Video to Animation - The Art of Rotoscoping

In this video I give you 3 top tips how to make your rotoscope animation look better.

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@olof_storm

What software am I using?
Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Cinema 4D (Currently with Redshift)

Music from Epidemic Sounds:

[monkeydgoofy]

It's really helpful, rotoscoping is not just useful for animating 2d stuff but also 3d for tracking the movements and then remodeling over them at times . Rotoscoping is not at all a cheat, never was.
I love your videos !

[madjidchouarbi]

Disney animators used to rotoscope their realistic characters, in fact, almost every classical animated movies had previously been filmed on set with actors. They said this process was so helpful to escape from formulas and cartoon tricks they were familiar with. And as they used real actors to play the roles, they could pick up some subtle performance they couldn't have imagine. On the other side, Milt Kahl said it was difficult to find your own voice being stuck with such a material as it could makes you just tracing someone else's performance instead of thinking about your acting. According to me, rotoscoping is useful for younger animators and for experienced ones, it should just be used for very special scenes with complex motion. But you're right, rotoscoping, even kept hidden, is something almost all westerner animation studios intensively use. Is it an obligation ? certainly no and a movie like Jin Roh had some incredibly realistic and fluid animations without using it. Such a good animation in fact that even US pro claimed that it couldn't had been done without rotoscoping ! Hiroyuki Okiura is one of the best animator ever, no doubt about that and he made a terrific job, coaching his crew the right way to draw and correcting the animators key frames to get the result he was looking for. That level of skill is incredible and really time and health consuming. Westerner studios choose the easy way for some really good reasons : First remember that Snow White was something totally new at the time with some never seen before characters like Snow White, the Prince, the Hunter and the Queen which had to be as realistic as possible. Despite all the hard training for the animators, they needed help to achieve this intimidating task and live footage certainly was what saved them from producing realisticly drawn characters animated in a cartoony way. Same for Pinocchio for action sequences and certainly for Sleeping Beauty because of the fight against the dragon. But in wasn't a necessity for Cinderella nor Alice in Wonderland nor Peter pan nor 101 Dalmatians as the nine old men were so skilled at that time, they could certainly deal with those movies without any references, But, live footage and rotoscoping had made the proof of its efficiency as a cost killer without compromising the final quality, I think that's the reason why the western industry chose to use rotoscoping so much when japan industry didn't, mainly because the main economical model of production was tv oriented and even full lengh pictures had low budgets and couldn't afford this kind of preparation.

[toto-hj]

i don't care if it's cheating or not i just want to tell my stories. thank you for your tutorials

[verihimthered]

dont give away our secret! Now everyone knows it's ok to trace! Imagine the productivity increase.

[clonkex]

THIS is how you do rotoscoped animation! You don't just trace the footage, you use it as frame-by-frame reference :D

[WalidART]

Olof U are best animator by rotoscoping !! I love your content mashallah

[jaytoons]

I love the style your videos now. They really have improved 🎉

[NimbusArtsAnimation]

i remember when i was a kid, a humorous argument broke out between my parents, as we watched Disney animated Cindarella at. the end where they dance and the dress keeps changing color. Dad was saying "thats real people" Mom was saying "its hand made animation" i loved the process and science of animation even back then, and i told them " your both right"

[jamescandyland]

Epic video! Love seeing your animation style and the reference you shot!

[rainbowgaming]

yes finally someone else besides me that likes and under stands Ralph Bakshi films
rotoscoping you get the real feel for movement of humans just sub to you

[CarpetSnakes]

i can’t wait to get my workflow down for this process

[KillerTacos]

Amazing video Olof, thanks for sharing! Really love watching your videos

[RICHARDCLARKNINJA]

Hi I do just like you do i make hand drawn frame by frame animation too and i want to say yes rotoscoping is great too i have used it and still do for certain scenes in my full shows.... i film my scenes and then draw over them or over 3d the same as you

[sophiemulders]

Cant wait to try, just bought a scondhand wacom cintiq 😊 and cant wait to try it with AE. Any tips? There are absolutely no tutorials online for this device+ animation

[misterprickly]

I thank *the Fleischer Brothers* for creating this process!

[s.fr.]

Thank you alot for your tutorials:) Your work is amazing! What drawing pad and Computer do you use to create your work?

[ElRotura]

Thanks a lot for your work, is totally an inspiration for my future :) Have a nice day Boss ;)

[thenotcast]

Just watched Smiling Friends and wanted to know why Party Bro looked animated differently than every other character lol

[tomascaro]

How did you made your 3D assets? It look so much fun

[rossochs]

No working animator would tell you this is cheating! This is no different than performance capture in the 3D space. Just depends on your workflow / art style