FMP: Photoshop Rotoscope Experiment

I wanted to practice using rotoscoping in order to confirm that this is the type of animation I want to use in my final project. Using Photoshop and a graphics tablet, I created a short rotoscope animation consisting of 14 frames.

I used a short video taken from the internet to practice this on, before I begin practicing on my own footage. I chose this particular video as I had seen a rotoscope animation of an eye opening before, and I like the effect. This animation was created by Matthias Brown [1]:

In order to create a rotoscope animation, I followed an online tutorial on how to create rotoscope animations in Photoshop:

Using this tutorial, I imported the video I downloaded into Photoshop, as frames to layers. I was left with 150 frames, therefore, I had to cut this down to the smallest amount of frames I could, in order to minimise the amount of frames I would need to sketch over, while still ensuring the animation looked smooth.

I then sketched over each frame, using the graphics tablet, on a different layer for each frame. Once I had done this, I exported the animation as a GIF with and without the original video.

Overall, I think this experiment was mostly successful and I am definitely going to use rotoscoping in my final video. This experiment was very sketch-like, therefore, I want to try rotoscoping with a more accurate drawing technique. As well as this, I am going to experiment with using Adobe Animate to rotoscope instead of Photoshop as I’d like to learn how to use it, and to see which method I prefer.

 

Since experimenting with Adobe Animate, I have decided that I won’t be using Photoshop to produce my animation. Photoshop is too sketchy for the animation I want to produce, as well as this, it is easier to adjust the frame rate in Animate. The animation experiment I produced in Animate was a lot smoother compared to this animation, therefore, Photoshop will not be successful in producing my final video.

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References:

[1] Brown, M. (n.d.). Work. [online] TraceLoops. Available at: https://www.traceloops.com/#/eyes/ [Accessed 23 Mar. 2018].