They are jointed paper-cut figures (cut and then fastened with split pins and thread I think), laid out on multiple stacks of glass and ground-glass to simulate depth, and then back-illuminated (just as shadow puppets would be).

It's frame by frame stop-motion capture, for sure.

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thaumasiotes 5 days ago | parent [-]

So just to be clear about it: they are traditional shadow puppets, displayed in the traditional manner, but for a camera?

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veltas 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

To be clear: they are not shadow puppets at all, they are not being displayed in the traditional way, but they are being captured with a camera.

In many scenes characters entirely change their shape in a natural or fluid way, because the cut-outs are being wholly replaced with different cut-outs from frame to frame, to simulate a natural/fluid motion. This is one of many techniques used in the film possible with stop-motion animation and impossible with shadowpuppets.

I watched the film and was quite impressed with the animation techniques used, although this isn't really novel but not because of puppets, animation actually goes back much further than film. It's a beautiful film though, and I can see why people preserved it.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2...

	▲	dofm 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Indeed, but there are evidently some jointed/ligatured/pinned figures because there are some jointed movements. Stop-frame, obviously. In some scenes parts of a figure simply do not move or change shape at all while other parts of the limbs do, and the limbs move in angular rotations before being swapped out for recut or different limbs. In the absence of machine cutting, the only explanation is that the figures are composed of pieces. I am quite sure some jointing and "composition" of figures was used — not just for efficiency but for quality frame to frame. It is absolutely amazing art but the level of craft is of the scale! Just from the level of consistency even if you assume that film frames have been carefully realigned in digitisation.

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1659447091 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No, they are not traditional shadow puppets. According to the wiki you linked, "Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation" where "shadow-play-like puppets are filmed frame-by-frame"

They are similar in visual style but different in form and method.

> In the 1910s, the German animator Lotte Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation as a format, whereby shadow-play-like puppets are filmed frame-by-frame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_play#Shadow_puppetry_to...