![US patent 1242674 figure 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/US_patent_1242674_figure_3.png)
Rotoscoping is an
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
technique that
animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...
s use to trace over motion picture footage,
frame
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a
glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
panel and traced over the image. This projection equipment is referred to as a rotoscope, developed by Polish-American animator
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became ...
, and the result is a rotograph. This device was eventually replaced by computers, but the process is still called rotoscoping.
In the
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
industry, ''rotoscoping'' is the technique of manually creating a
matte
Matte may refer to:
Art
* paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection.
* a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame
Film
* Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology
* Matte p ...
for an element on a live-action plate so it may be
composited over another background.
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...
is more often used for this, as it is faster and requires less work, but rotoscopy provides a higher level of accuracy and is often used in conjunction with chroma-keying. It may also be used if the subject is not in front of a green (or blue) screen, or for practical or economic reasons.
Technique
![rotoscoped frames of Eadweard Muybridge's 'Horse in Motion' engraved into twenty metal discs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Rotoscoped_frames_of_Eadweard_Muybridge%27s_%27Horse_in_Motion%27_engraved_into_twenty_metal_discs.gif)
Rotoscoping has often been used as a tool for
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
in
live-action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
movies. By tracing an object, the moviemaker creates a silhouette (called a
matte
Matte may refer to:
Art
* paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection.
* a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame
Film
* Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology
* Matte p ...
) that can be used to extract that object from a scene for use on a different background. While
blue- and green-screen techniques have made the process of layering subjects in scenes easier, rotoscoping still plays a large role in the production of visual effects imagery. Rotoscoping in the digital domain is often aided by
motion-tracking and
onion-skinning
Onion skinning, in 2D computer graphics, is a technique used in creating animated cartoons and editing movies to see several frames at once. This way, the animator or editor can make decisions on how to create or change an image based on the prev ...
software. Rotoscoping is often used in the preparation of
garbage mattes for other matte-pulling processes.
Rotoscoping has also been used to create a special visual effect (such as a glow, for example) that is guided by the matte or rotoscoped line. A classic use of traditional rotoscoping was in the original three ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' movies, where the production used it to create the glowing
lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured throughout the ''Star Wars'' franchise. A typical lightsaber is depicted as a luminescent plasma blade about in length emitted from a metal hilt around in length. First introduced in the or ...
effect with a matte based on sticks held by the actors. To achieve this, effects technicians traced a line over each frame with the prop, then enlarged each line and added the glow.
History
Predecessors
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...
had some of his famous
chronophotographic sequences painted on glass discs for the
zoopraxiscope
The zoopraxiscope (initially named ''zoographiscope'' and ''zoogyroscope'') is an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector. It was conceived by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muy ...
projector that he used in his popular lectures between 1880 and 1895. The first discs were painted on the glass in dark contours. Discs made between 1892 and 1894 had outlines drawn by Erwin Faber photographically printed on the disc and then colored by hand, but these discs were probably never used in the lectures.
By 1902,
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
toy companies
Gebrüder Bing and Ernst Plank were offering
chromolithographed film loops for their toy
kinematograph
Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...
s. The films were traced from live-action film footage.
Early works and Fleischer's exclusivity
The rotoscope technique was invented by animator
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became ...
in 1915, and used in his groundbreaking ''
Out of the Inkwell
''Out of the Inkwell'' is an American major animated series of the silent era produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929.
History
The series was the result of three short experimental films that Max Fleischer independently produced from 191 ...
'' animated series (1918–1927). It was known simply as the "Fleischer Process" on the early screen credits, and was essentially exclusive to Fleischer for several years. The live-movie reference for the character, later known as
Koko the Clown
Koko the Clown is an animated character created by Max Fleischer. He first appeared as the main protagonist in ''Out of the Inkwell'' (1918-1929), a major animated series of the silent era. Throughout the series, he goes on many adventures with hi ...
, was performed by his brother (
Dave Fleischer
Dave Fleischer (; July 14, 1894 – June 25, 1979) was an American film director and producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his older brother Max Fleischer. He was a native of New York City.
Biography
Fleischer was the y ...
) dressed in a
clown
A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms.
History
The most ancient clowns have been found in ...
costume.
Originally conceived as a shortcut to animating, the rotoscope process proved time-consuming due to the precise and laborious nature of tracing. Rotoscoping is achieved by two methods, rear projection and front surface projection. In either case, the results can have slight deviations from the true line due to the separation of the projected image and the surface used for tracing. Misinterpretations of the forms cause the line to wiggle, and the roto tracings must be reworked over an animation disc, using the tracings as a guide where consistency and solidity are important.
Fleischer ceased to depend on the rotoscope for fluid action by 1924, when Dick Huemer became the animation director and brought his animation experience from his years on the ''Mutt and Jeff'' series. Fleischer returned to rotoscoping in the 1930s for referencing intricate dance movements in his
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.[Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer ...](_blank)
cartoons. The most notable of these are the dance routines originating from jazz performer
Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...
in ''
Minnie the Moocher
"Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz- scat song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed (" scat") lyrics (for example, "Hi De Hi De Hi ...
