Rotoscoping

In a quest to revolutionize animation aesthetics and often tedious production processes in the early days of cinema, competing animation studios developed popular characters and new technologies to create smoother motion and synchronized sound. As Disney's near-total domination of the American market has allowed it to partially re-write history, credit for the first synchronized sound cartoon often goes to "Steamboat Willie," also erroneously labeled as the first to feature Mickey Mouse. However, it was Disney's stiffest competition, the Fleischer Studios, that pioneered the technology behind 'Car-Tunes,' in which the bouncing ball was debuted in theater sing-a-longs; and rotoscoping, in which a character is drawn over live action footage.

The first character to be rotoscoped--over footage of Max Fleischer's brother, Dave--was KoKo the Clown, who starred in the 'Car-Tunes' series and got his start in the popular "Out of the Inkwell" shorts in 1919. He was also seen in cartoons starring Betty Boop, one of the more popular characters to emerge from Fleischer Studios. In addition to KoKo, several of Boop's cartoons are notable for using rotoscope over film of American jazz artist, Cab Calloway. Calloway performed the songs, "Minnie the Moocher," "St. James Infirmary Blues," and "The Old Man Of the Mountain," specifically for the Boop shorts; "Moocher" became his most famous recording, seen below in Fleischer's version of "Snow White." The dance steps of the ghost are traced from Calloway's signature moves.



Apart from creating fluid animation, rotoscoping also acts as a kind of mask for live action film that allows individual components to be isolated from the remainder of the frame. This is perhaps its most common use today; my instructor counted at least 90 instances of rotoscoping during this year's Super Bowl broadcast. However, it remains incredibly time consuming. This ten second clip, of Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain," is comprised of 150 individual frames that took around 20 hours.



On the plus side, if you ever wanted to watch Gene Kelly dance on Jupiter, the Great Wall of China, or in the jungle, it is now entirely possible.