German Expressionism

I have found some basic similarities between the the German Expressionism and the 3d movie methods of 2d layers/A-channel and machinima engine. German Expressionism referred to as expressionism in filmmaking, developed in Germany (especially Berlin) during the 1920s. During the period of recovery following World War I, the German film industry was booming, but because of the hard economic times filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German UFA studio developed a method of compensating for the lack of high budgets, by using symbolism and mise-en-scène to insert mood and deeper meaning into a movie.

The first Expressionist films, notably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Golem (1920), and Nosferatu (1922) were highly symbolic and deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories (from wikipedia).

Creating 3d movies there also some tips to make the budget lower. These are Alpha channels and 2D layers for the backgrounds and the enviroment, engines like machinima and low-poly characters. All these methods are used especially in video games because the producers need to make the job with less heavy files so the games can run fast in the console or computer, which means less hours of rendering and of course less cost.