German expressionism

German expressionism definition 
German expressionism is a cultural movement that is challenging to define as it is not defined by a singular style or method of creation. It is better described by the artist who's creating the work's mindset and the generation he or she lived in. But there are a few different ways to identify a German expressionism piece, such as identifying the more notable parts of the piece, like if it uses monochromatic colours such as blacks an whites, unusual shapes, distorted figures and whether it seems like the tone and emotion of the piece could be linked with horror or drama.
Example of different styles of work within German expressionism:

Metropolis  1927
Although being one of the more advanced films linked with German expressionism and  one of the later films within the timeline, metropolis still has strong evidence of being influenced by German expressionism, showing key traits of  typical German expressionism, it shows these key traits by using a very black and white monochromatic filter(most likely due to the fact colour cinematography was not invented at this point) throughout the film, which contrasts within the tone of the film as it clearly shows links to the Jewish concentration camps before the mass killing stages, this stage could be more formally known as the forced work stages which is hinted at toward the start of the film. There is also high contrast within the film too as not only is this represented throughout the picture of the film but it is also represented through the music and soundtrack of the film as the soundtrack can go from very happy orchestral pieces to very saddening  pieces which shifts the tone of the film quickly making it seem intellectual along with its intricate set pieces such as the steam pump room saw first toward  the start of the film. the high contrast can also link to the bare bones of German expressionism in which the emotions where very darkly toned which were then deemed more intellectual through this dark tone of emotions was inspired by the first world war. within the film there is alot of extreme shadows, at certain points in some of the scenes there is alot of light shown and at other points some scenes are shown to be heavily shaded, this can help convey the religious symbolism of the film as there are depictions of the christian cross and a pentagon throughout the film the contrast between light and dark, good and evil is shown within what the characters look like and act like as the more sinister characters are wearing darker clothes and have minimal movement and show less empathy, whereas the lighter more innocent character wear light clothing and exaggerate their movements to make their scenes have more of a happier tone. The high contrast of the scenes can also affect the mood of the film at different points. another typical German expressionism trait shown within the movie is the use of exaggerated forms  and angles this is shown when the viewer first see's the city of metropolis, the building are designed in a weird disfigured way in which they are piled up ontop of each other, they are horizontal and vertical building, the windows and the doorways sometimes are very tall of very small in contrast to the structures and throughout the film the machines are represented by large pipes and enormous steam producing chunks of metal. The film metropolis also shows key components to a classical German expressionism movie, there are links to horror and suspense, although the original movies and theatre performances were credited on being smart and complex for the lack of romance, metropolis has hints of themes of romance and it is shown to be a mix of many different genres as  although this movie shows clear examples of German expressionism, it is clear to me that this film was one of the later movies in which was produced in america, as the sets and scenes are extravagant and most of the scenes are filmed with props, unlike its predecessors in which many of the scenes were filmed with painted props, and painted backgrounds for the set. horror is clearly displayed throughout the film as the story toward the end shifts into a drastic plead to save the city from drowning, there is tension when all the children need to be saved and the movie also links heavily with the fact that maria is a witch which is a classic horror villain, although she is not a witch she is in fact a mechanical being from what her design looks like within the film. The suspense and tension of the film is conveyed through the brightness of the scenes and the music of the scenes too as it shifts the mood throughout the movie. The film also deals with such themes as : isolation and insanity, this is displayed through the inferred Jewish characters in which are shown as the working class of the movie , they are isolated away from the bright and upper class workers of the film, they are portrayed with typical feelings which link with isolation such as sadness and despair, they are shown to be helpless and in need of a light to guide them which links directly to the theme of isolation, isolation can also link to how some Jewish people would have felt during the rise of Hitler, in which around about the time this film was release, Hitler's ideologies were growing throughout Germany, pushing the Jewish people into a corner and making them feel isolated against society. insanity is a weakly linked theme within the film as it is only hinted upon, when the main character so to speak falls ill half way through the movie, he wakes up and due to recent events his emotions shown seem to make his character feel as if he is insane and he does not know what recently happened, during the era of film this movie was released in, ideas such as a mechanical being turning into a human duplicate which turns is labelled as a witch was not a popular idea, so viewers at this point in time would label this movie as themed and linked within insanity. Overall i think that the movie metropolis is heavily influenced and linked to German expressionism, it has strong links to what was currently happening at the time within Germany and it also had strong,links to the typical themes and artistic feelings, shapes and forms of German expressionism. i also think that this film was the star of its era within German expressionism as it brought a new well thought out story to the Hollywood scene, its set pieces and the way it was shot would have classed it as a masterpiece of its era, and a true definition of the highest peak of the film industry linked within German expressionism.
German expressionism influences 
1- Tim Burton - Batman Returns - this is clearly inspired by various different German expression era films as it takes a variety of different influences such as metropolis, it shows hints of different character traits across the two films and the tone across the two movies is carried across, not only this but it uses the musical soundtrack behind the film to create the same effect of suspense such as it is used in the same way in the film metropolis.
2- Dc Comics- Dc comics has been influenced by German expressionism as there have been various comics which have ran throughout the years based upon certain stories which link to German expressionism, there was a special comic of batman which dc released which had batman as a variation of nostafatu. Many of the early versions of the original characters from the dc comics franchise had the tone and expressions of German expressionism

