Rotoscoping:

Rotoscoping:

Rotoscoping is an animation technique which allows animators to trace over footage. This is done frame by frame for use in live action and animation films. Originally, the live action film was projected onto frosted glass panel and then re-drawn by an animator. The projection equipment is called a Rotoscope. The device was eventually replaced by computers. In the visual effects sector the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of creating a matte by hand for an element on a live action plate so that it can be composited over a different image or background.

The technique of Rotoscoping was invented by Max Fleischer and he used it in his series Out of the Inkwell around 1915. He used it with his brother who dressed in a clown outfit as the character Koko the Clown. Fleischer used the technique in a number of his cartoons. His most noticeable was the Cab Calloway dance routines in the Betty Boop cartoons from the 1930s.

The Leon Schlesinger Productions, which produced the Looney Tunes for Warner Bros started to produce cartoons and used rotoscoping occasionally. Walt Disney and his animators used it in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and then from then the rotoscope was used mainly for studying human and animal motion.

Example:

Lord of the Rings, 1978 - Boromir's Death:





In the clip of Lord of the Rings from 1978 there is a fight scene before Boromir's death. Rotoscoping is used to add the characters onto the background. The characters are animated and fighting. The background is of some tall trees and a orange and red sunset (2:11). The characters are then placed onto the footage making it look like the characters are really in the woods. The technique is convincing as when I watched the shorts clip I didn't think that it looked out of place or wrong. As the clip is quite fast flowing the viewer doesn't have enough time to look for mistakes in the animation. The characters are animated, therefore the viewer is concentrating on the characters and seeing that they are doing. I think that the use of Rotoscoping is good for the time of creation.

How can Rotoscoping be useful when using After Effects?

It can be used to create shapes and then can use it to help to track the shape. For example creating a shape of a strawberry and then tracking the strawberry in a girls hand.

We can use the Rotobrush to isolate an image and put in on a different background. We could use this for a scene that we can't get to as we can only film inside college. For example we could shoot a section and then isolate a person put of the clip and then add a background a railway station behind them for example. This will give the view of the character being somewhere else that where it was filmed.