I found this article while doing some research and I thought I would post it as I found it quite interesting, about Rotoscoping. The link for the article, seen on ASIFA website, is at the bottom of this post.
Animation's Dirty Little Secret? copyright 1995 by David Thrasher
It's often been treated with scorn, often viewed with suspicion.
To many it is "mere rotoscoping", a crutch that no "true animator" would
ever stoop to use. If Walt Disney were alive today he might hear, "You
used rotoscoping? ...Wait! Say it isn't so!" One can almost imagine "Rotoscopers
Anonymous" groups springing up to purge the industry of this malady. The
cause of all this is a technique where one takes live action footage and
uses it to create animation by copying, usually by tracing, the moving
images, frame-by-frame, onto animation paper. These hand-drawn images
are usually altered to create the final animated images.
Rotoscoping was invented around 1915 by Max Fleischer, who
would eventually own the studio that would bring Betty Boop and Popeye
to life. While working as an art editor at Popular Science Monthly, he
had begun to wonder if it might be possible to use mechanics in the process
of making animated cartoons. Along with his brothers, Joe and Dave, he
conducted an experiment to see if his theories were correct. Joe, a wizard
at machinery, built the devices necessary for the new process of 'rotoscoping'
and Dave posed in a clown suit for the creation of the live action reference
footage. The cartoon character that came out of this was at first known
simply as the 'clown' but later was given the name of "Koko the Clown"
and the cartoon series was called "Out of the Inkwell." The cartoons were
immediately popular. The realistic movement added a whole new dimension
but it was the clever stories and gags that sustained the series. A reviewer
for the New York Times wrote in 1919, "After a deluge of pen-and-ink 'comedies'
in which figures move with mechanical jerks with little or no wit to guide
them, it is a treat to watch the smooth action of Mr. Fleischer's figure
and enjoy the cleverness that animates it."
For much of its history rotoscoping has been used in only
its most basic form -- carefully tracing every frame or every other frame
of the live action film footage of the desired moving images. This has
been done not only for character animation but also for moving backgrounds,
for moving inanimate objects, and for many things moving in perspective
in order to precisely capture the action.
Disney's "Snow White" went well beyond the normal methods.
Although it has been significantly downplayed by historians since its
1939 release date, rotoscoping was extensively used as the basis for the
movements of the least cartoon-like characters in the picture (Snow White,
the Wicked Queen, the Woodsman, and the Prince). Publicity releases of
the time spoke of using reference footage. The term "reference footage"
-- material to be referred to where and when appropriate -- is much closer
to the methodology that was used than the usual approach of always closely
following the action. Much of the live action footage was used only to
create extremes (the beginnings or endings of actions) for creating "Key"
drawings which would then be in-betweened in the usual manner. This left
it more up to the animator to decide the timing of the movement.
To create the reference footage for the character of Snow
White, Disney hired a Los Angeles dancer named Marjorie Belcher. She gained
fame later as a dancer in film musicals under the name "Marge Champion".
It would not be too much of a speculation to say that her movements must
have been very carefully planned and choreographed in advance. This would
prevent wasted movement and having the action purposely 'overplayed' would
make Snow White's character blend in more easily with the traditionally
freehand animated characters. "Snow White" being the first feature length
animated film, was a huge financial and artistic risk where the usual
two-dimensional cartoon characterizations would not work. It is not surprising
that Disney Studio would rely on rotoscoping to get the film done within
as reasonable period of time as possible and within as tight a budget
as possible. What is remarkable is that the practice of rotoscoping was
not used in a slavish way, but rather with imagination and great selectivity.
Rotoscoping has not been limited to the production of animated
films. It has also been used as a way to learn the art of animation. Use
of it for this purpose began in the silent era and it became known as
"action analysis". In Leonard Maltin's book, Of Mice and Magic, Walter
Lantz recalls, "I would take the old Charlie Chaplin films and project
them one frame at a time, make a drawing over Chaplin's action, and flip
the drawings to see how he moved. That's how most of us learned to animate."
Action analysis later became a cornerstone of Disney's in-house studio
art courses.
"It's a mechanical process and looks that way on the screen."
In truth, rotoscoped footage looks only as mechanical as the animator
makes it. If this comment were interpreted broadly one could say that
animation (and with it film) itself is a mechanical process.
"Using rotoscoping (not to mention computers) is being lazy."
Animation form the beginning has been a very labor intensive process and
methods and tools have been developed since its inception to save work.
