What Is Rotoscope Animation in 2021?

EvolutionCo
3 min readMar 4, 2021

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Animated movies are everyone’s favourite from 5 to 70, from Toy Story to Lion King, each has a delightful story to tell and bond to make with the audiences. While we enjoy the final visual delight did you know there are more than one ways to animate a movie? As leading videography experts our team has crowned rotoscoping as the most innovative way of creating animated videos in 2021!.

Now that we have got you wondering what Rotoscoping is all about, let’s talk about it.

Rotoscope

What is Rotoscoping?

Decades ago when animated movies took its birth in this world, audiences were not sure or comfortable with this format. Cartoons running, walking and talking was like living in another world. They were very curious to find out what was behind these animated figures. This is where rotoscoping came in.

It is a graphic asset for animated and live action projects. First introduced by Animator Max Fliescher in the year 1915, while he was trying to make the process of animation simple he discovered tracing live footage would be the best way to do. He believed that drawing first hand was a time consuming process whereas tracing is much faster.

This gave birth to the first rotoscoped cartoon character “Koko the Clown”. The cartoons were immediately popular. A reviewer for the New York Times wrote in 1919, “After a deluge of pen-and-ink ‘comedies’ in which figures move with mechanical jerks with little or no wit to guide them, it is a treat to watch the smooth action of Mr. Fleischer’s figure”

The still at the head of this article features legendary band leader and singer Cab Calloway performing “Minnie the Moocher” in 1932. You can see the animation here At the start you see footage of Calloway’s idiosyncratic act, and then at various times like 1:52 or 2:25 you’ll see a walrus creature whose movement has been rotoscoped or traced from Calloway’s performance.

The Evolution

As technology evolved, movies did too and it was time for an upgrade for rotoscoping too. Unearthing the history our experts share, ‘In the 90’s due to technology intervention the process called interpolated rotoscoping was introduced’ Wondering what it is? Well it is a technique that allows you to use rotoscoping technique with a computer. Later this technique became popular by the name rotoshop. This software lets the user to trace figures and applies the basic forms to other movements.

What do you achieve through rotoscopy ?

Today with the techniques of rotoscoping is used to create a mask around the object that needs to be removed or added to another moving frame by using articulated rotoscoping. We human beings are programmed to notice movement. It’s an important quality for designers who help the audience to notice and connect with their work. But how can you incorporate motion in a way that enhances your art and doesn’t take advanced animation skills? With the right tools, you can create gif’s animation in just a few steps.

Why is it important?

Imagine tracing a shape around an object captured live frame, cutting it and then pasting in another to make the changes you desire to make. By doing this moviemakers create silhouettes they can use to extract the purpose from a scene for use on unique backgrounds. This has allowed a lot of improvement in visual effect in any process of recording using motion.

With technology advancement all this manual process was replaced with rotoscoping after effects. These involve automated techniques and features from softwares like motion tracking, Roto and VFX. Rotoscoping animation aftereffects is the best way to get started in motion design. It lets you incorporate movements quickly without knowing all the principles of animation.

Find out your movies that have used rotoscoping to give life to your favourite characters by reading more https://evolutionco.com/blog

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EvolutionCo
EvolutionCo

Written by EvolutionCo

EvolutionCo executes path-breaking ideas that redefines how businesses communicate. With our 360° approach, we are evolving businesses for the future.

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