Video to Animation - The Art of Rotoscoping

[@madjidchouarbi3921]

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.

[@misterprickly]

The Fleischer Brothers invented it and used it to give us Betty Boop, Popeye and several other amazing characters. Ralph Bakshi uses it all the time. It's an amazing tool!

[@madjidchouarbi3921]

@@misterprickly They used it as well to animate Gulliver, a realistic character which would be impossible to animate at this time. Today on the other hand, animators have better skill and certainly could deal with such a task without the help of rotoscope.

[@monkeydgoofy8074]

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 !

[@toto-h7j]

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

[@verihimthered2418]

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

[@verihimthered2418]

You only have 89 years on this earth and animation is going to take up about half of that, so cut time as much as possible.

[@MrAllFiction]

I dont think that was a secret

[@LordJagd]

If you only want to create with a crutch in the name of saving time then sure. But imo it’s much better to develop animation talents so you don’t need to rotoscope.

[@haveagreatday6952]

Don’t give away our secret?? This guy hasn’t even figured out what he looks like yet, they are leagues away from figuring it out.

[@clonkex]

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

[@jaytoons6845]

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

[@OlofStorm]

Thanks Jayden!

[@WalidART]

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

[@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"

[@rainbowgaming8441]

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

[@jamescandyland]

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

[@KillerTacos54]

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

[@CarpetSnakes]

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

[@yordi55]

Olof You are the best thanks

[@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

[@ElRotura]

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

[@Jordo95]

truly inspiring!

[@icyjaam]

Loved the video.

[@cedricadougba324]

Thanks, GOD bless 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!

[@hendoricks]

awesome

[@Astranime333]

That’s really cool, keep it up 👍

[@jns8490]

that is soooo good! you're so awesome!

[@s.fr.]

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

[@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

[@LordJagd]

Right, but motion capture is a very different effect than from-scratch 3D animation. Like how different those Zemekis motion capture animations are from classic Pixar.

[@rossochs]

@@LordJagd True, but that was in the 90s/00s. Today, there are tools that help and artists skills have improved to incorporate performance capture into traditional 3D animation.

[@Soniyaratuela]

I have a question what if I did whole 3d animation but I like 2d artstyle soo to turn 3d into 2d I rotoscope over my 3d and put anatomy knowledge into rotoscoping........So is that being cheating?

[@rossochs]

@@Soniyaratuelain my opinion, there is no cheating in art if the art is well made. Buuuut it’s even easier than that. In that case, you would make the whole thing in 3D and then use 2D shaders like into the Spiderverse or something. No need to rotoscope there.

[@Soniyaratuela]

@@rossochs that's the problem because that shader part is soo hard

[@santiagofernandezsierra5657]

Can you please make a video of how you draw over your 3d models please. I’ve wanted to know how to blend 2d and 3d animation for a while now

[@tomascaro5224]

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

[@thenotcast3590]

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

[@Armitox]

Do people not realize that thats how Disney 100% makes their films?

[@fredericmanson441]

Rotoscoping is a tool to help to create animation. That's it. It's not cheating because before drawing over the frames, you prepare the shoot like any motion video/movie. It's the same process when you use your own body on a mirror to create the animation keyframes you need for 2d animation. As I said, it's only a tool. Nothing else.

[@roeejo4d764]

Great tutorial Olof! Your style really improved! P.S: Does rotoscoping also works with videos?

[@OlofStorm]

Hi. Thanks. What do you mean with videos? I showed uisng both video footage and 3d renders in this one.

[@roeejo4d764]

@@OlofStorm My question is whether the rotoscoping also works with videos but if you’ve already shown that’s great!

[@OlofStorm]

@@roeejo4d764 yeah I filmed some references in this KZbin video. And showed how I drew on top of those.

[@sothikesotiras]

​@OlofStorm Hey, I wanted to ask what is the name of your digital drawing tablet.

[@XLrat]

I would love if you made a discord or something similar. I started animating but still have so many questions in terms of setting up animations and what the best way to approach them is

[@OlofStorm]

Got a discord server for all my patreons! Loads of great artists over there and good conversations to be had! 👍

[@XLrat]

@@OlofStorm I will check it out, thanks for the fast response!

[@calypso_creator]

as far as I know, even Disney used this method

[@elissitdesign]

The most famous is Sleeping Beauty. That’s how they got 3D looking camera moves.

[@a.e_man78789]

The Fleischer brothers came up with rotoscoping and did masterful animations along with Disney.

[@thatsalehart7459]

hi there can i ask you a question?(If you have time to check). In the first episode of Jujutsu Kaisen 2,precisely at minutage 6:15 - 6:20 , i wanted to ask if rotoscope is being used in that scene(i find it really hard to tell)

[@MicahHolmes-n6b]

Nice.

[@redeyes0]

Nice

[@dianonizuka9689]

wow,.. i want it

[@KelvinKwakye-vq5jh]

Can u do all this in Photoshop

[@Benboy1980]

I love love love your videos mate! I really want to get in to this but I cannot work out what hardware and software would be best without wasting money? 😢 I’m not very technical

[@GolemWithAHoodie]

First Like!

[@AlexReynosoArt]

subscribed!

