Paper Cut-out Animation

What it does

When your agent uses it

• A brief or reference video calls for a paper craft or stop-motion look
• Making a kids' storybook collage animation
• Building an animated scene with jointed paper puppets

Example prompts

• “Make a short paper cut-out animation of a fox crossing a hill, in a stop-motion style.”
• “Scaffold a paper-cutout project and show me the demo contact sheet.”
• “Render the storybook intro in the paper craft look with a soft lamp-lit finish.”

Requirements

• Node.js and headless Chrome to render the frames
• ffmpeg to encode the MP4

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Scaffold — bash .claude/skills/paper-cutout/scripts/new_project.sh (add --keep-demo to keep
2. 2Storyboard with reads (what the viewer must understand, when) — the same discipline as painted-animation's
3. 3Build one IIFE file per shot in src/scenes/, each ending with shots([[t0, fn]]); add its to
4. 4Look — node render.mjs --sheet=... --cols=4 --w=480 --out=out/check/a.jpg, --strip=a:b for motion,
5. 5Render — node render.mjs --frames --workers=4 && node render.mjs --encode --out=out/video.mp4 [--audio=...].

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit eac7fc7. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/ (JavaScript and Shell, from the files we listed), which the agent can run.

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • node
  • bash

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Paper Cut-out Animation loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 154 tokens; SKILL.md has 521 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~154

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from edenfunf/reelmimic at commit eac7fc7, republished under its MIT licence (© edenfunf). 521 words, ~1,515 tokens.

name

paper-cutout

description

Make paper cut-out / stop-motion style animated videos (MP4) with code — handmade construction paper, cardstock, kraft, felt and tissue pieces with scissor-cut or torn edges and soft drop shadows, photographed on a table under a warm lamp; jointed paper puppets with brass split-pin joints, moving in 12 fps steps. Canvas 2D rendered frame by frame in headless Chrome, encoded with ffmpeg. Use when a reference video or brief calls for paper craft, cut-paper, papercraft, stop-motion paper, kids' storybook collage, 剪紙 / 紙片 / 紙偶 / 定格動畫 looks, or when the video-clone router picks the paper-cutout style.

paperCam(lt, [[0,[cx,cy,zoom]], [2,[cx,cy,zoom]]], { stepped })   // camBegin with a (smooth | stepped) move
backdrop(PC.sky, { to })            layer(.5, () => ...)            // screen-fixed sheet; parallax depth plane
hills(x,y,w,h,col,{seed,torn})  grass(x,y,w,h,col,seed)  tree(x,y,s,{fruit,sway}) → {fruit:[[x,y]..]}  bush  flower
cloud(x,y,w,{hang:'string'|'stick'})  sun(x,y,r)  house(x,y,s)  bunting(x0,y0,x1,y1,n,cols)  stripes  confetti(lt,x,y,{t0})
piece(SH.xxx(...), { x,y,rot,sx,sy, col, mat, depth, torn, seed, alpha, jit })   // ONE cut-out; the base of everything
SH.ellipse/circle/rect/round/poly/smooth/capsule/blob/cloud/leaf/heart/star/drop/tri/band/zig/hills ; clipHalf ; xform
mat: 'paper' | 'card' | 'kraft' | 'felt' | 'tissue' | 'corr' | 'wood'       brad(x,y,r)  thread(pts)  popUp(k,x,y,fn)
PROPS.apple|balloon|flower|star|gift|letter(x, y, ang, s)
// transitions — call AFTER camEnd(), in the INCOMING shot, k = 0→1 on stepped time:
trBook(t,k)  trTear(t,k)  trFlip(t,k)  trSlide(t,k,{dir})  sheetIn(k)  sheetOut(k)
captionTrack([[t0, t1, '文字', { style: 'label' | 'letters', y, size }]])

// puppets (cast.js) — (x, y) = ground point, u = size unit
pom(x, y, u, opts)  lulu(x, y, u, opts)  → joints { hand:[L,R], elbow, shoulder, foot, head, top, mouth }
opts: face, view:'front'|'3q', flip, look, blink, armL/armR:[shoulder,elbow], footL/footR:[dx,dy], sq, dy, lean, tilt,
      holdL/holdR:'apple'|{prop,s,dy}|fn, jit, dry (measure only)
moods(lt, [[0,'sad'],[2,'surprised']])  walkCycle(lt,{stride,rate}) + walkSpeed()  jumpPose(lt,t0,t1,h)  emote(kind,x,y,s,age)
EXPR: neutral happy laugh sad cry angry surprised scared love sleepy wink determined shy

© edenfunf, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 16 other files (scripts) in .claude/skills/paper-cutout of edenfunf/reelmimic.

• SKILL.md
• GUIDE.md
• docs/demo-sheet.jpg
• docs/expressions.jpg
• docs/poses.jpg
• scripts/new_project.sh
• template/.gitignore
• template/LICENSE-render.mjs.txt
• template/package-lock.json
• template/package.json
• template/render.mjs
• template/src/cast.js
• template/src/config.js
• template/src/cutout.js
• template/src/kit.js
• template/src/scenes/demo.js
• … and 1 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit eac7fc7