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RotorScoping and Animation

LeggraphicsLeggraphics Registered User regular
edited May 2009 in Artist's Corner
As promissed I am finding my work and uploading it. Here is some of the first stuff I found of mine. Its a few years old.

The first 3D movie is a 3D environment that I created in a group setting in Uni. I did the modeling and rendering etc and everyone else did things like coding because I wasn't very good at coding through director. Basically rendered out all these different short movies and clicking in different directions would activate the movie and take you to where you wanted to go. Eg- Virtual environment with movie tweens in between locations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTbtjCSqq2A

and here are a few animations experimenting with rotoscoping. These were my first attempts at it before getting into the animation/ experimental film I actually did for class. Ill try to compress that later this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwKhadVN2qo

and finally my dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxP-_n9w7II

Leggraphics on

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    JRoseyJRosey Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I like the cat eyes best. Wish it was longer. Want to see more!

    JRosey on
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    RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited May 2009
    did yuou build the 3d environment? The flythrough is decent, but you should work on your slow ins and outs on where the camera stops and starts, as the sudden motion is jarring.

    I can't really speak for the cat's eyes one, as it doesn't really do much, but it looks neat.

    the last one is well done, but I'm not sure if you were trying to go for a cycle or not - if you were, you need to work on the transition, as it is very noticeable as to when it starts and stops.

    And you do know it's not "rotorscoping", right?

    curious as to why you chose to do rotoscoped animation rather than traditional - are you trying for the hyper-real look that it gives, or...?

    Rankenphile on
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    LeggraphicsLeggraphics Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    oh.. these were never anything serious. Basically before I went about creating my last project for Uni i tried a few new things to see how they looked. I thought I would just post them for people to look at

    Yes I did build the 3D environment. There are also 4 rooms upstairs you can enter with art hanging on the wall as well as statues on the bottom floor. The idea was to create an interactive art gallery which people could walk through and purchase stuff to download to their phones etc. Instead of having a boring website they could move about like an actually shop and purchase stuff. We almost got the project complete to, we just lacked the PHP knowledge to finish off the purchasing end.

    The 'fly' through on the 3D environment was never ment to be 'smooth' basically the movies like taking a few steps and then it stops. Then in the 'game' you then select what direction you want to walk. Basically I just put a whole heap of those little animations together.

    also- Im pritty sure rotorscoping is the art of painting over film. The cats eyes and the dog were things that I filmed, then painted over then deleted the film. i have other 'experimental' stuff like adding photoshop filters to frames and stuff. I will try to find them.

    Basically just posting it to show some different things, maybe give inspiration as it did for me at the time.

    Leggraphics on
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    ShizumaruShizumaru Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    No offense man but if you wanna learn how to animate.. actually animate. I don't think you'll really gain anything from rotoscoping.. theres a reason its frowned upon.

    Shizumaru on
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    LeggraphicsLeggraphics Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Shizumaru wrote: »
    No offense man but if you wanna learn how to animate.. actually animate. I don't think you'll really gain anything from rotoscoping.. theres a reason its frowned upon.

    hahha. yeah. I totally agree. I really like the kind of looks you can get from it though hence why it fitted my insomnia experimental film topic.

    I started off doing claymation when I was like 15 years old using modling oil based clay and building my set out of that foam/cardboard stuff. I ended up getting a merit at the young film makers festival and I was so stoked at the time. so I know the fundamentals doing things in progression like claymation and then i experimented with cell animation.

    I just really like the idea of experimenting with mediums and seeing what you can come up with.

    oh.. im sure you are aware but the first few starwars used a form of rotorscoping, colouring in the 'light sabers' on each frame of film to get that glow effect. Do you frown on them???? do ya punk?? lol just taking the piss :p

    Leggraphics on
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    RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited May 2009
    hell, even Snow White used rotoscoping, but that doesn't mean it looks good if it isn't used just right

    look at... well, anything Bakshi ever did. The stuff looks god awful.

    It has its uses, and films like Waking Life showed some of its potential with the digital age behind it, and I've sworn for years that I'd kill to see Gaiman's Sandman series done as a HBO series in digital rotoscope, but it is a technique that should only be used like photoshop filters - sparingly and by seasoned pros that know when to and not to use it.

    and it is indeed rotoscoping, not rotorscoping.

