The animation technique of rotoscoping has helped animators blend imaginative images with realistic movement for over one hundred years. The technology behind rotoscoping improved the fluidity of early animated films and helped create interesting visual effects.
With the aid of computer-generated imagery, the technique has been extended even further and was used as the basis for another style of animation, motion capture. The rotoscoping technique has had an immeasurable impact on the world of animation.
Movement was a struggle for early animators. As each frame of animation was drawn by hand, movements often appeared clunky, lacking the fluidity required to make them look realistic. To help solve this problem, Max Fleischer, an inventor and one of the first animators, patented the rotoscoping technique in 1917. The technique involves filming live-action movement and drawing over it to create animation.
Fleischer first attempted the technique on his character Koko the Clown. He filmed his brother dancing in a clown costume in front of a white background then projected each frame and traced over it, using his brother’s movement as a blueprint for the animation. This technique combined the imagination of animation with the realism that it lacked.
Once Fleischer’s patent expired in 1934, other studios adopted the rotoscoping technique in films like Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). Warner Brothers also occasionally used the technique in early cartoons.
Rotoscoping has capabilities beyond the sphere of animation. In live-action films, the technique is sometimes used to manually adjust or erase certain details from a film. For example, Martin Scorsese used rotoscoping to erase a piece of cocaine from Neil Young’s nose in The Last Waltz (1978). Rotoscoping was also utilized in the original Star Wars trilogy to create the effect of lightsabers and remove wires from practical effects.
Since the rotoscoping technique is a time-consuming process, it was primarily used only for certain effects or segments of a film, rather than the film in its entirety. However, in the 1990s, Bob Sabiston, a computer scientist, and animator created a new method of rotoscoping that made the process easier and faster. His method of interpolated rotoscoping allows the process to be carried out digitally.
While early animators had to start tracing from scratch with each new frame, interpolated rotoscoping copies the tracings and applies the basic forms to other frames, drastically cutting the time required for this process.
Director Richard Linklater was particularly drawn to this new style and utilized it for his films, Waking Life (2000) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). These were the first feature-length films made entirely using interpolated rotoscoping.
While Max Fleischer employed rotoscoping to convey realism, Richard Linklater utilized it as a means of interpretation. Specifically, in the sci-fi A Scanner Darkly, the distinct look of animation that heightens the realistic images is integral to the film, particularly in scenes that feature a psychedelic drug. The rotoscoping technique allows these deliriums to blend seamlessly with the rest of the film. In fact, the film itself creates a hallucinatory effect.
The world of the film is similar to our own, but the animation makes it appear uncanny. One of the most prevalent themes in the film is the influence of new technology. Just as the technology affects the characters in the film, the animation techniques used to create A Scanner Darkly influence our interpretation of the film.
Today, the most prevalent extension of rotoscoping technology is motion capture. Similar to rotoscoping, motion capture animation involves recording actors’ expressions and movements and using that as a basis for animation. Motion capture differs from traditional rotoscoping by using motion capture dots that outline an actor’s facial features and body via a mocap suit.
The first mocap suit was invented in 1959 by animator Lee Harrison III, although it was difficult to utilize this technology in filmmaking at that time. Like rotoscoping, motion capture animation was a painstaking process until computer-generated imagery made it easier.
One of the first films made entirely using motion capture animation is Gil Kenan’s Monster House (2006). Kenan’s vision for the film was a heightened version of reality. The motion capture technology allowed filmmakers to present authentic expressions and gestures while also augmenting the actor’s features and heightening shapes and colors to help achieve the desired look of the film.
While filming, the actors wore only mocap suits, resembling wetsuits, and dozens of sensor dots were glued to their faces each day. The sets and props on Monster House were made of metal poles, wire, and mesh. They emulated objects the characters interacted with but needed to be see-through so that the motion capture dots could be read from all angles.
The actors’ movements were then integrated into computer-generated images, creating a CGI set that the director can virtually direct. With motion capture animation, filmmakers acquire the freedom to achieve a distinct look while maintaining the realism of live movement.
The technique that cracked early animation has had a lasting impact. Technology has changed immeasurably since the days of Koko the Clown, but Max Fleischer’s invention continues to guide modern animators. There is no telling how the rotoscoping technique will influence future animated films.