Shadow puppet style explainer videos

Carved leather puppets glowing on a lamplit screen. Brief it in one sentence and get a narrated, animated explainer film in the Shadow puppet theatre style, scored and voiced, in about 15 minutes.

Make one in this style

Or let the director choose a style for your topic.

A frame in the Shadow puppet theatre style

What it looks like, and when to use it.

Coloured leather puppets, carved with dots, flowers and spirals, pressed against a paper screen that glows from an oil lamp behind it. Shadow puppet theatre is drawn in code: each piece is rigid, turns on its rivet and moves on rods in a stepped, handmade rhythm. It turns any explanation into a little stage play.

Best for

Folk tales, fables and legends
Stories for children and families
Culture, festivals and traditions

Try a brief like

“The legend of the Moon Festival”
“How shadow puppets were made from leather”
“Why the Chinese zodiac has twelve animals”

The art direction the director follows.

Every style is a full art direction, not a filter: its own palette, type, motion and music. This is the brief the director works from for Shadow puppet theatre.

Look: Chinese shadow-puppet theatre drawn in code: translucent coloured leather puppets pressed against a glowing paper screen lit by an oil lamp behind it; each piece a rigid flat shape in red, green, amber, yellow or blue, with an even dark-brown edge and patterns carved right through it (dots, flowers, cloud spirals, lattice); white areas simply cut away; overlapping pieces darken where light passes through both; rivets at the joints and thin control rods running down off the screen; a dark wooden frame.
Motion: Rod puppetry: every piece is rigid and turns only around its rivet, in a stepped 10 fps rhythm; bodies sway on the main rod, loose wrists, tails and tassels swing and lag, heads nod; the lamp flickers, so the glow on the screen jumps and drifts.
Music: Chinese folk opera: banhu fiddle, suona, gongs, woodblock clappers and small cymbals, playful and theatrical.
Type: Titles as carved leather pieces: a red or amber plaque with the words cut out so the screen glows through, or cut-out letters in a bold slab serif (Alfa Slab One) with a dark edge.