History Main / RotoScoping

* The little-known, less-seen, and not-entirely-completed masterpiece ''WesternAnimation/HappyNewYearPlanetEarth'' (never released owing to licensing and contractual issues). A Canadian cross between ''Heavy Metal'' and ''Yellow Submarine'' set to music by the band Klaatu, it is mostly rotoscoped.

* An interesting case in ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective''. The gears inside Big Ben at the start of the climax were done in CGI, but were then traced onto paper by a computer, xeroxed onto cels and painted in. ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' took the technique even further, using it for all of the films vehicles as well as the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York cityscape]], and required the creation of Disney's first in-house computer animation department.

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/TheFlowersOfEvil'' has become notorious for ditching the original manga's character designs in favor of using this process to animate the characters. [[https://japanator.com/stories/aku-no-hana-s-hiroshi-nagahama-talks-flowers-evil-28789.phtml In an interview]], Director Hiroshi Nagahama he chose this process over traditional animation because the manga is fairly realistic in the depiction of its themes. He went on saying that he wasn't interested in doing a live action drama either because in those the emphasis is always on the actors and not in the characters. For Nagahama, rotoscoping was the way to go.

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEVfHmjKOrM&ob=av2e Shadrach]]" by the Music/BeastieBoys features a heavily stylised example of Rotoscoping.
* Music/LinkinPark's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezSGqbuo0g Breaking the Habit]]" music video has the band performing toward the end, it was rotoscoped and animated with an anime style flair to fit in with the rest of the video's art style.
* Spoon, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInnbQrYVhQ Everything Hits At Once]]" and Zero 7, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZncATpZre_w Destiny]]", both directed by ''Waking Life'' animators.

* The video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUbqOcMlD7I&feature=related Electric Surfing Go Go]]" by POLYSICS flashes between this and live action.
* Music/{{Kasabian}}, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0OEVWKZv0 Shoot the Runner]]"
* Music/DreamTheater, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRBP1rpE5y8 Forsaken]]"
* Music/CaravanPalace, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbQgXeY_zi4 Lone Digger]]"
* Music/{{Queen}}'s video for "[[https://youtu.be/g2N0TkfrQhY Innuendo]]" has the band members rotoscoped from their prior videos and their 1986 Wembley Stadium show in different artistic styles (Music/FreddieMercury in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci, Music/BrianMay in the style of Victorian etchings, Roger Taylor in the style of Jackson Pollock, and John Deacon in the style of Pablo Picasso).

* Music/{{INXS}}, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoEPrbdfmT4 What You Need]]"

* ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'' and its sequel, ''VisualNovel/LastWindow''. Actors and actresses are brought in, and they are filmed performing various movements. The most essential "frames" of their movements are then drawn over and spliced together to create the grainy, film-noir novel style. You can watch the "behind the scenes" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv6L26DZYEs video here]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AScannerDarkly https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Waking_Life_rotoscoping_372.jpg]]]]

* The little-known, less-seen, and not-entirely-completed masterpiece ''Happy New Year, Planet Earth'' (never released owing to licensing and contractual issues). A Canadian cross between ''Heavy Metal'' and ''Yellow Submarine'' set to music by the band Klaatu, it is mostly rotoscoped.

* The ''Captain and the Kids'' cartoon "Petunia Natural Park" starts with a special MGM logo featuring an animated version of Jackie the Lion done with this technique.

* ''Film/{{Tower|2016}}'': This film is a documentary feature about the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting 1966 University of Texas tower shooting]]. Unlike most documentaries, the bulk of the film, namely all the historical recreations of that day as well as many of the talking heads, are done with rotoscoped animation.

** In 1967, Warner Bros. had merged with Seven Arts which had acquired the TV rights to the 1930-43 black-and-white Looney Tunes shorts from absorbing Guild Films. Guild had previously acquired those rights from W-B subsidiary Sunset Productions. After the merger, W-B had 75 of those cartoons shipped to Korea to be rotoscoped – redrawn and painted in color. The tight deadlines and low budgets (all done on 6-field cels) rendered these color versions sloppy and unattractive.
** King Features had the same thing done in 1986 with the Fleischer black-and-white ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons.

* French/Canadian co-production ''WesternAnimation/DeltaState'' is the first animated television series to be entirely rotoscoped, taking over 27 months to complete. This gives the show an... ''interesting'' look, to say the least.

** The 1939 Porky Pig cartoon "Old Glory" uses rotoscoping handsomely in the scenes of America's gestation. Contrary to belief, the animation of Uncle Sam talking to Porky was not rotoscoped. Robert McKimson meticulously animated him himself.

* In ''Series/TheInvadersTVSeries'' rotoscoping was used to add the red glow over dying and incinerating aliens.

