Anipapers – Animated Paper Backgrounds for Animators

Hi animator! Does your animation live inside a lively, organic paper background, or just sit on top of a static one? introducing…AniPapers! Animated paper backgrounds for animators.

I drew my first ‘proper’ animation by hand on a tall stack of copy paper. Hundreds and hundreds of drawings, each frame on a different piece of paper.

On film, each piece of paper looks just a little different from the previous one; that grain, with those creases. Each one a forensic record, a snapshot of me over-handling it in too many late night drawing sessions. The effect of that is that when played back, even though it’s made up of hundreds of pieces of the exact same, cheap photocopier paper, the background flickers.

Big studios spend a lot of time avoiding that, fiddling with careful lighting and handling each background with white cotton gloves.
It’s an artifact of the handmade process, but it gives the animation a human heart, a background that flickers with warmth like a candle.

Digital paper doesn’t do that. Every frame is static and identical, but AniPapers do!

Each gives you a warm world that has a consistent feel and grain but flickers with life. A world your animation can live inside of, instead of a digital paper background that your animation just floats on top of.

Here are samples of the first five Anipapers. You can download “Sobrow” on me (It’s the one in the video at the top of this page)  Click the button below this video. 

Note: If it plays instead of downloads, right-click the button (or long press on mobile) and choose to “save as” to download the Anipapers.