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.)