Rotascoping

For either broadcast or Internet streaming video, rotoscoping is the rotated projection of a sequence, usually photographed action image frames that the artist can trace over or create an image to superimpose on it. It can be thought of as "painting on movies" efficiently.

Before computers, an animation stand called a Rotoscope was used to project a sequence of action frames against a surface so that a set of animation frames could be traced. The same work can now be done with digital images and special computer software. Tools that provide efficient ways to rotoscope include Digital Magic and Elastic Reality. Rotoscoping is frequently used as a technique for combining cartoon figures with realistic settings in television commercials and is also used for special effects in feature-length films.

I am going to draw inspiration from a range of existing sources, these are just a few. The first is the film ‘A Scanner Darkly’ which is a science fiction thriller directed by Richard Linklater in 2006. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. The movie was initially filmed digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope over the original footage, giving it its distinctive, artistic edge.

The level of skill incorporated into this film is of the highest quality and probably took thousands of hours considering they used 25 frames per second. The budget of this film was also very high, and as well as using the very best equipment, the animators also were using all the top software. It is great influential material but its highly unlikely our rotascoped footage will be as high quality as this film.

(I have researched freelance rotascoping on ‘YouTube’ as they are easier achievable and fit a more realistic outcome as people in similar circumstances to my own have created these productions. The first I have seen was a homemade music video which consisted of live footage of a man playing a guitar, this footage was then drawn over frame by frame to create the impression a cartoon character had been transferred to the real world and everything he touched seemed to transform into a rotoscoped animation too. The rotascoping much have taken a lot of effort to complete as the lines are very clean cut and neat, this is one aspect i also would like to include in the group video footage. I am using rotascoping as a method to imprint my animation expertise into the group project. )

(The second video that caught my attention while researching this method of animation was this, an unusual music video that features a man’s face that suddenly sprouts a fine art style, heavily detailed green beard gradually while shapes are projected through his sunglasses. I didn’t think this was rotascoping at first, until I realised the movement of the character behind the beard. He must have taken a photograph of himself everyday while growing a beard, then rotoscoped over the images and incorporated them into a short movie. The style is weird without losing its artistic edge, which I like. As we are supposed to be representing our creative skills as well as advertising the university, I thought I might integrate parts of this technique into my own rotascoped animation. Maybe a combination of both styles displayed on this page.)