Rotoshop is a
proprietary graphic
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...
s
editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...
program created by
Bob Sabiston.
Rotoshop uses an animation technique called
interpolated rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...
, which has been used in
Richard Linklater's films ''
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, th ...
'' and ''
A Scanner Darkly'', as well as the Talk to Chuck advertising campaign for
Charles Schwab. The name is a play on
''Photoshop'', a photo editing program from
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
. The software is not currently available for use outside Flat Black Films, the developer of Rotoshop.
Flat Black Films
/ref>
Aims
The software was developed to allow the user to create animation using techniques reminiscent of hand-drawn animation, yet preserving nuanced expressions and gestures that would not generally appear using traditional animation methods.
Use
Interpolation
Like Fantavision and Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
, Rotoshop allows for interpolation
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 ...
between keyframes. Once the artist has drawn key frames at the start and end of a time period, the program automatically generates intermediate frames. It is a simple form of "automatic tweening
Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image in ...
." Interpolated lines and shapes have a very smooth, fluid motion that is extremely difficult to achieve by hand-drawing each line.
Freezing
In order to manage different objects in the scene, the user can break the drawing into layers. A layer can be "frozen" so that a single drawing remains visible throughout the entire scene. This feature is necessary for backgrounds and other things that do not change shape through time. This frees the user from having to draw the same image for every frame in the sequence.
References
External links
Flat Black Films
Animation software
{{Graphics-software-stub