Rotoscoping
For this brief, we had each been given an individual clip that we had to rotoscope on top of by using Photoshop. When going into this brief we were told to consider techniques such as: composition, colour and line. In my opinion, these three techniques are the most important in rotoscoping because, when done right, they can communicate the artist's vision vividly towards their intended audience. The video below shows the clip I had been given to work with.
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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.
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Whenever I hear someone mention Rotoscope animation, I always think of American director of animated and live action films, Ralph Bakshi . His films were bold and profane, hysterical, politically incorrect, gothic and gorgeous to look at, because of this Bakshi liked to experiment with different animation techniques with his films. The clip below shows a scene from Bakshi's, 1981, American Pop .
Not only does the above clip use rotoscope, but it's also a music video, making it a good source of inspiration for my project. The bright vivid colours on the characters make them eye-catching and compliment the music playing, it makes the audience understand that this is a 'chaotic' party. The line work is minimum which helps the details of the character's stand out more, however there is very little composition given the scene a very surreal look. I took these elements in American Pop and use them as inspiration for my rotoscope. The video below shows my rotoscope.
Out of all the briefs, this was the one I had the most enjoyment doing because it involved bringing characters to life through animation, however, it was also the most time consuming, if I were to go back and change anything I would perhaps make my time management a lot better so I would've got the whole clip done.