Animation Reader

Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theaters and Sadow Films. Written by Lotte Reiniger was first published in 1970 in Great Britan under the title Shadow Theatres and Shadow Films, this reprint is from 1975 by Publishers Plays, Inc. Boston.

It’s hard to choose a good excerpt from one of my favorite books, so I have decided to quote a part where Lotte Reiniger talks about the way she works.

Playing

When you are going to play with your figure seriously, make sure that you are seated comfortably. The shooting will take up a long time and you will have to keep yourself as alert as possible. Don’t wear any bulgy sleeves; they might touch your figure unexpectedly and disturb its position. If possible arrange to place an iron or wooden bar 5 in. above the set along your field of action and let your arms rest on it, so that you touch your figure only with the finger-tips, or with your scissors.
Never lift the figure from the ground, but push it along, lying flat. If it is constructed correctly it will respond to the slightest touch, so push its limbs gently and carefully.
The most cautiously executed movements must be the slow ones, where you have to alter the position only the fraction of an inch. A steady, slow walk is one of the most tricky movements to execute. Here the most frequent mistake at the beginning is to let the body lag behind the legs, so that they seem to be running away from under the body. If you touch the centre of the body first and move it forward, holding the legs in the initial position, you will notice that they fall into the next position almost by themselves.

Tall, lean figures are more prone to these errors than round, short ones, which roll along easily, whilst the balance of ihc long ones is more difficult to establish.
It might prove to be a help, if you have reached the farthest extent of your step, to fix the toe of the forward foot onto the ground with a piece of Sellotape (Scotch tape), and move the body over it until the next extension is reached. But don’t forget to remove it well out of the way then, or it will impede another movement.
If two figures are crossing each other, it is wise to cover the lower figure with a piece of thin cellophane, so that the crossing figure will not be caught by its hinges.
Also, when a figure has to pass over an elaborately cut piece of scenery, it is best to cover it up in the same way during the passing movement. But it is essential after use to move all these aids out of the action field and away from the table, for they might reappear on unwanted places, or pieces of cellophane which are hardly visible, and so disturb another figure. When there are several figures on your scene which have to move simultaneously, marching in a procession or dancing in a row, make it a rule to move them always in the same succession from left to right, or right to left, according to the direction in which they are going. Otherwise you may forget one, as you will become absorbed with the creation of your movements. When you have trained yourself always to follow the same sequence of handling this danger is less great.
If you want to have a staccato movement, which can be very impressive, you have the figure on for say six movements and then let it stand static for six frames, or whatever rhythm you want it to follow.
If a figure is to turn round it had best do so in a quick motion. If you want the movement slower you might partly hide it in a convenient piece of the setting. But if the movement is to he seen openly, as for instance in a dance, you bring it into position (illustration 82), then lay round the outstanding point some of your tools, heavy and for preference pointed ones, like scissors or pliers, and mark the position of the feet on the ‘ground’.

Then you can replace the profile head by a frontal one and turn round one of the legs, slightly lifted towards the direction it is going to move into, then take away the tools and make a shot, move the head slightly, lift the leg and make another shot, make another move and make a third shot. Then replace your marking tools and take away the frontal head and replace the silhouetted head in the other direction. Take away the tools and make your shot. Now the figure can safely move in the other direction. To camouflage the turning operation a movement of the arms plus a change of hands can be very helpful.

For transformation or vanishing effects, it helps to add bits and pieces sticking out from the figure until it resembles the figure into which it is going to change. For vanishing effects you may cut out an effigy of the final position, cover the figure with it, take the figure away and cut the effigy shot by shot at whatever speed you like until it has vanished. A further refinement would be to cut the effigy out of various layers of transparent paper and take them away, shot after shot, until it has disappeared (about 15 to 20 lavers would be sufficient).
Lotte Reiniger.