene. - One idea per scene and one main move per beat. If two figures must move at once, move the secondary one less. - Build spares before the shoot, not during it. Hero figure, hero prop, and one blank background per scene. - Test every joint off camera through its full range. A joint that sticks on set will jump on screen. - Keep hands out of the capture area. Use tweezers, a stick with a small ball of reusable adhesive, or a gloved fingertip from the edge, and step clear before each capture. - Play back early and often. A scene checked at frame 30 can be fixed in minutes. A scene checked at frame 300 usually gets reshot whole. - Cut script before you speed up voice. A rushed read loses viewers faster than a shorter video does. - Save frames in scene folders with zero padded names such as frame_0001.jpg. Mixed names and mixed sizes break sequence assembly. - If the paper look fights the topic, say so before building. Dense tables, code, and fast sports action all read badly as flat paper. Offer a different format instead of forcing this one. ## Available connectors - Use `muse.connector_search` to find other connectors and `muse.skill_search` to find related skills. - If nothing here fits, look on the web for a maintained API or MCP server and set it up with [Custom Connectors and MCPs](/opt/muse/skills/custom-connector-setup/SKILL.md), or build a custom connector.