Rotoscope Tutorial

This week I attended a tutorial on Rotoscoping. Rotoscope is basically drawing frame by frame. It is incredibly easy to pick up, and from using it a little bit, I feel with enough practise I could achieve some really interesting things with it.

First I used Photoshop, and used the film/movie features on there to create a timeline. Using a simple template of the word 'Arts' I drew a small part of the word, drawing more and more frame by frame to give the effect it was being written out and filled in. Here is my first test:

After using photoshop, we were introduced to the tools available on After Effects. I found this much easier and smoother to se than Photoshop due to a choice of three brush sets. Single-Frame allowed me to draw onto the image, but only for one frame. This means the next frame it would be gone, similar to Photoshop. Constant allowed me to draw a section on which would stay on my animation until i wanted it gone. This saves a lot of time if I wanted to place a part of text or image somewhere in the same position for a longer period of time, without the need to re-draw it out EVERY frame. The last is Write-On, which records what you draw and plays it during the movie in real time. The timing can be tweaked, so that if I drew a section which actually took 30 seconds, I can speed it up to draw out on my animation in 2 (or whatever is needed). My test here is below:

The only problem I had in the session was that we were limited to using a mouse. This can be difficult to draw certain shapes and angles due to wired getting in the way, and movement of your wrist/arm. I was told that using a graphics tablet would be a lot easier.

I bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet about 2-3 years ago, used it once, and left it on my computer shelf. I have never really had any need to use it in any projects throughout College or University so far. Until now. So I dug it out, blew off the dust and plugged it in. And instantly I felt in control. Because it is actually just like drawing with a pencil, I could be so much more accurate and flexible. I could draw exactly on the line of my 'arts' template. And it sped up the process of drawing incredibly. I took full advantage of this new found control and used all available brush sets a had been introduced to, and my outcome is as follows:

I really like rotoscoping. I didn't even know what it was until my tutorial on it, and now i feel like I could create so much more with little effort! If only I knew about this in my animation project last year, that would have come in handy....