To not use these labor saving methods and tools would take us back to
the days when acetate cels weren't invented and you had not only to animate
every frame but had to redraw the background every time as well.
"Rotoscoping footage stands out like a sore thumb." True,
if it isn't done with care. In order to be successful, rotoscoped elements
must not clash with the rest of the animation in a scene and have to look
appropriate. How loosely of tightly the rotoscoping is done as well as
how realistic the element being created is can make a lot of difference.
"Animation has a magic that rotoscoping does not." The effect
of rotoscoping all depends on what the animator adds to it. Rotoscoped
footage created by only tracing and little else adds very little to the
finished film. But if movements have been carefully choreographed beforehand,
proper care was given to the design of a character, and the animator's
skills were used at the proper points to add just the right amount of
exaggeration to movement and facial expressions, then this sort of footage
can have all the magic that footage created strictly from an animator's
head and with their hand can have.
Rotoscoping, when used as a learning tool, can enhance traditional
freehand animation. Although it has been used mostly as a time-saving
device, rotoscoping can actually improve an animator's skill. However,
the opportunity must be taken to study what is happening in the frame.
An experienced freehand animator can enhance the look of
rotoscoped footage if their expertise is used to determine which details
to exaggerate. Small details in live action film which are often too subtle
to translate well during rotoscoping can be exaggerated to "read" better.
For instance, a smile or some other change in expression that might be
rather difficult to see otherwise can not only be made to "read" but can
add much to the scene if an animator uses their skills well. An animator
can also use their skills to enhance movement using such concepts as "squash
and stretch" or spacing patterns to make a heavy character (such as if
an actor is portraying an elephant) show more weight or to make a dancer
seem to float in the air. This can make rotoscoped footage looked more
lively and "animated". Lack of these important qualities is what is commonly
criticized about rotoscoped action and is what most of the time gives
rotoscoping its bad reputation.
The practice of rotoscoping can cover a whole range of approaches.
In its most basic form every frame or every other frame is traced and
used mostly "as-is" and altered very little. A looser approach is to use
only the extremes and to fill in all the frames between by freehand means.
This still saves work and gives the animator more freedom in the timing
of the action. (Of course, in the more usual approach, drawings can be
added or deleted to do the same thing.) An alternative approach to either
of these is to very loosely draw over the original figures. This gives
a much more spontaneous appearance and for certain kinds of films is the
sort of asset that rotoscoping in its strictest form would not normally
be able to provide.
Frames from the live action footage do not even have to
be traced. An animator can look at a frame of the referenced film on a
viewer and draw freehand -- either the image as it exists on the original
film or draw their character in the same exact pose as the actor. This
approach solves a lot of problems if your cartoon character does not happen
to have the same proportions as a natural human figure. This very likely
how Snow White was drawn. (Snow White stood five heads high while a natural
human figure stands around six heads high. This would have presented problems
had the footage been directly rotoscoped.)
Rotoscoped and freehand animation can exist side-by-side
if both are used intelligently together. Both have their place and their
purpose. Rotoscoping, by no means, eliminates the need to develop animation
skills and knowledge. These things are still necessary if you wish to
use it effectively. The fairly recent introduction of computers is blurring
many boundaries and turning many cherished beliefs about animation upside
down. The very notion of animation is being changed by something called
"performance animation" (a process where the movements of an actor directly
affect the movement of an on-screen character in real time). Even with
that new way of doing things the basic understandings of movement and
action still affect the success of the project -- knowledge that is (or
should be) part of an animator's basic set of knowledge -- things animators
take for granted like "squash and stretch" and concepts like "anticipation".
There will always be a need for animators in one form or another.
What really matters is not how a project was created but
the magic that is hopefully created when the work is finished. A film
still has to be entertaining, no matter how beautifully animated it is
or what methods were used in its making. To believably create that other
world up on the screen (no matter what kind of screen it may be), it's
up to animators to use ALL their tools wisely and effectively and with
imagination.
http://www.asifa.org/archive/secret.php
About ASIFA Central
ASIFA Central is the Midwest USA Chapter of ASIFA, the International Animation Association (l'Association Internationale du Film d'Animation). Founded in France by a group of professional animators and chartered by UNESCO in 1960, ASIFA's goal is to encourage the art of animation and further international understanding and goodwill through the medium of the animated film. There are about 4500 members and 30 chapters world-wide including eight in the USA. ASIFA Central was begun in Chicago, Illinois, in 1975 and has involved many of the professional and independent animators in the Midwest.