'' (1932), ''
Snow-White'' (1933), and ''
The Old Man of the Mountain'' (1933). In these examples, the roto tracing was used as a guide for timing and positioning, while the cartoon characters of different proportions were drawn to conform to those positions.
Fleischer's last applications of rotoscope were for the realistic human animation required for the lead character—among others—in ''
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'' (1939), and the human characters in his last feature, ''
Mr. Bug Goes to Town
''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (also known as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'' and ''Bugville'') is a 1941 American animated Technicolor feature film produced by Fleischer Studios, previewed by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1941, and released in California ...
'' (1941). His most effective use of rotoscoping was in the action-oriented
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
''
Superman
Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
'' series of the early 1940s, where realistic movement was achieved on a level unmatched by conventional cartoon animation.
Contemporary uses of the rotoscope and its inherent challenges have included surreal effects in music videos such as Elvis Costello's "
Accidents Will Happen
"Accidents Will Happen" is a song written by Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It first appeared on the 1979 album '' Armed Forces''. Costello wrote the song about his many infidelities during this period of h ...
" (1978), Klaatu's "
Routine Day" (1979), A-ha's "
Take On Me
"Take On Me" is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha. The original version, recorded in 1984 and released in October of that same year, was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was p ...
" (1985), the live performance scenes in
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percuss ...
' "
Money for Nothing" (1985), Kansas' "
All I Wanted" (1986), and the animated TV series ''
Delta State'' (2004).
Uses by other studios
Fleischer's patent expired by 1934, and other producers could then use rotoscoping freely.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
and his animators used the technique extensively in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
in order to make the human characters' motions more realistic. The film went significantly over budget due to the complexity of the animation.
Leon Schlesinger Productions
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...
, which produced the ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. '' and ''
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' cartoons for
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, occasionally used rotoscoping. The opening to the 1939
MGM cartoon "Petunia Natural Park" from
''The Captain and the Kids'' featured a rotoscoped version of
MGM's mascot,
Jackie the Lion.
Rotoscoping was used extensively in China's first animated feature film, ''
Princess Iron Fan
Princess Iron Fan () is a character from the 16th century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West''. She is the wife of the Bull Demon King and mother of Red Boy. She is one of the most popular ''Journey to the West'' villains, alongside her husband ...
'' (1941), which was released under very difficult conditions during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Most of the movies produced with it were adaptations of folk tales or poems—for example, ''
The Night Before Christmas
''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...
'' or ''
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish''. Only during the early 1960s, after the "
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...
", did animators
start to explore very different aesthetics.
The makers of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' ''
Yellow Submarine'' used rotoscoping in the "
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. It was written primarily by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partners ...
" sequence. Director
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
used rotoscoping to remove a large chunk of
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
hanging from
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
's nose in his rock documentary ''
The Last Waltz
''The Last Waltz'' was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. ''The Last Waltz'' was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert a ...
''.
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatric ...
used rotoscoping extensively for his animated features ''
Wizards'' (1977), ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
'' (1978), ''
American Pop
''American Pop'' is a 1981 American adult animated jukebox musical drama film starring Ron Thompson and produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi. It was the fourth animated feature film to be presented in Dolby sound. The film tells the story of f ...
''
(1981), ''
Fire and Ice'' (1983), and ''
Cool World
''Cool World'' is a 1992 American live-action/animated black comedy fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi and written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, it tells the story of a cartoonist w ...
'' (1992). Bakshi first used rotoscoping because 20th Century Fox refused his request for a $50,000 budget increase to finish ''Wizards''; he resorted to the rotoscope technique to finish the battle sequences.
[''Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation'' making-of documentary.][Bakshi, Ralph. ''Wizards'' ]DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2004, audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
. ASIN: B0001NBMIK
Rotoscoping was also used in ''
Tom Waits For No One'' (1979), a short film made by John Lamb, ''
Heavy Metal''
(1981), ''
What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?'' (1983) and ''
It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown
''It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown'' is the 27th prime-time animated musical television special based upon the comic strip ''Peanuts,'' by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on the CBS network on Monday, April 16, 1984.
The special is prese ...
'' (1984); the Dire Straits “
Brothers in Arms” (1985), three of A-ha's music videos, "
Take On Me
"Take On Me" is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha. The original version, recorded in 1984 and released in October of that same year, was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was p ...
" (1985), "
The Sun Always Shines on T.V." (1985), and "
Train of Thought
The train of thought or track of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to ...
" (1986);
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...
's ''
The Secret of NIMH
''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...
'' (1982), ''
An American Tail
''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American Animated film, animated musical film, musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film features t ...
'' (1986), ''
Harry and the Hendersons
''Harry and the Hendersons'' is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hall. ...
'' (closing credits), ''
The BFG
''The BFG'' (short for ''The Big Friendly Giant'') is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book '' Danny, the Champion of the World ...
'' (1989), ''
Titan A.E.
