Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping was created in the early 1900's by Max and Dave Fleischers. The brothers wanted to make animation more realistic and so, they created the Rotoscope. 'Rotoscoping' is a technique that is still used today by many animators. It is the technique in which animators trace over 'real life' footage that has been recorded prior. They then trace over the image scene by scene until they have a complete animation. To trace over the live footage, frost glass was used as it was the easiest way to see the footage and to trace over it.
In 1915, Max Fleischer used the 'Rotoscope' to animate a series of cartoons in which he named 'Out of the Inkwell'. He himself created the series and went on to create classics such as 'Koko the Clown, 'Popeye' and 'Betty Boop'. The use of a rotoscope allowed for animators to create more fluid and 'life life' movement within animations.
To help highlight certain features with an 'rotoscope' animation, the thickness of the lines drawn by the animators are varied. For example backgrounds tend to be drawn with thinner lines compared to objects in the foreground which have thick and more dominant lines.
With the success of 'Rotoscoping' the Fleischers then found themselves in competition with 'Walt Disney' in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Disney and Fleischer would often try and outdo the other by producing animations quicker then one-another. Each company wanted to be the best and to be the best, they had to create new inventions of cartoons. For example, the first cartoon with sound, first colour cartoon and the first feature length cartoon. As Disney was a bigger and more wealthy company, the Fleischer brothers often came in 2nd when it came to creating new and more exciting animations.
Disney went on to create the first animated cartoon to have a soundtrack with in. In 1928 they created 'Steamboat Willie' which was an animated cartoon which included sound for both the characters and a soundtrack. This had never been seen before by audiences and it cost Walt Disney $4.986 to create the animation. The short film is known throughout the world with a legendary status and was also the first introduction of 'Mickey Mouse' who would go on to become Disney's most famous creation.
In the video example given, you can see the the detail that has gone into the animation to make it more realistic and believable. The use of sound on the video also adds to the experience the viewer is getting because it gives off a happy, funny atmosphere.
During the 1930's Disney created 'Snow White' using 'Fleischers' Rotoscope. When he first found out, Max Fleischer wanted to sue Disney for using his invention without his knowledge but later withdrew as he found out a smaller company had made a similar invention to the 'Rotoscorpe' prior to Fleischers.
When creating 'Snow White', the movements where created by Marge Champion- a high school student who was also used in the dancing scenes of the film. Animators then used the technique of 'rotoscoping' and Snow White was created.
Rotoscoping is still used today by animators, high profile films such as 'The Lion King' used the technique back in 1994, as well as 'Tangled' in 2010. Within the Lion King, 'rotoscoping' was used to create the animals which was then duplicated in the animation process to make it look like there was more.
This saved Disney a lot to time and effort and helped them to produce one of the greatest ever animation films. There is a scene within the Lion King, which was 'rotoscoped' and although the scene only lasts 2/3 minutes, it took the animators nearly 2 and a half years to create the scene. This was due to have the live action footage traced aswell as having to duplicate the number of animals within the scene.
In 1915, Max Fleischer used the 'Rotoscope' to animate a series of cartoons in which he named 'Out of the Inkwell'. He himself created the series and went on to create classics such as 'Koko the Clown, 'Popeye' and 'Betty Boop'. The use of a rotoscope allowed for animators to create more fluid and 'life life' movement within animations.
To help highlight certain features with an 'rotoscope' animation, the thickness of the lines drawn by the animators are varied. For example backgrounds tend to be drawn with thinner lines compared to objects in the foreground which have thick and more dominant lines.
With the success of 'Rotoscoping' the Fleischers then found themselves in competition with 'Walt Disney' in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Disney and Fleischer would often try and outdo the other by producing animations quicker then one-another. Each company wanted to be the best and to be the best, they had to create new inventions of cartoons. For example, the first cartoon with sound, first colour cartoon and the first feature length cartoon. As Disney was a bigger and more wealthy company, the Fleischer brothers often came in 2nd when it came to creating new and more exciting animations.
In the video example given, you can see the the detail that has gone into the animation to make it more realistic and believable. The use of sound on the video also adds to the experience the viewer is getting because it gives off a happy, funny atmosphere.
During the 1930's Disney created 'Snow White' using 'Fleischers' Rotoscope. When he first found out, Max Fleischer wanted to sue Disney for using his invention without his knowledge but later withdrew as he found out a smaller company had made a similar invention to the 'Rotoscorpe' prior to Fleischers.
When creating 'Snow White', the movements where created by Marge Champion- a high school student who was also used in the dancing scenes of the film. Animators then used the technique of 'rotoscoping' and Snow White was created.
Rotoscoping is still used today by animators, high profile films such as 'The Lion King' used the technique back in 1994, as well as 'Tangled' in 2010. Within the Lion King, 'rotoscoping' was used to create the animals which was then duplicated in the animation process to make it look like there was more. This saved Disney a lot to time and effort and helped them to produce one of the greatest ever animation films. There is a scene within the Lion King, which was 'rotoscoped' and although the scene only lasts 2/3 minutes, it took the animators nearly 2 and a half years to create the scene. This was due to have the live action footage traced aswell as having to duplicate the number of animals within the scene.
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