Rotoscope

ロトスコープ / 1915– / Technique / Animation Techniques

Tracing live-action footage frame by frame. Patented by the Fleischers, it mixes the gravity of live action with the freedom of drawing into a distinctive wavering line.

Rotoscope — Koko the Clown, born of rotoscoping 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Koko the Clown, born of rotoscoping 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Rotoscope — Soyuzmultfilm, scene from Tsvetik-semitsvetik 1948 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Soyuzmultfilm, scene from Tsvetik-semitsvetik 1948 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Movement from live action
Wavering contours
Bodies with weight
Between film and drawing

Best used for

Showing the weight of human gesture or a crowd while staying in drawing
Converting live footage into drawing for reasons of texture or rights

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Dictionary entry

Type: Redraw the lettering every frame so it wavers with the artwork
Composition: Do not keep the live framing, redraw the background to clean it up
Material: Vary the line weight and let the contour keep wavering
Caution: Tracing without deciding what a drawing should keep and what it should drop, so the movement is accurate and the image has nothing to look at.
Further study: the Fleischer brothers / a-ha, Take On Me / Richard Linklater, Waking Life

Related entries

Cel Animation (セル・アニメーション)Same Animation Techniques lineage.Compare Rotoscope and Cel Animation
Stop Motion (ストップモーション)Same Animation Techniques lineage.Compare Rotoscope and Stop Motion

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