What is Rotoscope Animation?

Animating a film takes a lot of time, technique, and creativity. It’s about more than just adding some cartoon characters or special effects and it requires more technique than ever before in order to stand out as a solid, professional animator. Perhaps you’ve heard the term rotoscoping as a technique used in animation before and wondered, “What is rotoscope animation?” 

Typically referencing more modern styles or types of animation, rotoscoping in animation is a term that is used to describe a technique in which the animator will trace motion picture footage, frame by frame, to capture incredibly realistic action movements. 

What is Rotoscope Animation?

The term rotoscope comes from the projection equipment that is used to project the motion picture footage which is then traced by the animator. The rotoscope is a device that was largely used to project the image of the movie, similar to a movie projector, so that the artist could trace on a transparent easel. 

Today, although rotoscope animation is still a frequently used technique in animated filmmaking, computers have largely replaced the rotoscoping device that was once more widely used. So, “what is rotoscope animation?” exactly?

Rotoscoping involves projecting a live action image through the rotoscope and then tracing the image, frame-by-frame so that the movements are captured.

Rotoscoping for today’s animated films is performed by a computer program and takes a very tiny fraction of the time that it once took.

When is Rotoscoping Animation Used?

Oftentimes, when someone asks, “What is rotoscope animation?” They’re really asking, “When is rotoscoping animation used?”

Filmmakers use rotoscoping in live-action films to create instances of an object from a particular scene being used in a different background. This is seen in Star Wars when, during the first trilogy, actors held a matte that was propped up on a stick.

The animators later used rotoscope animation to trace the matte and create the lightsaber effect that was glowing on screen.

Many movies in the past have instances of rotoscope animation in them including:

• TRON
• Alice in Wonderland
• Cinderella
• Fantasia

Rotoscope animation dates back a very long time. In fact, while the first animated film was produced in 1892, rotoscoping isn’t quite that old — but close. The first rotoscoping animation technique was used in a film just a few years later.

Max Fleischer, an animator and film artist from that era, would hand trace characters to produce more fluid motions in the animated outcomes. The most notable first uses of rotoscope animation on a memorable film was seen in Fleischer’s Out of the Inkwell series that was released in 1918.

So, what is rotoscope animation? It’s an incredible animation technique that dates back 100 years and is still used in animated films today!