someone with experience please explain the "Rotoscope" properly to me

john12 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-27-2006, 02:40 PM

could some one explain the Rotoscope to me,
i understand it's to paint out certain parts of your layer but i'm trying to make some one completely on a trans back ground with out using a g/b screen. When i use the paint brush to do so, their is no way in high hope that some body could paint out the background of 200 to 300+ frames exactly the same to make the person appear to be standing in front of a trans layer - impossible- and that is why i know i obviously don't understand 1- the correct pro
2- short cuts to duplicating the first frame i've painted, especially when the subject is moving around
& 3- basically i need the whole thing explained being that it's an important tool i need to learn how to use.

Any advice on this, or anytype of Masking to get the same effect would be more than appreciated

Thanks in advance

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 07-27-2006, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by john12

could some one explain the Rotoscope to me,
i understand it's to paint out certain parts of your layer but i'm trying to make some one completely on a trans back ground with out using a g/b screen. When i use the paint brush to do so, their is no way in high hope that some body could paint out the background of 200 to 300+ frames exactly the same to make the person appear to be standing in front of a trans layer - impossible- and that is why i know i obviously don't understand 1- the correct pro
2- short cuts to duplicating the first frame i've painted, especially when the subject is moving around
& 3- basically i need the whole thing explained being that it's an important tool i need to learn how to use.

Any advice on this, or anytype of Masking to get the same effect would be more than appreciated

Thanks in advance

I read your post three times trying to determine whether English is your first language or not!

Anyway, basically, I believe you have it exactly right. Rotoscoping is simply the art of painting your movie frame by frame, be it wire frame removal, light sabre painting or, as I did before, making a footballer semi invisible in a Predator style effect.

So, yes, people are expected to paint 200-300 frames to get the job done. This amount to about 12 seconds of footage. Needless to say, the fact that it is no easy task is th reason why the rest of the world blue or green screens things which makes the task of building a good matt somewhat easier and automatic.

I think you are asking for specifics on how to do it. Well, the how depends entirely on what s/w you have at your disposal. Personally, I tend to export still images from Premiere Pro and then hand crank them in Photoshop. Of course depending on what your task is you may find you can automate things a bit by building photoshop scripts and then running them from Adobe Bridge on 1000's of frames in sequence. Much easier

I could point you at a really excellent set of video tutorials explaining this type of task in great detail but, as you said before, you've already exhausted the Creative Cow of anything worth knowing haven't you?

john12 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-28-2006, 08:28 AM

I figured that you must have made your predator creation using this trick,
but still what i really don't get, is how to paint so close to the lines on each still frame, keeping the painting to look almost exact to the frame i painted before it!

Yes English is my first language,
i sometimes have trouble trying to explain myself when i don't fully know the technical terms for a lot of the editing jargon yet!

creative cow, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

maybe you can point me in the right direction in this website i dislike so much.
Ive checked it and didn't find anything to do with rotoscoping!

I think mate sometimes you believe in the cow a little too much

Alan Mills · #4 (**permalink**) 07-28-2006, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by john12

I figured that you must have made your predator creation using this trick,
but still what i really don't get, is how to paint so close to the lines on each still frame, keeping the painting to look almost exact to the frame i painted before it!

It is a slow and sometimes painful job. I had to make a hand drawn selectyion around the person on each frame and then fill in the seleection with 'background'. It does take ages and I do not know a shortcut to ease the pain other than film on blue or green screen.
The good news though, is that it works wonderfully well. I found that when I filled the selections with background the player vanished completely and cleanly. I had to do extra work so that you could 'see' the invisible person (using layer styles). That, as it turned out, was the real trick to the effect.

Originally Posted by john12

Yes English is my first language,
i sometimes have trouble trying to explain myself when i don't fully know the technical terms for a lot of the editing jargon yet!

lol - just having a little joke.

Originally Posted by john12

creative cow, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
maybe you can point me in the right direction in this website i dislike so much.
Ive checked it and didn't find anything to do with rotoscoping!

I think mate sometimes you believe in the cow a little too much

I'm not THAT much of an advocate. Although I do find it useful. I simply felt the need to offer a small retort against the claim that there is nothing useful there that's all.

john12 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-30-2006, 03:39 AM

thanks for replies, but problem with using green screens for me is
"your predator video as perfect example" it won't look that good if a boy is running infront of a blue screen and then put on to a soccer field.
i can definately see the advantages over and over with blue/green screening but as your probably well aware, sometimes it wouldn't look anygood to use one.

thats just my opinion anyway. i'm sure theirs brilliant green screeners out there that could make any situation look realistic using this trick,
but at my stage of editing, not me!