[@ninjazombies6283]

can you make animation in procreate tutorial

[@jeremy3ddave422]

good to see , you 're using Blender

[@cs292]

I want that screen what is it?

[@MikahPayne]

What animation software do you use?

hello master, what is the model and size of the digital table that you use? I would like to buy one for myself

[@StepKermyAU]

If you dont mind me asking what is that drawing pad your using

[@Hassabo]

Oh shit I do that too 🥳🥳

[@Saenliecnaa]

Quick question - why do you animate in Photoshop and not in Adobe Animate? I'm just starting with Animation and your videos are really helpful, I love your art, thanks for making these! :)

[@OlofStorm]

Thanks! I prefer raster based drawing over vector 👍

[@Saenliecnaa]

@@OlofStorm Ah I see, thanks for answering! (And so quickly, while I'm watching another video of yours :D)

[@OlofStorm]

@@Saenliecnaa 👍👍👍

[@WillianSilvaNet]

Does anyone know the tablet model he is using? Cintiq perheaps?

[@OlofStorm]

@@WillianSilvaNet cintiq pro 24 inch

[@wasimnatfaji6342]

I still don't understand why... If you already have your assets and it's already animated in the 3D software, why to not just render it with toon shader ...why to re-create it why?

[@OlofStorm]

It's all in the details. I don't find that toon shaders can accurately create what I'm after.

[@AD-vs9pp]

What program do you use?

[@YaBoi_BlackArts]

Maybe I've been to harsh and dismissive on Rotoscope.

[@bryceallen98K]

the fact that you even need a "cheating disclaimer" is insane. Do you care more about HOW you make animation or having the animation made? what's more important to you people? how you make something or what you make?

[@bechikingston]

can someone please tell me what app is being used in this?🥺

[@OlofStorm]

Photoshop for the drawing part and c4d for the 3d

[@augustinejeremiah8778]

@@OlofStormwhat's the device you are using to draw the 2D of yourself?

[@OlofStorm]

@@augustinejeremiah8778 wacom cintiq 24 pro

[@pyit.876]

Please people make rotoscoping a norm

[@thevalkyrie8]

Why didn’t you show result at the end… either way, if I were tech minded this is the job I would do… but I’m not so stick to writing ✍️

[@AJRD_Jo]

Please I need a step by step tutorial how to animate a 3d character in Ghibli shape on blender.

[@samsancheziii]

I seriously thought that I invented this. But it’s already a thing? 😢

[@glennusher4160]

That's still hard.

[@Ghantaa_Comics]

What the... I do the same thing and I thought I made this technique into existence... well it is good that it is not considered cheating because if we try to calculate by hands when we have calculator in front of us... we are just fools who is wasting our half of our lifetime.

[@danilopablo9848]

I came here after watching Undone on Amazon Prime They calling that "rotoscope" is just ludicrous. It's obvious a software filter, when there are characters too far in the distance you can see that the filter did not render those characters and you can still see they are people. If that was done by a human, those characters would've been redesigned as well.

[@zywrxcodera1681]

I have only laptop.

[@estri5402]

2:19 2:50

[@JPKloess]

If you're making complete characters in 3d, then why do the animation twice? Why not just use grease pencil?

[@daks8888]

What if we don't have an actress that is real? What if we just have an character that is based off an AI version of another character? How can I make them look like the character but also give them more depth and emotion in their face but not change it. I plan on having someone to act out some things but I can't find anyone who would look the part of the character that I wish to make.

[@kboogie2323]

👀

[@timbridger4681]

Rotoscoping is okay and should be used by anyone who wants it. Now that we have AIs for it, it's done.

[@spinningaround]

Why Cinema4D? It's easier to model and animate in Maya.

[@OlofStorm]

Depends on what you have been using your whole career :)

[@sohappyilltry]

only untalented jealous hater will say cheating and “not real artist” they don’t know an artist’s hardship

[@Blackheartgamer1]

I think rotoscoping is no different from using a mocap suit which modern movies and video games use 🤷🏻‍♂️.

[@NeuroBeats.445]

Well, if Disney used it, then why don't we use it too

[@sdvilhidfhvs]

nowadays it's just called AI

[@Atomic-toons00]

This is bad my friend im sorry but everything you do will never make the animation looks pro its just a tracing on moving things just imaging you found a secret to animate like warner bros it will be amazing

[@MicahHolmes-n6b]

I disagree, rotoscoping was, and still is used in the pro animation field.

[@Atomic-toons00]

​@@MicahHolmes-n6b yes but only in few moment bcs if you rotoscop everything 😂your audience will shiyt on you im sorry

[@Atomic-toons00]

​@@MicahHolmes-n6bony a few time but most of pro animation made by hands

[@MicahHolmes-n6b]

@@Atomic-toons00 True, but I was a point that you can use rotoscoping, and make it look pro. But, yeah your right most is hand drawn

[@j5545]

And you guys just lost your job to ai

[@00smash69]

The art of wasting your time

[@Kxzu.Media2901]

What software do you use to have the ghost image for the video

[@OlofStorm]

This is Photoshop. You can enable onion skin in the timeline. Pretty much all 2d animation apps will have this feature. (Csp, procreate, tv paint, animate, blender etc)