[HN Gopher] What Is Rotoscope Animation? The Process Explained (...
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       What Is Rotoscope Animation? The Process Explained (2020)
        
       Author : walterbell
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2024-08-06 17:16 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.studiobinder.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.studiobinder.com)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related. Others?
       | 
       |  _Rotoscoped Animation of Filmed Parkour_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12380112 - Aug 2016 (49
       | comments)
        
         | Lance_ET_Compte wrote:
         | _Waking_Life_ from Richard Linklater in 2001.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | Already featured in the article.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | Rotoscoping in _Prince of Persia_
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41068176
        
       | hinkley wrote:
       | It's a new take on what we called a camera lucida, which was a
       | trick with optics that let you superimpose a scene over your view
       | of a piece of paper. You could get the proportions right and then
       | do your magic with color and technique. Not unlike how animators
       | work.
       | 
       | If you've seen anything on animation prior to computers you've
       | seen the classic technique of putting one sheet of cello over the
       | last thing you drew and flipping between them to copy the shared
       | details before changing tone thing for the next frame.
        
         | 082349872349872 wrote:
         | There are several instances of matching motion in older Disney
         | features; it seems likely that instead of rotoscoping 3rd
         | generation animation off of 2nd etc. they're all 2nd gen
         | rotoscopings off an internal 1st generation live action
         | reference library.
        
       | walterbell wrote:
       | https://www.framefounder.com/unveiling-the-secrets-of-rotosc...
       | 
       |  _> Rotoscoping is the process of tracing over live-action
       | footage frame-by-frame to create accurate and detailed mattes or
       | masks.. ensuring a seamless blend between the foreground and
       | background.. requires a keen eye for detail and patience, as it
       | can be a time-consuming process.. Rotoscoping plays a crucial
       | role in integrating visual effects seamlessly into live-action
       | footage. Artists meticulously trace elements like explosions,
       | fire, or magical effects to match the movements and perspectives
       | of the scene. This process ensures the VFX elements appear
       | natural and believably interact with the real-world elements._
       | 
       | Feb 2024, https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09883
       | 
       |  _> ..automatically synthetise retro-style 2D animations from
       | videos. The method approaches the challenge mainly as an object
       | segmentation and tracking problem. Video frames are processed
       | with the Segment Anything Model (SAM) and the resulting masks are
       | tracked through subsequent frames with DeAOT, a method of
       | hierarchical propagation for semi-supervised video object
       | segmentation. The geometry of the masks ' contours is simplified
       | with the Douglas-Peucker algorithm. Finally, facial traits,
       | pixelation and a basic shadow effect can be optionally added. The
       | results show that the method exhibits an excellent temporal
       | consistency and can correctly process videos with different poses
       | and appearances, dynamic shots, partial shots and diverse
       | backgrounds._
       | 
       | Apr 2023, [SAM 1] "Segment Anything Model and the hard problems
       | of computer vision", 52 comments,
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35558522
       | 
       | Jul 2024, "SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videos", 147
       | comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41104523
        
       | KaiserPro wrote:
       | One thing that they kind gloss over is that rotoscoping is used a
       | lot in films to separate objects.
       | 
       | For example, I did an exam on prince caspian
       | (https://eu.southcoasttoday.com/story/entertainment/local/200...)
       | to separate his hair from the forest. They didn't have green
       | screen, and even if they did, it would obliterate his hair. (hair
       | is translucent so glows green, and is removed by the software.)
       | 
       | I failed the rotoscoping part, but passed the painting section
       | (where you remove markers, crew or other features not wanted in
       | the final image.)
       | 
       | Whilst "a scanner darkly" is a brilliant example of rotoscoping,
       | its not _the_ example. if you look at this showreel towards the
       | end you see captain marvel,
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sYWzFNobEo look at her hair,
       | every individual wisp of hair that extends past her neck is
       | individually masked out.
       | 
       | Good rotoscoping is often the building block of "expensive"
       | looking VFX.
       | 
       | For computer vision its also important so you can get ground
       | truth on tracking various object and training models like segment
       | anything
        
         | CyberDildonics wrote:
         | You are mixing up rotoscoping to do natural image matting with
         | rotoscoping to paint over a frame. The original meaning was to
         | match animation to a plate frame by frame as a sort of poor
         | man's motion capture but that seems to be lost here.
        
       | pazimzadeh wrote:
       | that's how lightsaber effects were done in the original trilogy
        
       | JoeDaDude wrote:
       | Rotoscopeing in anime examples.
       | 
       | Flowers of Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toc9x19Cmkg
       | 
       | Kaguya-sama Love is War scene:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toc9x19Cmkg
        
         | gaudat wrote:
         | For your second example it's impossible to find a YouTube video
         | of Chika dance that is available in every country. Try this:
         | https://streamable.com/0hrdh
         | 
         | It's remarkable how smooth the animation is. And how natural
         | the character's movements are. This scene jumps over the
         | uncanny valley straight into being enjoyable.
         | 
         | And I think there's an AI paper from a Chinese researcher using
         | this video as a demo.
        
         | o11c wrote:
         | Second link is the same as the first.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | The wikipedia entry on rotoscoping explains the process more
       | compactly and succinctly.
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
        
       | siamese_puff wrote:
       | A cool Keanu Reeves film employs this in A Scanner Darkly.
        
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