Rotoscope Tutorial

[rotoscopings]

Really helpful tutorial. Thanks for posting :)

[Dylanquinn666]

Thanks for posting this, it was helpful. Gotta say, even though it was very rough, the finished result was awesome, great job :)

[WaheedaRahman]

Hey yanno when you said to use a video editing software to get each frame,

Which software should I use and how would I do it???

Btw This video was great especially the ending :D

[cubsin4]

If I wanted a film history class I would have searched for one Mr. Boring!

[MrUbertubers]

Definition of rotoscoping: LOTR cartoon

[ltriplettkc]

40 seconds of blackness at the end. But awesome video.

[hulagirl536]

Guys, try Studio Artist, it does rotoscoping automatically, it knows how to paint and draw frame-by-frame. Totally cool program amazing paint efx.  Runs on mac and pc.

[PervertedPivot]

i rotoscoped choreography from another animation...stealing but not...hrm

[JupiterPhareal]

8 people are stupid, this is nice dude.

[Chrisjouett12]

Dude please watch my video, i have a problem with my roto scoping and i posted a video on it to my account PLEASE HELP ME i need help or else i have wasted 45 hours

[schragemusik]

Very useful vid. Many thanks.

[alexfelix255]

This is a cool tutorial, but does anyone know if there's a video/info out there for making footage look more like the rotoscoping done in the film 'Year of the Fish' ? It looks less cartoony and more like a watercolor painting or something

[himynameishelen]

@alexfelix255 that all comes down to your personal style of drawing. The technique to do the animation would be exactly the same, what would be different is that you'd have to draw every frame in a more painterly way- it would be much more time consuming, but the process is identical.

[angelisima]

Thank you very much for this vídeo!! I want to do it myself, see what i do!

[watchandL1sten]

sweet vid

[Louloudito]

Cool video.

[SayidShazeen]

I would LOVE you if you would make a more in-debth tutorial on how to do this :)

[mikemike007ify]

love rotoscoping

[saceismyname]

Very cool Colin! I just stumbled upon this video today while I have been living in the past with Ralph Bakashi watching/listening to such movies as American Pop, Wizards, and Lord of the Rings.

[iflytoohigh]

@saceismyname

Hey! someone who knows me irl! maybe the world wide web isn't so big after all.

[BanksEntertainment]

1:16

[MengoCuz]

Battleship Potemkin used this, right?

Can't remember if it was earlier than 1918...

thanks for this awesome vid! :D

really useful

[davidbrandy34]

Cool stuff. I was just wonding if it was possible to do. I am a animation student and I am looking for a cool thing to do for my After Effects final. Think im gonna try something like this, with some effects. :-) Thanks for the info.

[goonsmile]

thats a tutorial?

[SilverDragon7109]

Wait so if you have the key frames and you place it into Flash, then it will fill in for the "inbetween" frames? Because I have an animation I would like to rotoscope, but the movements are very jagged because I can only pause it on the key frames

So then in that case, would I have to download the video, draw over it and then put in in flash in order to create the inbetween frames?

if so, what would I have to tell it to create inbetween?

[roetemeteor]

So what Way did A-HA do it in "Take on Me?"

[iflytoohigh]

@roetemeteor

They used a more traditional animation style of going frame by frame hand rotoscoping like they did in the old days.

[vincentpricesnephew]

@roetemeteor because rotoscoping fucking rocks!

[krolflower1]

flame by flame?



[AdrienC100]

It was interesting. I actually thought it was something else. I am a recent Animation student and am just learning various aspects of Animation.

[voltzsociety]

Really nice...!!

This is not what am looking for but still its something really interesting...

And in the end Results That Matter :)

[jamikx]

What software do you use?? do you edit each frame using one software. like after editing it, you can just play the video right away.

[soandso13]

how do u add songd to the rotoscope afterwards?

[MegaMittenz]

Can this be used for anime videos?

