07Stick figure animation
a black-marker stick figure in a flipbook world
Rotoscope animation traces live-action footage frame by frame into drawn outlines.
24Rotoscope animation: the whole frame is hand-drawn, traced frame by frame over filmed movement, with bold, slightly wobbling ink outlines and flat fills of colour in a limited palette that shifts a little between frames, so the motion is completely realistic but every person and object is a drawing. On a rooftop garden above a city in late-afternoon sun, a girl of about ten with short brown hair in a yellow T-shirt waters potted tomato plants with a small tin watering can. Medium-wide shot at her eye level, three-quarter view, the camera holding still. 0–2s: she tips the watering can over a potted plant and water splashes onto the leaves. 2–4s: a white paper airplane glides in from screen left and lands on the rim of the pot beside her. 4–6s: she sets the can down, picks up the paper airplane and turns it over in her hands. 6–8s: she looks up and out over the city rooftops and smiles as the wind ruffles the leaves and her hair. Throughout: the whole frame stays hand-traced outlines and flat colour fills that wobble slightly from frame to frame, with realistic motion, one continuous take.
Rotoscope animation: the whole frame is hand-drawn, traced frame by frame over filmed movement, with bold, slightly wobbling ink outlines and flat fills of colour in a limited palette that shifts a little between frames, so the motion is completely realistic but every person and object is a drawing.
This came out as clean 2D animation with realistic motion; the wobbling traced line barely shows. Ask for visibly boiling outlines and shifting colour fills if you want the traced look to read.
07a black-marker stick figure in a flipbook world
08a white-line stick figure drawn into real footage
09marker drawings sketching themselves on a whiteboard