    Rankenphile on
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    ManonvonSuperockManonvonSuperock Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I'm glad you made the spelling correction, Rank.

    I agree that rotoscoping should only be used sparingly. However, I actually like Bakshi's stuff, but hated Waking Life. So our opinions of when it's used well differ there.

    Fleisher used it in his Superman cartoons, one of the reasons they were so expensive to make.

    ManonvonSuperock on
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    RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited May 2009
    Bakshi's a haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

    Rankenphile on
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    FlyingmanFlyingman Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    rotorscoping sounds like a dangerous hobby.

    Flyingman on
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    ManonvonSuperockManonvonSuperock Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    dude, fritz the cat? fire and ice? both ballin'

    ManonvonSuperock on
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    RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited May 2009
    okay, I should reiterate some of my statements above

    if you look at Snow White, a brilliant piece of animation for its time (especially when you consider they were inventing character animation at the time and didn't have the modern luxuries we enjoy like, say, seeing your work as a test shoot before it goes into the film), keep an eye on the Prince character - he's almost entirely rotoscoped. A lot of the queen and snow white was too, but the prince is the most obvious. He seems to float in the scene - he's not entirely grounded and doesn't move. Also, with rotoscoping, unless you're an incredible animator, you don't use any of the twelve principals of animation - squash and stretch, exageration, anticipation, etc. You're not really animating, you're tracing video. With this comes inherent flaws due to human nature - you're trying to correct for motion blur, you're stuck rigid to a real body that isn't actually interacting with the world, etc.

    As far as Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly went, they were good experiments in digital rotoscoping, but that's about it. They weren't mind-blowing by any sense, but they showed that there is potential there. The stories left a lot to be desired, and the animation could have been a lot more incredible, but for what they were, they were serviceable.

    There are lots of things you can learn about animation by studying live motion reference, but if you really want to animate, I suggest starting with the basics.

    Of course, in the interests of full disclosure, I'm an animation student learning from Disney vets, and am only entering my second year, so I carry a lot of bias and plenty of freshman-know-it-all-itis, but at least I'm capable of owning up to the fact that I'm likely completely full of shit.

    Rankenphile on
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    RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited May 2009
    dude, fritz the cat? fire and ice? both ballin'
    Wizards

    Lord of the Rings

    (to be fair, I've not seen Fritz the Cat or Fire and Ice, which are both crimes I realize, but I really like giving Bakshi a hard time because the dude was suuuuuch a dick, and I'm a big fan of Robert Crumb, and Bakshi completely gave the dude a raw deal.)

    Rankenphile on
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    ManonvonSuperockManonvonSuperock Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I think it has to do with integration more than anything. The prince looked bad in snow white because he stood out. The battle scenes in bakshi's lord of the ring movies fail for the same reasons. Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly fail because they're dull, show very little intent of the artist, and as far as I'm concerned felt like 90 mins a piece of a photoshop filters.

    Fire and Ice and Fleisher's early Supes cartoons worked because the stuff was fairly seamlessly integrated. Nearly every movement in Fire and Ice was rotoscoped as far as I could tell. The stuff that wasn't was animated to the same level of fluidity.

    Yeah, I enjoy the shit out of Crumb's work as well. But I can't hate someone's work cause they were a dick. That'd be a crime against Peckinpah.

    ManonvonSuperock on
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    LeggraphicsLeggraphics Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I have to agree with most things you guys have stated in this thread so far. I totally agree it is really a weird sort of thing to do. However it can also really make something look differnt and 'experimental' and I didnt use it much through my video (still yet to upload) but I used it a little like the cats eyes. basically before I went about making my experimental video I went out and tried all sorts of things to try to get different looks. My video was on the topic Insomnia. Which was quite relevant at the time as for over 2 years I was only getting one or two hours sleep. It really changes your perception on everything. Its like being drunk every day. It becomes really weird like being trapped inside yourself and everyone seems to be mechanical and Its really hard to describe. Your in your own world....

    Leggraphics on
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