[Hrko1992]

shitload of work lol

[ItsLiv]

thanks for this tutorial, it helped me a lot, check mine out! :)

[Gwitfu90]

What program can you do this on?

[2ratski]

wait wait.. so u photoshop each frame???? then exported as image file, am i right? then imported in an animation software?... it's a lot of work..

[iflytoohigh]

@2ratski

True. The path I took for this animation is the long way to go about it. At the time I was limited in the software I had available to me. There are much easier ways to accomplish a similar result.

[Lochnil]

@iflytoohigh so what kind of ways do you igure there is to make the whole process easier?

[rodssslive]

@iflytoohigh What would be an easier way?

[N3otheone]

@iflytoohigh for e.g. waltz with bashir???

[Pixelrelated]

@iflytoohigh Ever try doing this with paint (the program) it is epic amount of work...

[ilPaolino1]

@iflytoohigh at the end, the only way to get a good rotoscoped clip is frame by frame, softwares doesn't work with rotoscoping

[2DD]

It is the original use of the term 'rotoscoping', like many animation terms it has been used by digital animation software companies, sometimes inappropriately. Like the annoying use of 'cels' instead of 'frames'. Cels were originally Celluloid sheets that the drawings were traced on, (so you could see the background and other toons through).

It's a bit like the first car resembling a carriage and the use of 'horse power'. That's why I like Flash, as it doesn't try to tenuously link to the past.

[ownorpwn]

wait... this is not the onl form of rotoscoping. i guess it is but its just animaiton over film. you can simply rotoscope a cow to walk next to you in a recording you made.

[iflytoohigh]

hence the name of "Rotoscope Animation Tutorial" not 'rotoscope overlay'

[ownorpwn]

@iflytoohigh ok but it just says rotoscope tutorial

[MikeslyMontague]

@ownorpwn That sounds more like chromakeying to me.

[ownorpwn]

@MikeslyMontague chromakeying is simply removing a background by finding a specific/range of colors and keying it out automatically. your not using keyframes your just using a preset script.

[MikeslyMontague]

@ownorpwn I know, that's what I'm talking about, you said you can make it look like a cow was walking next to you. If you put a walking cow in front of a greenscreen, you can do that.

Are you saying that I'm just using a preset script for my videos or that you just use a preset script for greenscreens?

[IIDinDonII]

please can someone tell me what software is being used here?

thanks

[infattisi]

photoshop

[iflytoohigh]

I extracted frames using Vegas Video. I illustrated the frames in Photoshop. I animated the illustrations in Adobe Live Motion.

[Matty09Magic]

is very long, i did this sorta animation but with lines, it took 170 frames for 3 1/2 seconds

[TheSubwaysurfer]

welcome to the wonderful world of animation. It looks cool when finished but you do so many drawings that you discover very early if you REALLY love this artform! LOL!

[2dstudent20]

gee talk about going the long way round! There are far more easier ways to get this effect.

[chunk123123]

@2dstudent20 how?

[higashi001]

maybe there weren't 3 years ago..

[schaamteloos]

loved it

[NINJASxSILENCE]

I liked the little animation at the end. That was pretty good.

[AloisSenefelder]

I'm going to try this, but it's only going to be less than 3 seconds. I just need to figure out how to get each individual frame.

[iflytoohigh]

extracting frames can be a pain in the ass. i would recommend using a video editing program.  you could also use quicktime.

[MrPendoX]

@AloisSenefelder A great software is Adobe After effects. It has advanced rotoscoping tools that make the process easier

[SuperiorRobot]

great stuff! the short animation at the end is really neat. how long did that take you?

[SuperiorRobot]

also... did you interpolate the frames?

[iflytoohigh]

nope, no interpolation in this animation.

[iflytoohigh]

many many hours

[davidtejones]

wooow. thanks for posting this.

[Mutough]

What program did you use for the actual animation?

