animation alternatives

While making short films using animation, quality comes at a cost. Most such ventures do not receive financial backing and many good scripts languish at the hurdle of finance. However, imagination and innovation can provide interesting alternatives which can be cost effective as well.
One such creative option can be checked out at http://www.sandfantasy.com/videoclips.htm
The skill of sand art on an illuminated glass top triggered off some more alternatives in my mind:

As a trainer, I have used an OHP (Over Head Projector) to project an animation sequence created on the glass top of the OHP and the same would be projected on screen. The background scenes, characters, props were all created on cutouts of OHP transparency sheets. One can take colour prinouts on matt-finish transparency sheets and then cut out required characters and props.

Shadow-play, puppetry, miming can combine with basic animation, too.
(this article was sent by Pravin Sabnis. check his poetry n films at http://poems-pravinsabnis.blogspot.com/)