* In ''Series/TheInvaders'' rotoscoping was used to add the red glow over dying and incinerating aliens.

** In 1967, Warner Bros. had merged with Seven Arts which had acquired the 1931-43 black-and-white Looney Tunes shorts from absorbing Guild Films, who in turn acquired them from Sunset Films (believed to be a W-B dummy distribution firm). At that time, W-B had 75 of those cartoons shipped to Korea to be rotoscoped – redrawn and painted in color. The tight deadlines and low budgets (all done on 6-field cels) rendered these color versions sloppy and unattractive.

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/AkuNoHana'' has become notorious for ditching the original manga's character designs in favor of using this process to animate the characters. [[https://japanator.com/stories/aku-no-hana-s-hiroshi-nagahama-talks-flowers-evil-28789.phtml In an interview]], Director Hiroshi Nagahama he chose this process over traditional animation because the manga is fairly realistic in the depiction of its themes. He went on saying that he wasn't interested in doing a live action drama either because in those the emphasis is always on the actors and not in the characters. For Nagahama, rotoscoping was the way to go.

* Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion has its moments, specially in ''End of Evangelion''.

* The opening to the ''Literature/SubeteGaFNiNaru'' anime includes a few dancing scenes animated in this style.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'' did this with Taarna, the title character of the last major story.

* The opening to the ''Literature/SubeteGaFNiNaru'' anime includes a few dancing scenes done up in this style.

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/AkuNoHana'' has become notorious for ditching the original manga's character designs in favor of using this process to animate the characters.

* Music/{{FreakWeek}}'s video "Freak of the Week" used a similar technique to the Disney films above, specifically the characters were modeled and were animated in 3D, then painstakingly painted over frame by frame.

!!Examples

[[folder:Films – Animation]]

[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]

* The book the Library Ghost is reading in ''Film/Ghostbusters1984.'' When the effects team optically processed her into the filmed footage, the optical-printing also processed her book, which, being a real object, had to be a harder image than the ghost. It's done so well that the pages seem to have a little bit of telltale grain.

* Animation has been used to restore some of ''Series/DoctorWho'''s [[MissingEpisode missing episodes]] for DVD release. The animators sometimes use rotoscoping to remain faithful to the few short bits of footage that survive, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wASEpjDsLGo the regeneration scene]] from part four of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]'' being a good example.

** By extension, Music/WeirdAlYankovic's parody "Money For Nothing/[[Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies Beverly Hillbillies]]"

* ''VideoGame/HotelDuskRoom215'' and its sequel, ''VideoGame/LastWindow''. Actors and actresses are brought in, and they are filmed performing various movements. The most essential "frames" of their movements are then drawn over and spliced together to create the grainy, film-noir novel style.
** You can watch the "behind the scenes" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv6L26DZYEs video here]].

* VideoGame/FAITHTheUnholyTrinity features rotoscoping to terrifying results. While the game usually uses very primitive animations similar to early video, during cutscenes the characters are represented by jarringly life-like rotoscoping. Combined with the primitive text to speech, VideoGame/FAITHTheUnholyTrinity burrows its entire experience deep into the uncanny valley.

*** King Features had the same thing done in 1986 with the Fleischer black-&-white {{Popeye}} cartoons.

* The book the Library Ghost is reading in ''Film/Ghostbusters1984.'' When the effects team optically processed her into the filmed footage, the optical-printing also processed her book, which, being a real object, had to be a harder image than the ghost. It's done so well

Creator/{{Disney}} Studios had used rotoscoping from ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (explaining the slightly different art style of said characters) all the way to ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''.

* Disney's most well-known use of it was the vehicles in ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. They built models of the cars and trucks, painted them white with black "outlines" on the edges, shot them in stop-motion in front of a white background, and then photocopied the results directly onto the animation cels. They would continue to use this technique in ''Disney/TheAristocats'' and ''Disney/TheRescuers'', largely using the [[PropRecycling exact same models]].

* Specifically averted in ''Disney/LiloAndStitch''. One of the special features shows the animation process of the opening hula dance scene, in which the animators watched footage of actual dancers and painstakingly animated the movements by hand, as rotoscoping would not have created an appealing performance.
* An interesting case in ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. The gears inside Big Ben at the start of the climax were done in CGI, but were then traced onto paper by a computer, xeroxed onto cels and painted in. ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' took the technique even further, using it for all of the films vehicles as well as the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York cityscape]], and required the creation of Disney's first in-house computer animation department.
** Disney revisited the "3D-to-2D" background method a decade later for ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'' with the Deep Canvas technology, in which the films backgrounds were created in CGI and then digitally painted over by animators to appear hand-drawn. Deep Canvas was later used in ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' and ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'', albeit to a lesser extent.

* Music/INXS, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoEPrbdfmT4 What You Need]]"