From: currmann@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Curtis Hoffmann)
Subject: Re: cheats in anime
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Reply-To: doi@jrd.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan, R&D center
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Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 22:10:12 GMT
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From: fjohnson@police.rutgers.edu (Floyd Johnson)
>conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (E. Kontei) writes:
>
>>Because it was BAD rotoscoping.  The Fleischer brothers invented the
>>technique waay back in the 40's, and it can be done right (like the
>>way Disney does it) or wrong (like the way Bashki and Filmation used
>>to do it).  Rotoscoping per se is not a bad tool, what matters is
>>using it right!  Several anime have used rotoscoping to good effect,
>>mostly for modeling mechanical devices.
>>--
>
>Given the definition of rotoscopy, "tracing over" live action with pencil
>sketches of a character, I thought the only was you could screw it up
>was be either using too few frames or by imprecision in the drawings.

   Well...
   It's REAL EASY to screw up rotoscoping...
   (Ignoring the possibility of the animator not tracing a person's
outline EXACTLY in EVERY SINGLE frame.)
   First, think about shading -- that is changing every frame, while
most directors prefer to have the animators draw one picture for every
TWO frames of film.  And the lighting sources used inside the animated
scene usually don't match up with that from the original live film,
which makes matters much more difficult for the animators (if they even
think about this problem at all.)  Because the shade lines aren't solid
and consistent in real life, when the animator tries to nail them down
in pencil and ink, the shaded areas of a person's face or clothes are
going to jump around a lot.
   Second, the entire issue of perspective comes in.  In real life, if a
person extends their hands away, or towards the camera, you'll see an
apparent difference in size relative to the rest of the body.  Most
animators ignore this situation under normal conditions, but can't ignore
this when rotoscoping.  Unfortunately, the standard way to show that one
part of the body is closer to the camera than the others is to paint it
with gradiated shading.  This requires more time and money (and a
larger variety of paints that have to be mixed EXACTLY the same when
replenished.)  So, most directors will ignore the details of
perspective, causing the body parts to look funny when colored in.
   And, when two people are on the screen at one time, and one walks
behind the other, if both characters have been filled in with the same
colored paints, they look like they're in line with each other and should
be bumping noses.
   Third, the fleshy parts of the face are very difficult to pin down
with a pencil, so you'll get a jumpy effect in things like jaw lines,
curves in the base of the nose, and cheek bones, when a character turns
his head around.  Further, if a director chooses to transfer the pencil
drawings to cel via xerox (rather than hand-inking the lines with
colored paint,) you'll get a hard, solid line in places where you'd
normally have a simple, soft change in color.  An excellent example of
this is in Omoide Poroporo -- the main character's cheek bones look very
puffy and badly drawn.  They also jump around a little when she turns
her face towards the camera.
   Really, the things that suffer the most when rotoscoping is used:
Clothing movement, shading in the face, solidity of the jaw line, hands
and shading of the wrists, and mouth movements.

   To look right, rotoscoping should not be used to replace one
character with another (ie -- Tony the Tiger in the cereal commercials)
but rather as a guide for complicated movements.  You watch how
some action is made, and then draw the character independent of the
actual appearance of the original actor/model.  The old Bugs Bunny
cartoons, with influences from Tex Avery are great examples of this.
And the stuff done by Blair Preston.

                                       -- Curtis H. Hoffmann
                                          Nov. 1, 1992

Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime,rec.games.video