Cut-out Animation is one of the oldest and simplified animation techniques, having many forms and variations. As the name suggest 'Cut-out' is actually the Cut-outs of drawings into different pieces arranged over flat surface, moved manually and repositioned to simulate animation.

It involves producing animations using 2D characters, props and scenes, cut from materials such as paper card or fabric. It can be colored paper, white paper with drawing or pieces pasted on it, even photographs of people and animals to make it seem as if they are talking or moving often resulting in a 2D marionette effect. One of the earliest animated feature films were cutout animations made by Quirino Cristiani, as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature.

Cut-out Animation belongs to the stop motion animation family. Cut-out is the technique of making animation style and stop motion is the technique of capturing this application. In this technique the animator moves the cut-out pieces under a fixed camera with a fixed focus shot. The frames are then shoot in “straight ahead”, “frame by frame” as they come. It may be called as direct under the camera, which is done completely manually.

Cut-out animation has many forms and variations which involves producing animations using 2-D characters, props and scenes cut from materials, such as paper, card or fabric or using the silhouettes. The cut-out character is divided into smaller pieces, which are kept together to move them in small steps, taking single picture with camera at each step, to create the illusion of movement.