Animation: Process & Production - understanding -Walter Ruttmann: "Lichtspiel Opus I" (OUAN405)

This piece of animation is an important piece of animation history as one of the first pieces of abstract animation, by creating this piece it showed how animation could be used as a creative tool as expressive as painting and other forms of art popular at the time. When this animation was created in 1921 it was around the time that the world of art took a new direction with the emergence of cubism, surrealism and  dada. Although the animation is of abstract nature there is a clear indication that the animation was not experimental as there is synchronous editing with the music to emote certain feelings in the viewer, so even though there appears to be no narrative to the film there is a definite emotional journey that the viewer undergoes whilst watching the animation.
As Ruttmann used oil paint on a glass frame to create each frame, perhaps this was to further the expressive qualities of the animation, although William Morritz suggests that the oil paint on glass process was used as it was easier for Ruttman to modify, add or remove the paint for each frame.
This process would have further enabled Ruttman to create an animation that would be easier for the musician to compose a piece of music to accompany the animation, due to its smooth and fluid movement.