''Titan A.E.'' is a 2000 American animated science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo and Drew Barrymore. Its title refers to the spacecraft ...
'' (2000); and
Nina Paley
Nina Carolyn Paley (born May 3, 1968) is an American cartoonist, animator, and free culture activist. She was the artist and often the writer of the comic strips ''Nina's Adventures'' and ''Fluff'', after which she worked primarily in animati ...
's ''
Sita Sings the Blues
''Sita Sings the Blues'' is a 2008 American animated musical romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, produced and animated by American artist Nina Paley. It intersperses events from the ''Ramayana'', light-hearted but knowledgeable disc ...
'' (2008).
In 1994,
Smoking Car Productions
''The Last Express'' is an adventure video game designed by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund in 1997 for PC. Players take on the role of an American who accepts an invite by a friend to join them on the Orient Express, days before the s ...
invented a digital rotoscoping process to develop its critically acclaimed adventure video game ''
The Last Express
''The Last Express'' is an adventure video game designed by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund in 1997 for PC. Players take on the role of an American who accepts an invite by a friend to join them on the Orient Express, days before the s ...
''. The process was awarded , ''Digital Cartoon and Animation Process''. The game was designed by
Jordan Mechner
Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964) is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is best known for designing and programming the Broderbund Apple II games ''Karateka'' and '' Prince of Persia'' in the 1980s, the la ...
, who had used rotoscoping extensively in his previous games ''
Karateka
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
'' and ''
Prince of Persia
''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.
The first two games i ...
''.
During the mid-1990s,
Bob Sabiston
Bob Sabiston (born 1967) is an American film art director, computer programmer, and creator of the Rotoshop software program for computer animation. Sabiston began developing software as an undergraduate and then graduate researcher in the MIT ...
, an animator and computer scientist veteran of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
)
Media Lab, developed a computer-assisted "interpolated rotoscoping" process, which he used to make his award-winning short movie "Snack and Drink". Director
Richard Linklater
Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies '' ...
subsequently employed Sabiston and his proprietary Rotoshop software in the full-length feature movies ''
Waking Life
''Waking Life'' is a 2001 American experimental adult animated film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the ...
'' (2001) and ''
A Scanner Darkly
''A Scanner Darkly'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994, and includes an extensive ...
'' (2006). Linklater licensed the same proprietary rotoscoping process for the look of both movies. Linklater was the first director to use digital rotoscoping to create an entire feature movie. Additionally, a 2005–08 advertising campaign by
Charles Schwab used Sabiston's rotoscoping work for a series of television commercials, with the tagline "Talk to Chuck". ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' used rotoscope as a couch gag in the episode
Barthood
"Barthood" is the ninth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 583rd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 13, 2015. The episode parodies ...
, with Lisa describing it as "a noble experiment that failed".
In 2013, the
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
''
The Flowers of Evil'' used rotoscoping to produce a look that differed greatly from its
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
source material. Viewers criticized the show's shortcuts in facial animation, its reuse of backgrounds, and the liberties it took with realism. Despite this, critics lauded the movie, and the website
Anime News Network
Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
awarded it a perfect score for initial reactions.
In early 2015, an anime film titled ''
The Case of Hana & Alice
is a Japanese rotoscoped youth drama film written and directed by Shunji Iwai. It is the prequel to Iwai's 2004 live-action film, '' Hana and Alice''. The film was released on February 20, 2015. A manga adaptation by Dowman Sayman began ser ...
'' (animated prequel to the 2004 live-action film, ''
Hana and Alice
is a 2004 Japanese film, Japanese teen romance film by director Shunji Iwai. The film, shot on High-definition video, HD digital video by the director of photography, Noboru Shinoda, who shared a longstanding working relationship with Shunji Iwai ...
'') was entirely animated with rotoscoping, but it was far better received than ''The Flowers of Evil'', with critics praising its rotoscoping. In 2015, ', a short-form horror anime series using rotoscoping, aired on Japanese TV.
''
Undone'' (2019–), an Amazon Prime original series, was created using the technique.
''
The Spine of Night
''The Spine of Night'' is a 2021 American adult animation, adult animated dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. It stars Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Mangani ...
'' (2021), a feature-length fantasy film, was rotoscope animated by Gorgonaut Studio, after a series of earlier rotoscope animated short films.
See also
*
Rotoshop
Rotoshop is a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston.
Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscoping, which has been used in Richard Linklater's films ''Waking Life'' and ''A Scanner Darkly'', as wel ...
is also referred to as
interpolated
In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
rotoscoping
*
Motion capture
Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
*
List of rotoscoped works
A list of works that were produced using rotoscoping.
Animated films
* ''The Adventures of Pinocchio (1972 film), The Adventures of Pinocchio''
* ''Alice in Wonderland (1951 film), Alice in Wonderland''
* ''All Dogs Go to Heaven''
* ''Alois Nebel ...
References
External links
*
Description of "Digital cartoon and animation process" (Digital rotoscoping) Patent
{{Animation
Audiovisual introductions in 1915
Animation techniques
Film and video technology