History of Animation - Rotoscoping

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>> Rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique that
captures motion by tracing live action footage.

Rotoscoping was patented by Max Fleischer in
1917 and used for his character Coco the Clown

for his Out of the Inkwell series.

To do this, Fleischer magnified the film
strip under a pane of glass and drew

over the figures on celluloid sheets.

Rotoscoping was a common technique among
film studios in the early 20th century.

Fleischer Studios used the technique
for the complicated dances in Betty Boop

and during the film Gulliver's Travels.

Richard Schickel later revealed
that many sequences

in Disney's Snow White were also rotoscoped.

The actress's performance was filmed
and used for both gesture and lip sync.

Although Disney largely denied the use
of rotoscoping, he encouraged animators

to heavily reference, if not directly
trace, live footage during the production

of Cinderella, Peter Pan, and other films.

Rotoscoping captures more subtle movements,
such as emotional changes in the face.

These can be hard to animate from reference

because of how slight some
human gestures can be.

Rotoscoping allows the animator to capture
these small movements and emotions,

giving the piece a higher
sense of empathy for viewers.

A negative aspect of rotoscoping
is that the animation can come

across as creepy or uncanny valley.

It can ride that fine line between
too human and not human enough.

Today, rotoscoping is still used,
although techniques have evolved.

Films like Waking Life or Chico and
Rita use digital means to rotoscope;

and motion capture used in such films as
Polar Express, Pirates of the Caribbean,

and Lord of the Rings is largely seen
as today's equivalent in CG animation.

This animation technique that is nearing its
centennial birthday helped play a key role

into elevating animation into
the art form it is today.

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