[iflytoohigh]

adobe live motion

[DamageIncM]

Are you Jason Lee?... :P

[mwilso]

just skip to 1:16 for the tutorial people

[BoliFX78]

thanks mwilso...that helped

[Paul186]

Good , clear and helpful. Rotoscoping makes animations very watchable. It makes 'error' and simplification work for you. Good tutorial.

[Nintendogsmaster3]

I was wondering, since I don't have this program...

Can you do this in GIMP?

[Nintendogsmaster3]

Sorry, I didn't mean GIMP, I don't know what I was thinking when I typed this.

Could you do this in Anime Studio?

[Merlyn1978]

You could probably use blender3d to split the video into individual pics, then load them into gimp and just draw on a seperate layer.

[PatrickSchabus]

yes they are really cool

[caseybar]

what program did u use?

[masakazu652]

There is actually an easier way to do it in Photoshop CS3 and on, there is a window that you can access called the Animation Pallete and you can just create a new video layer on top and go frame by frame and enable "Onion Skinning" its pretty awesome

[cudisatwin]

or you can just get ToonIT! for after effects.

[whiteboinoob]

easiest way but doesn't look nearly as good as true rotoscoping. but non the less creates a very nice effect. depends what your going for.

[SonyHackMyMum]

LOL nice work :0 at the end you did sound a bit like ross on freinds

[falconbird123456789]

yes you draw every fram, but if you have something called a ghost frame then it makes it a little easyer

[iflytoohigh]

the "ghost frame" you reference is commonly used in traditional frame by frame animation and is referred to as "Onion Skinning "

[falconbird123456789]

max fleciour looks like hitler

[WeeOnDrums]

hey, so as i understand you have to draw every single frame of a video? damn, that must take forever... ? or is there a program that understands your changes and saves some of the drawn lines? if there is, what's the name of the program? thnx

[Queenie515]

In programs like Sony Vegas Pro you can mask/rotoscope too, but you have a ton of little anchors you have to match around every little curve of the picture (if you're trying to get the mask perfect), and even then the masking lags, or vegas shuts down WHILE you're masking, and you lose some of your masking, and maybe even the whole thing if you haven't saved your project. Let's just say Photoshop is probably one of the best programs to rotoscope/mask in.

[WeeOnDrums]

thank you for your reply!

[bbodine61]

I have a great idea for a film and want to do a whole movie like this. About how long would it take for, maybe an hour or hour and a half movie in rotoscope?

[iflytoohigh]

depending on the process you use for rotoscoping and how many people are helping with the animation, it can take 2 - 4 years. good luck :)

[goodson88]

I have photoshop and I don't know how to do this.

[rachel123452]

nice work man... do you use live trace at all? seems that would be a major time saver..

[iflytoohigh]

i've never used live trace. i'll have to look into that.

[Malucodemez]

haha why is there like half a minute of empty at the end?

[iflytoohigh]

oops.  sorry bout that.

[smallc28]

lol why didnt u just use the fliter lol

[StrangeMOFO]

because you are an idiot thats why... filters are for the weak. The real question is why did he animate each frame. why not draw once then use AE and keyframe the shape layers over the actual footage. makes for a much smoother animation.

but as for using a filter to rotoscope, SHUT UP! just because you found the filter menu, does not make you fuckin Saul Bass jackass!

[smallc28]

shut up lil bitch fliter is better

[BirofPreyProductions]

You dont even know what a filter is!! YOU ARE BANNED FROM THE INTERNET AND ANY PIECE OF ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT FOR LIFE! From now on you are required to wear a bell around your neck to warn other people of your great incompetence.

[SashulicaPasarica]

i have no idea what you are saing but eat a cock!

[pianokid100]

good vid, but some of the info was wrong. Rotoscoping was actually invented by chuck norris

[ocha]

chuck norris? the movie star?

[happyipodman]

Can you import avis into adobe flash?

