CW2 Practise Project
In this project we were tasked to create three short clips using rotoscope. The clips must be of a performer (e.g. dancer) so we can observe the movement. In my project, I aimed to use the techniques within Adobe After Effects to create a range of different rotoscope clips. Prior to this project, I had footage of my friend performing silks and tumbling in the air, I decided to use these clips for my rotoscope because they show a clear silhouette of the human form moving within the air. The clips below showcase the ones I have chosen.
What Is Rotoscoping?
Rotoscope animation describes the process of creating animated sequences by tracing over live-action footage frame by frame. Rotoscoping plays a pivotal role in the Animation industry, Rotoscoping is being extensively used in the film industry today but it is no longer done in the traditional way where the live actions were shown onto a frosted glass panel with the help of a projector and then the required actions were redrawn.
Although I have used After Effects in the past for other projects, I had never used it to rotoscope footage, before I went into animating my footage I decided to look for some tutorials on YouTube. The video below shows the tutorial I watched to guide me with my rotoscope.
The clip below showcase the before and after on my first rotoscope clip.
BEFORE
AFTER
For this rotoscope, I used the colour/saturation effect to create the flashing colours. The process took me a few days to understand because I hardly ever use the effects in this software. However, it was a learning curve for me and I will use it for future projects.The colour/saturation effect makes the animation look a lot more vibrant and blends well with the music, if I could go back and change anything, I would have chosen clearer footage so the rotoscope brush would have been a lot more consistent. The file below shows the music I chosen, Maneater by Nelly Furtado.
For my second rotoscope, I wanted to visually draw the movement happening in the clip. I used the tutoiral below to help me with this.
The clip below showcases my second rotoscope animation video (on the right) and the video reference (on the left). I decided to animated a spring-like-object around my performer to artistically showcase the jump that she does. After I drew the spring around my performer I added a glow effect to make the spring more visually pleasing. I like this rotoscope a lot more than my first one because I was able to emphasise the movement with spring animation rather than just having a hue/saturation effect. However, if I could go back and change anything about this I would have investigated the movement of a spring to make the movement in the animation more fluent and consistent.
BEFORE
AFTER
The file below shows the music I chosen for my clip, Die Young by Ke$ha.
Using my knowledge I have learnt from the prior rotoscope, I decided to make a longer clip for my last animation, combing what I have learnt and improving on it. For my last clip, I decided to find a clear video of someone dancing on Youtube, to make the rotobrush a lot more smoother. The clip below shows the video I had chosen.
I decided on doing half the video with hand drawn animation and the other half in a rotobrush, hue effect. I had a lot of fun with the hand drawn animation as I had basically drew up any lines or shapes that seemed fitting with the music and dancing, the gallery below showcases some screen shot of my drawing in the first half of the animation.
The video below showcases my last rotoscope, overall this is my favourite out of the three. The rotobrushing at the end looks a lot more smoother with the hue/saturation effects, and the scribble-like animation plays well with the music. If I could go back and change anything in this it would to have some frames play as 2-3 frame so the viewer can actually see them without having to pause.