3- Limbo- Limbo is a German expressionism inspired game in which it links directly due to its use of distorted shapes and figures, monochromatic tone which is used to enhance the emotions within the game and its unique art style within the German expressionism theme.

4- Edward scissor hands - during the run time through this movie there are multiple strong links between German expressionism and Edward scissor hands, as a movie made by Tim Burton it is known to be inspired heavily through German expressionism, the links are things such as the theme and genre, emotions displayed, design and finally how the characters are designed. 

5- The Nightmare Before Christmas - Another Creation from Tim Burton means strong links between the movie and German expressionism, the tone, emotions and figures/ shapes of the movie are a strong inference that it is  inspired by German  expressionism as it takes the disfigured shapes approach to architecture, it uses some monochromatic colours and sinister themes.

6- sin city- sin city uses links with the colour, tone, genre and theme of the movie, it uses a very sinister tone and theme which contrasts against the colour of the movie, the colour of the movie is very monochromatic and uses black and white filters throughout the movie, this can be used as a strong link toward the German expressionism genre as a whole as most of the original movies were shot in black and white, sin city as a modern day era movie uses this black and white filter as a nostalgic item to make the viewer think about the era in contrast.

7- stranger things- Stranger things takes it influence from the bare bones of German expressionism, it takes the sinister themes, the genre of horror drama  and while the characters visit the upside down, the viewer can clearly tell that the upside down is inspired by German expressionism, it uses very monochromatic colours, the shapes of the upside down are distorted and un-natural such as the shapes of the famous German expressionism buildings within the windows. not only does the upside down take inspiration from German expressionism but the monster during stranger things 2 called the 'mind flayer' could be inspired from German expressionism   as it takes an inhuman like form, and is very abstract.

8- wax work-  German expressionism changed waxwork painted as it influenced them through the shape and figure style, the colour such as monochromatic colouring and heavy shading also is used within some of the pieces, in the piece below it is clearly represented that it has been influenced by German expressionism by these things listed above, not only this but it seems like the piece is trying to convey a horror and suspense genre to itself.

9- gone home - In the game 'Gone Home' some of the artwork is shown to be influenced by German expressionism as it uses monochromatic colours and distorted shapes, in which is heavily used within German expressionism, not only this but the artwork also seems to convey the style and theme of horror and suspense. 

 A character drawn in the German expressionism style 

I have tried to link my character to German expressionism as i have tried to design the character with un-proportionate body parts, as the characters head is a lot larger than the body, and the hat is alot smaller the the head, i tried to convey the 'film noir' theme within the piece by making the character look like a classical gangster, while also using alot of tone and shading to try and convey the monochromatic tone and the 'dark' style. 