[Filmaker92]

Ok how did you paint your hat, beard, t-shirt,and how did you also did the shirt, the skin and etc etc etc... cause it sounded like you where explaining it then going into detail with it.

[iflytoohigh]

for this particular piece, I was using the Lasso tool to make a selection and then filling in that selection with a color. I use the Lasso tool to draw around the hat shape and then fill it in.

[MJKwote]

thanks a lot man, but how do you extrapolate all the frames into another folder like you told me?

[iflytoohigh]

i believe there is an option to "Save Frame As: " under the file menu. so you save the frame, then advance the play head one frame and save that one. etc. etc. etc.

[MJKwote]

o wow.. LOL that sucks... i was sure there was an automated way to extract all frames as an Image file without doing it Manuel. Anyhow thanks a lot for all your help man.

[MJKwote]

can you please tell me what programs you use. I have photoshop cs3. but say I record a video. I have the avi. what program do i use to export all the frames? and then after I rotoscope all the frames what program do you use to put all the images in to animate them? and what FPS do you use? thanks

[iflytoohigh]

The programs I used for this are Photoshop, Sony Vegas Video, and Adobe Live Motion. I used Vegas to extrapolate the individual frames and put them into a folder. I then opened up the exported frames 1 at a time in photoshop to do the rotoscope process and saved those frames into a different folder. Then I imported the rotoscope frames into Live Motion and created an animation with them frame by frame.

[MJKwote]

thanks sooo much bro.... can you please tell me how to extrapolate???? I could never fig. it out in vegas?

[Schwarzweb]

good one.

i'd do it quite the same way. but i'm not sure about adobe live motion. this should be quite silmilar to TOON BOOM STUDIO, right?

[TrobinT]

Thank you :D

[TrobinT]

How long does this process take?

[iflytoohigh]

exceedingly long. a feature length frame by frame animation can take years to complete with a full staff. if each frame has to be drawn one at a time, a short clip can take hours to do.  i think i averaged about 4- 6 minutes per frame. so......

[TrobinT]

Wow!! thats veryy long! i say good job doing your clip i am amazed i tried doing this and i failed soo congrats :D

[iflytoohigh]

thanks. you just have to have patience. and dont try to do it all in one sitting. i split up the animation over a week doing a few hours each day.

[hotelboobtv]

so you have to do that with every frame

?

[iflytoohigh]

yep.  every frame. animation is sooooo tedious.

[Nocturne06]

Can't you just automate the process using automator for example? :)

[iflytoohigh]

heh. i supppose i could go the easy route and use a program that has a filter to produce a similar result. but any monkey can press a button to turn on a filter. i prefer a monkey that can trace by hand.

[coolkidsrockit]

is there a cheap sotf were like paint u can do this in as well

[iflytoohigh]

i don't know of any off the top of my head, but if you do some google searching for freeware or shareware programs, you might find something. good luck.

[almightybeanchild]

Great Tutorial, bro.

[Lathis]

12fps? Then, for a three-minute video you would need 2160 frames? X.X

[iflytoohigh]

just about. my videos are not anywhere near that. and some times i would double up frames. just to stretch it out a bit.

[AvantGardeGuy2]

Sorry to bother you again, but how did you get the background in the picture?

[iflytoohigh]

the background is just something I drew on a layer under the layer with my image on it.

[AvantGardeGuy2]

Thank You.

[AvantGardeGuy2]

Did you have trouble with pixels in the frames? I know I am. How did you get the picture so clear?

[iflytoohigh]

I didn't really have a lot of issues with pixels in the frames. When i was drawing in photoshop i created a new file with 300dpi and pasted the frame of video into that.

[AvantGardeGuy2]

What tools did you use for the eyes and nostrils? I tried using the magic lasso tool but it wouldn't let me.

[iflytoohigh]

i almost never use the magic lasso tool. it doesn't not allow for specific control of selection. just use the regular lasso tool.

[AvantGardeGuy2]

thanks.

[brandnewadit]

how many frames per second did u use?

