Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is an technique used by animators to trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films. Rotoscoping is all done by computers now, but it wasn't always done this way.

The technique was created by Max Fleischer who used this technique in the program called Out Of The Inkwell (1915). He sketched his own brother in a clown outfit and the characters name was Koko The Clown. Rotoscoping is manly used for cartoons for example in The Fleischer Studios used this to animate Superman in the Superman Cartoons. A couple of years later Rotoscoping was used for the one of the most famous cartoon franchises of them all, The Looney Tunes.

Rotoscoping became digital in the 1990's where a man called Bob Sabinston created a interpolated rotoscoping process which allowed him to win the award for best short film Snack and Drink.

The movie The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1996) tile sequence was created using Rotoscoping. The opening title sequence was very convincing and worked well with the music. By using the method of Rotoscoping on the title sequence, I believe it did its job by getting the viewers attention and making them watch the whole movie. Great use of fade a ways and I liked how the cannon would blow up the horse to make the title appear.



Using Rotoscoping in after effects is similar to the Rotobrush. You can replace the background, apply effects to the foreground, and separate a foreground object, such as an object or person, from a background. Rotoscoping would be useful for creating the scene where the pen floats up and lands in one of my characters hand. I think Rotoscoping could improve my work because it will create the feeling that the pen is actually floating. I could use the Rotobrush to separate the pen from the scene and add effects.