# Silhouette Animation (シルエット・アニメーション)

> Silhouette animation moves jointed black card figures one frame at a time on an underlit glass table. The films of Lotte Reiniger joined shadow play, cut paper and cinema into a language that tells through contour and gesture.

- IndexStyle No.622 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/silhouette-animation
- Kind: Technique · Family: Animation Techniques · Era: 1910s–
- Mood: Nostalgia, Luxury, Calm
- What this family collects: The shared question is where to spend the labor of making images one at a time, and choosing how many drawings to skip has shaped both the look and the staging.

## Brief inputs

Supply these before production. They are intentionally not invented by the style.

- Deliverable and channel: page, app screen, deck, campaign image, garment, object or space
- Subject and message: what the audience must notice or understand first
- Audience and context: where, when and at what viewing distance it will be encountered
- Format: dimensions, aspect ratio, responsive states, slide count or physical constraints
- Content hierarchy: required copy, data, actions, imagery and legal information
- Production constraints: accessibility, materials, budget, image rights and delivery deadline

## Defining characteristics

- Sharp outer contours enclosing fully black figures and plants
- Limbs segmented by wire or lead joints
- Black foregrounds against pale or layered translucent backgrounds
- Profile gestures exaggerating fingers, chins and garment edges

## Best used for

- Telling fable and myth through posture and outline rather than facial detail
- Uniting figures, lettering and plants in one black-shape system for title sequences

## Composition recipe

- Typography & lettering: Cut lettering as solid shapes too, prioritizing open counters and readable contour over fine ornament.
- Layout & structure: Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.
- Material & texture: Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.

## Colour

Read off the reference works below, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.

- Ground: #D8B27A
- The colour it is remembered by: #7891A0
- Text and outlines: #171513

## Evidence and rights boundary

- Treat the source of record and reference works below as evidence for understanding the style, not as assets to reproduce.
- The AI interpretation image, when present, is a browsing aid only. It is neither a reference work nor evidence for the definition.
- For a branded design system, translate hierarchy, spacing, colour roles and component logic into an unrelated fictional service. Do not copy logos, proprietary type, icons, product copy, screenshots or exact component geometry.
- For a regional, Indigenous or community-rooted tradition, retain place, authorship and historical context. Do not combine unrelated motifs or reduce the entry to generic ethnic decoration.
- For fashion and subculture, distinguish documentary context from a costume prompt; use fictional adults and avoid real labels, public figures and caricature.
- Record the rights status and intended use of every supplied image, typeface, logo and quotation before production.

## Translate it by medium

The rules below preserve the visual grammar without copying a historical artefact literally.

### Web and app

- Page structure: translate “Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.” into the hero, section rhythm and information hierarchy.
- Type system: use “Cut lettering as solid shapes too, prioritizing open counters and readable contour over fine ornament.” for display moments and short labels. Keep body copy, navigation, forms and status text in a highly legible companion when the display treatment reduces clarity.
- Components and imagery: carry “Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.” through image treatment, borders, dividers, cards and selected surfaces; do not decorate every component equally.
- Tokens: begin with #D8B27A as the ground, #7891A0 as the memorable colour, and #171513 for text, outlines and high-contrast detail. Assign colours by semantic role before tuning individual components.
- Presentation: render the screen itself as the design artefact. Add a phone, browser chrome or perspective mockup only when the deliverable explicitly asks for one.
- Responsive behaviour: preserve hierarchy, alignment logic and the dominant cue when columns collapse; do not reproduce a desktop composition by merely shrinking it.
- Usability gate: keyboard focus, action labels, contrast, zoom and reduced-motion behaviour remain explicit even when the historical style did not account for them.

### Slides and decks

- Title slide: express one idea with the strongest scale, alignment or framing move from “Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.”.
- Content slides: keep the reading layer quieter than the title layer. Use one dominant characteristic per slide and repeat the same grid, margins and type roles across the deck.
- Images and surfaces: art-direct crops, masks, rules and backgrounds with “Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.” rather than adding unrelated decoration.
- Charts and diagrams: use #D8B27A as the ground, #7891A0 as the memorable colour, and #171513 for text, outlines and high-contrast detail; preserve labels and numerical contrast before stylistic treatment.
- Presentation: deliver a flat slide canvas by default. A photographed screen, laptop or conference room is a different deliverable and must be requested explicitly.
- Sequence: alternate emphatic slides with quiet explanatory slides so the style has rhythm instead of becoming constant noise.