[iflytoohigh]

this was done at 12 fps

[markjb]

cool video!

[kixdreng]

awesome :) Thanks for the tut

[cage003]

like you have to draw every shape frame by frame???

[smallsam52]

yah

[phalbo]

Great way

[RainLegion666]

where i can find the programm for rotoscoping?and what's its name?

[smilingradio]

photoshop :o)

[RainLegion666]

is the same used in this video?? 8O

[alterdkyle]

can flash allow you to draw every 4th frame for example, and let it fill in the others for you?

[lowededwookie]

Another tool you can use to do this is Pencil. It's open source and there are versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

The only downside is that currently only the Mac version can export as a movie file (QuickTime) but you can export as a Flash movie on all platforms.

One cool feature is "onion skin" which shows the previous frame as an opaque image so you can get more finer control over your animation. It pretty much mimics the original way of doing animation.

[Poohahaha]

so, you would need to draw for every single frame? skip every other ones? and then how would i put it together as a film? what software. vegas? if then, all together would result in like the video at the end that you have shown? is this that simple? i'm just curious. how come the video seems smooth?

[iflytoohigh]

for this example i drew every frame. i did this the long way btw. i drew the frames and then input them into adobe live motion and played it at 12 frames per second. then exported as a .mov file.

the reason i say i did this the long way, is that there is software out that will allow you to do all that i've done within the same program. like Flash for instance has the same functionality for everything i did with multiple programs.

[hoythott]

What program did you use to get single frames like that?

[iflytoohigh]

i used vegas video

[hamisharn]

if you all love rotoscopeing then you should watch "a scanner darkly" great movie;)

[mcrkid22]

That's what got me interested :D

[Foolhater]

There is more than "Your way" dude. You can use Macromedia Flash to draw over the frames. All you have to do is import the video file in the timeline. Create a new layer. And draw over the top of it. Easyer that your long ass way.

[AceOfJon]

dude it was supposed to be a joke... geesh

[bluesrunthegame]

Hey, if you're not okay with his way it's not his fault.

[aNiZeR]

Hey, this still raises one important question. What is the quickest and easiest way of exporting all the frames from a video without having to do one at a time?

[drproctor18]

Either use Virtuldub or just do what I do and do it all in Flash. Import a video and embed it into the frames. Then you can take it frame by frame and jusst draw over it. Easiest way of doing it.

[bentarthur]

I find the easiest way is using quicktime to export your movie as an image sequence. Make sure to export the same file as an aiff so you have both the audio and the video separated into frames. I'd also suggest lowering the frame rate to 15 or 12 frames per second.

[lowededwookie]

That's exactly what I did only I did it from Final Cut Express.

I kind of cheated on my one whereby I used Automator that comes as part of Mac OS X so as to apply a Quartz Composition to the images. The script took about 20 minutes to render 953 frames.

Then I reinserted the frames into Final Cut and altered the duration of each frame to create a frame by frame animation.

[bluesrunthegame]

Isn't that just for quicktime pro?

[lowededwookie]

No. iMovie and Final Cut Express/Pro all use QuickTime to do video work but that isn't dependant on QT having the Pro licence. In fact with Final Cut there isn't any real need to ever get the Pro licence as QT can now play fullscreen video without the pro license and Final Cut takes care of the rest.

[bluesrunthegame]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was talking to lowededwookie. I can't use final cut because I use windows.

[lowededwookie]

On Windows QuickTime Pro can definitely do the job but yes you will need to buy it. That being said what I did can only be done using Mac OS X Leopard as well because the Quartz Composer filters are only available from Leopard onwards.

There are free tools out there for Windows and Mac but probably not as easy as using Final Cut/QuickTime Pro and Automator.

[bigballbubblehead]

thanks!

[dardura108]

fascinating!

[nacho279]

Thanks!

[S1lv3rr0ck3r]

amazingly interesting...

[XxemofishxX]

sweet!