Rotoscoping

In my teaser trailer I will be attempting to rotoscope images (draw over the top of them) to animate the live footage.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope. Although this device was eventually replaced by computers, the process is still referred to as rotoscoping. In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American adult animated science fiction thriller film directed by Richard Linklater based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. The film was shot digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope, an animation technique in which animators trace over the original footage frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films, giving the finished result a distinctive animated look. It was distributed by Warner Independent Pictures and it was the first (and only so far) animated film released by Warner Independent Pictures.

The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater and stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are among the executive producers. A Scanner Darkly had a limited release in July 2006, and then a wider release later that month. The film was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival^[4] and the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, and nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007.

After principal photography was finished, the film was transferred to QuickTime for a 18-month animation process: interpolated rotoscoping. A Scanner Darkly was filmed digitally using the Panasonic AG-DVX100 and then animated with Rotoshop, a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston.

Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, which was previously used in Linklater's film Waking Life. Linklater discussed the ideas and inspiration behind his use of rotoscoping in Ashraf's documentary, linking it to his personal experiences of lucid dreaming. Rotoscoping in traditional cel animation originally involved tracing over film frame-by-frame. This is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoshop animation makes use of vector keyframes and interpolates the in-between frames automatically.

The animation phase was a trying process for Linklater who said, "I know how to make a movie, but I don't really know how to handle the animation." He had gone the animation route because he felt that there was very little animation targeted for adults.

In my A2 Art coursework I attempted a still form of rotoscoping
for my final piece. I realised quickly with rotoscoping that the artists that create them really emphasise and exaggerate the features of the image, making them slightly goofier, more like a caricature than real life person, giving off the animated feel and adding a lot more detail and depth to the work.

To do this I imported the image to Photoshop and used my Graphics tablet to draw over the top. My teaser trailer will have elements of this in it but mainly it will be pure animation. The image on the left is the picture I took of my friend Lucy, the image below is the illustration I created of it, using rotoscoping techniques.