### Image generation and art direction

- Subject: choose one concrete subject that serves one of the uses above; the style is the treatment, not the subject.
- Composition: build the frame from “Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.”. Make the focal hierarchy readable before adding texture.
- Lettering and graphic marks: follow “Cut lettering as solid shapes too, prioritizing open counters and readable contour over fine ornament.”. If text is not essential, omit it; if it is essential, use short neutral wording and reject illegible pseudo-text.
- Surface, light and finish: interpret “Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.” as material, texture, edge quality, depth and lighting rather than as a generic filter.
- Effect discipline: gradients, bloom, glass, chrome, heavy shadows, grain and distressed paper are off by default unless the material direction names or clearly requires them.
- Cliché test: remove the most obvious period prop or motif. The style should still read through composition, type, colour relation and material behaviour.
- Set direction: make a clear establishing composition, a changed crop or viewpoint, a material/detail study, and a reduced alternate. Keep the visual grammar stable while changing the framing.
- Ready-to-run prompt: https://indexstyle.org/styles/silhouette-animation/prompt.txt

### Styling, objects and spaces

- Silhouette and proportion: translate “Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.” into the distribution of volume, balance, symmetry or asymmetry.
- Materials and finish: start from “Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.”; choose real materials whose behaviour supports the style instead of printing a motif onto an unrelated surface.
- Graphic detail: apply “Cut lettering as solid shapes too, prioritizing open counters and readable contour over fine ornament.” only where lettering, labels, trims or wayfinding have a reason to exist.
- Palette: use #D8B27A as the ground, #7891A0 as the memorable colour, and #171513 for text, outlines and high-contrast detail. Let one role dominate, one support and one provide legibility or edge definition.
- Edit: carry two or three defining characteristics strongly. Avoid turning every characteristic into a literal prop or costume reference.

## What to avoid

This is not an illustration filled with black. Cuttable contour, articulated joints and transmitted-light layers must form one system of movement.

## Application checklist

Work through this before calling a piece an application of this style.

- [ ] The deliverable, subject, audience, format and content priority are explicit
- [ ] One characteristic is dominant and at least two others support it
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Sharp outer contours enclosing fully black figures and plants
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Limbs segmented by wire or lead joints
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Black foregrounds against pale or layered translucent backgrounds
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Profile gestures exaggerating fingers, chins and garment edges
- [ ] The layout follows: Turn figures to profile and leave room in the direction of hand, face and movement. Move foreground, middle and pale background as separate layers.
- [ ] The lettering follows: Cut lettering as solid shapes too, prioritizing open counters and readable contour over fine ornament.
- [ ] The material and surface follow: Cut black card, articulate it with small joints, and photograph it on glass lit from below. Layer tissue or translucent material behind it.
- [ ] The colour relation holds: #D8B27A as ground, #7891A0 carrying the style, #171513 for text and outlines
- [ ] The result still works without the decorative layer: hierarchy, reading order and primary action remain clear
- [ ] Responsive, accessibility or physical-production constraints have been checked for the chosen medium
- [ ] No AI interpretation image has been used as evidence or copied as a visual reference
- [ ] Logos, proprietary type, exact interface geometry and existing artwork compositions have been excluded unless separately licensed
- [ ] Community, regional or subcultural context has been preserved where it is part of the style
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Stop Motion (ストップモーション)** — Moving puppets and models one frame at a time to give matter life. The faint tremor of handwork and the presence of real materials remain a charm CG cannot replace. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/stop-motion
- **Direct Animation (ダイレクト・アニメーション)** — Images made without a camera, by drawing, scratching and pasting directly onto the filmstrip. The film stock itself becomes the brushstroke and the rhythm. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/direct-animation

## Compose it with something else

The dictionary can put this entry in a structural role and another in an accent role, and report where the two fight: https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=silhouette-animation+stop-motion

## Further study

- Lotte Reiniger
- Jointed card figures and underlit glass
- The Adventures of Prince Achmed

## Reference works

- BFI — Scissors Make Films: Lotte Reiniger's Magical Animations — https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/scissors-make-films-lotte-reiniger-creating-her-magical-animations

## AI interpretation

An AI-generated interpretation image exists for browsing convenience only — it is not a reference work: https://indexstyle.org/ai/silhouette-animation.jpg

## Source of record

- BFI — Scissors Make Films: Lotte Reiniger's Magical Animations — https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/scissors-make-films-lotte-reiniger-creating-her-magical-animations

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/silhouette-animation
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/silhouette-animation/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compare_styles, compose_styles, find_related_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)