German expressionism enviroment 

 Silhouettes

Sketch overs 

final piece development before animating 

Originally my piece looked very different compared to the still final version, in the version above you can tell that there are multiple differences compared to the thumbnail sketch/plan. Within the final piece before it was animated, the clouds design was changed originally the clouds were supposed to have an angular design to them, which would link directly to German expressionism, but as i was painting my scene i thought it was better to paint them in a more realistic way which could help the viewer distinguish what the clouds are. From the original plan the raven was not supposed to be one shade yet as time went on i decided not to keep it as one solid colour and i added in some shading. Furthermore, i changed the background and the moons design, the moon grew larger and i added in some light splotches around the surface and the background became more lighter as originally i intended the background to be blacked out as the night sky, with no light.
inspirations 
There are multiple inspirations for my piece such as the links of the raven to mythology, the raven in Norse mythology was believed to be the eyes and the the ears of the chief viking god, ravens were used as a way of navigating on long voyages, they also have strong links to death, one of my personal interests is the show vikings' in which in the show ravens are symbolised as a way to convey death. Another one of my personal interests is the show/books called game of thrones , in which can be classified of a horror-drama as it conveys a large amount of death within the show, the ravens are represented for everything death and the foretelling of the future.
painting/artistic techniques
In my work i have used a variety of painting techniques, some of which can link to my artist inspirations such as tim burton, in some of the reference images and concept art for tim burtons movies, there is a certain flow with the brush and a certain way the brush strokes flow in patterns can be seen within the clouds and raven.
painting influences 

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst has inspired my painting style within this project as when i was completing my idea i tried to replicate the grainy effect within the objects, its almost as if the painting was like the early stages of coloured animation which also links within the project description to create a animated piece of work. if i had to narrow my painting style down to one type id say that my painting style has a very heavy cartoon essence to it, it uses a small palette of colours and either a heavy amount of shading or a heavy amount of light.

Presenting my ideas
After finishing my developed piece i made a mind map to decide what id like to animate in my scene, after picking out a few ideas i presented it to my peers so i could have a second opinion on whats best for my piece, and what i should do relating to my level of skill.

 planning for the last three weeks of the project 

finished piece 

Evaluation 
During my project i experimented with my ideas in different variation. i experimented by designing my thumbnail sketches in different ways, these different ways were things such as the style and the base for the piece, some pieces used a more natural environment such as the night sky, where as other pieces were based upon a darkened city. i experimented with the use of shadows and light within each developed piece, this would help convey the tone and theme of the piece, if it used a heavy amount of shadowing it would convey a darker tone, if it used a lot of lighting it could possibly be a happier tone. the theme although stayed the same within each piece, the theme of the project was German expressionism. my experiments helped me develop my ideas as i began to use a lot of shadow mapping, i made sure that each developed peace used light to guide the viewer to the focal point. the shadows within each piece were developed so that the colours flowed toward the light, i also eventually ended up using shadows on the focal point to enhance how the body of the raven looked. i planned my environment by using the rule of thirds and the golden spiral, i used these techniques to position the focal point and the background environment, the result was used in my final piece, i think it work quite effectively, as i also used the technique of leading lines to the focal point.During this project i learnt a few techniques such as animating a 2d piece in photo shop i also learnt different techniques such as how to paint a cloud realistically. in this project i used a variety of research such as research to do with German expressionism artists, German expressionism definitions and examples. i also researched about the different art style techniques within german expressionism.this affected my ideas as my ideas began to use a darker tone to them, using sinister themes such as the use of ravens which could link to death, it affected the use of colour within my work too as i did not use a large colour palette, i stuck to blacks and whites. i used references toward a researched artist such as Tim Burton, i tried to replicate his art style within my work, but eventually i changed it due to my development process in which i decided that it would be better if i changed the piece to be more realistic instead of distorted as it could confuse the viewer. As well as artist references i also used references to things in which are displayed from within my scene such as the raven and the clouds, the references have been useful to get a accurate depiction of the object it is supposed to be within the scene, without the references i would not have had such a detailed piece for my project. i am satisfied with how my 2d project has worked out as i feel like my 2d painting skills have developed during the project, i have also learnt how to animate on Photoshop which i feel like i have picked up quite quickly. i think one thing i could have done better during this project was make my animation of my piece flow more fluidly as the clouds in the piece jolt across the screen, they do not flow fluidly, as well as this i feel like the background of the piece where the light and shadows are, could have been developed more, maybe there could have been shadows in the background. i'm satisfied with my animation although as i have made the raven/crow blink effectively, the animation is fluid and i feel like for a first attempt i have picked up animating quickly and developed a short animation, the clouds in the background do move quite frantically around but i think this could link to German expressionism as in the them of German expressionism nothing is perfect, there are sinister themes which create nervous feelings within viewers, in turn i think that the clouds moving frantically explores the fact of them being nervous or afraid, with the overshadowing effect of the raven. during the painting process i feel like i could have used my time more effectively, if i was quicker then it would have gave me more time to animate and this would have been effective so i could develop my animation further.