TLDR: Watch The Adventures of Prince Achmed below.

I haven't really 'finished' anything to show as of late because school projects are usually rushed. Except for final projects in which case they are not finished yet...

The 'sillhouette style' in a lot of art nowadays is becoming very popular. I feel that it is a bit overused to some extents, but it is a huge feat to create such unique and interesting compositions in a complete 2d plane using only outer edge details. So here are some films that German animator and director Lotte Reiniger has worked on or completed instead. If you've never heard of her, she was a very talented woman and the stopmotion and storytelling in her work are phenomenal for those days before Pinocchio, etc. of the 1940s. You can always read more about her on wikipedia. I am merely introducing you to her work.

There a ton of projects she has worked on. They ranged from simple stopmotion figures to Chinese puppetry style sillhouetted sets and characters. The special effects she used at the time were also very awesome. Her projects ranged from approximately the 1910s to the 1950s and 60s so they are all pretty old. Many are pretty hard to find on the internet because they have popular titles (German titles, translated to English) such as Dr. Dolittle, Carmen, and The Pursuit of Happiness.

Many of her films, like Disney, were inspired by old stories that people were familiar with, but told in unique and different ways.

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I love the animation of Jack skipping after he (spoiler:) gets the beans.

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another touching tale

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In this film, Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper), she animated the wooden rats, as one of her first projects she worked on. She only did some animation and her significant style isn't really seen here, but the film is still very interesting. Sequential parts can be found in the related videos section to the right.

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This is an 'Art of' video, where they show you techniques and how Reiniger implemented her style into stopmotion animation.

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AND THE CREAM OF THE CROP: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed)
If the music, design, animation, and story (Based on One Thousand And One Nights) don't make you jizz in your pants, I don't know what would. This is by far Lotte's most famous work, created all the way back in 1926. Now unfortunately I couldn't find a full version but here's a snippet. You can easily find more clips on Youtube.

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It's good to be reminded that animation can exist in different mediums rather than just Flash Animation. However, many techniques can be learned by outside techniques and used in Flash (or any other media). I feel that Lotte was successful at telling a story even though parts of her films could be a bit abstract or strange which I value in animation. I'm not a huge fan of collage and seizure films that are 100% up to interpretation. But it's nice to see style.

If this post is successful I'll gladly make more like these.

Oh and I'm making a 3d film called Bubblehouse Boy. Actually It's just a render I did for a project. I may submit to the art portal eventually.