rotoscoping - a style of animation that can be used in advertising

I was inspired by the rotoscoping element in the Toyota advert, and how it was mixed with live action video. I have done a little research into rotoscoping, and had a go of my own, i have also included here an animation i have made previously in which i had a go with rotoscoping in a slightly different style, using only black and white.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique invented by Max Fleischer in which live-action figures are cut out and re-drawn. This has historically been a valuable invention because animated figure movement could be much more realistic using a rotoscope (the actual instrument used). The Fleischer brothers used this technique to animate Koko the Clown. Rotoscoping was also used in many of Disney's subsequent animated feature films with human characters, such as Cinderella in 1950. Rotoscoping has also been used to allow a special visual effect (such as a glow, for example) to be guided by the matte or rotoscoped line. One classic use of traditional rotoscoping was in the original three Star Wars films, where it was used to create the glowing lightsaber effect, by creating a matte based on sticks held by the actors.

It is such a valuable widely used technique because it allows animators to take real movement and give characters a more lifelike look, it also means objects and surroundings can be easily portrayed, with the shapes and proportions ready to trace, it is however very time consuming and is a skill to get right, most animators will struggle to get each frame running smoothly as they have redrawn the whole object slightly differently each time.

Inspired by the toyota ad, i had a quick go at some rotoscoping in the same style, focusing on the character and the art style, rather than animating it -

It took a lot of time to rotoscope this, on one frame, and it isnt very good quality, this has shwon me that it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to rotoscope a 30 second animation well, but i do like the effect, and i think it could look really good if it were done well. In this rotoscoped piece i have tried to replicate the picture exactly, whereas i could have done it quickly had i used more artistic licence, and only included the parts that were neccesary, say the outlines or a few colours, maybe not adding tones. In this piece i rotoscoped previously, i only traced the outlines, and kept the colour in the backgrounds, it was alot quicker to do and still gives a really nice effect, it is a lot more stylised.

Here it is:


I think rotoscoping would be a really good style of animation to use for an advert, as it very free, and is less limiting than some forms of animation, it could be very stylised and artistic looking, which will appeal to some audiences. i am going to look further into many more styles of animation to see what i can find, what might suitable for an advert and what i connect with.