Rotoscoping: A Response to Take On Me and other videos
November 25, 2009
Rotoscoping is a technique that animators use often to reference human and animal actions. The original technique involves animators filming a portion of live-action video, then projecting the footage on frosted glass and later tracing over the projected image. Rotoscoping not only aid in the animation of films, but it is often used in visual effects as well. Many times rotoscoping is used to create ‘matte’s or sillhouettes/masks for the objects while a different background can be applied. Now-a-days, computers and blue/green screens have mainly replaced this old fashion technique. One can also trace over printed versions frame by frame on top of tracing paper for the rotoscoping effect.
Animator ‘purists’ often oppose to the rotoscoping technique as they see it as ‘cheating’. However, it requires a high level of technique to rotoscope perfectly especially when “boiling”, when certain lines unintentionally shift or shake, can occur easily if not careful.
In the video, Take On Me, animators use this ‘boiling’ effect to their advantage. They exaggerates and intentionally shift and shake the lines to truly create a ‘rotoscope/rotoscopic’ style. They have shot live footage for the video, the traced over them frame by frame. It is interesting to see how they have also traced over creases and other wrinkles caused by the paper. They have wonderfully applied and ‘reinvented’ the way of rotoscoping by incorporating the drawn figures within the live footage. Some editing techniques used within the video:
* the direction lines/created by the line of the motocyclists at the beginning; zoom out aids the directional lines
* the exchange of glances between the male and the female chracter is at the same spot on screen to communicate to audience at a quicker pace
* zoom in and out is used effectively during the scene where the men with the hammer is chasing down the female and the male, when they are running away, the camera is zoomed in, when they are running towards the screen, the camera zooms in
* when the lady is running out of the restaurant to her room, she runs out of the screen in the same direction as she enters the screen in the following scene, her positioning on the screen horizontal wise is also at the same plane
Other videos that use rotoscoping include:
Snow White: Original footage is shot for Snow White, the Prince and the Queen; however, the several animators resisted using the footage; hence only the Snow White and the Prince were rotoscoped for certain scenes when they’re together, but the Queen was not rotoscoped
Star Wars (Original 3 movies) : Rotoscoping was used to create the lightsaber effect. It was used to create a matte. The glow effect was created by drawing a line where the lightsaber was and later enlarged.
Juno: The opening credits of Juno is a more recent version of rotoscoping. The animators had rotoscoped Juno while the backgrounds and props were all drawn in a comical way. This is also an example of the skill that is involved to perfectly trace over footage frame by frame. We do not see any ‘boiling’ in the video. From the littlest movements to the facial expressions, we can also see how realistic rotoscoping can make animation.
