James (Guest) on 02/15/2008 5:06 pm

Never saw "a scanner darkly" because...

A. It had keanu reeves in it. A man who has the acting ability of a tree.

and

B. It looked like crap.

I'm sure this whole rotoscoping mess will simply fade with time.

MagicFlyinLemur (Guest) on 02/15/2008 5:13 pm

Firstly: A Scanner Darkly was good, you just have to be able to think a wee bit to enjoy it, James. If there's one role Keanu is suited to playing, it's a confused, drug-addled character.

Secondly: I honestly haven't seen too much rotoscoping around; I have seen a couple of these ads, but nothing to make me hate rotoscoping. At most, they just engendered in me a mild amusement that someone thought making the guy look all cartoony was marketing gold.

Thirdly: I'd vote, but frankly I refuse to interact or involve myself with anything G4-related on sheer principle.

Huggbees (Guest) on 02/15/2008 5:23 pm

Scanner Darkley was a great film, but when I first saw one of those commercials, I thought "What has humanity done!?"

Protoclown on 02/15/2008 5:40 pm

A Scanner Darkly was awesome, but I have to say the rotoscoping shit is getting WAY out of hand with those commercials.

Fauna (Guest) on 02/15/2008 5:50 pm

Oh Lord, so THAT'S the official name for that crappy animation. I think rotoscoping makes everyone look deranged, and I've been damn well sick of it since it was used in "Stuart Little 3".

Marsten (Guest) on 02/15/2008 6:00 pm

Rotoscoping is also a very, very cheap technique to animate with.

For example, when Bakshi was making Lord of the Rings cartoon, they started to run out of money. So they had to cut back on animation staff, and use rotoscoping instead.

Unfortunately, it looked shit. Which is why that movie was awful.

Poxpower on 02/15/2008 6:41 pm

Those look like shitty photoshop filters and not actual rotoscoping which is done by hand.

Here's a funny and good example of evident rotoscoping used in an actual animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0d1HbItOo
Watch the whole thing, you'll see evident unnatural movements, which is the irony of rotoscoped animation; it looks impossibly unnatural and weird.

Nick on 02/15/2008 7:16 pm

I completely agree. I hate it when some young upstart films himself doing something then tracing it as if he did it all by hand. I also hate people that fall for it.

plooker on 02/15/2008 7:16 pm

The first time I ever saw rotoscoping was in a Three Stooges short when I was about 6. I turned to my Dad and said 'That looks like shit'. He turned to me and siand words to live by: 'Lazy efforts only please lazy people', then explained the whole process to me. It always seemed to me to be on the same level as tracing your favorite comic books to try to 'make your own comic books'.

James (Guest) on 02/15/2008 7:24 pm

Ahhh, Ralph Bakshi's lord of the rings. I have that on DVD. I cry when I watch it, and it's not tears of joy.

Heath (Guest) on 02/15/2008 7:46 pm

Ok, Rotoscoping on commercials is just plain stupid. I think we all know this. But there are valid times for it, such as in A Scanner Darkly. That was honestly the first time I ever witnessed that type of film and it blew me away. I don't think that movie would have been so awesome if it wasn't for rotoscoping. And think about, that movie is about a psychedelic drug that alters people's perceptions of reality. When you're watching the movie, doesn't it almost feel like YOU'RE on the drug??? Maybe not the 2nd or 3rd time, but the first. Rotoscoping is a must-have for films like that. Point is, Rotoscoping has a time and a place. It shouldn't die. It should just be restricted to good movies and shows that will actually benefit from it. And video games. :)

captain516 on 02/15/2008 7:51 pm

Rotoscoping isn't bad when its used appropriately and in moderation, like in Hey Good Lookin'
(another Bakshi film). But if you make an entire movie using nothing but traces of live-action footage, then you're missing the point.If you want to see some good rotoscoping, check out the Fleischer Studios cartoons, who invented rotoscoping.

Tetsu Deinonychus on 02/15/2008 7:59 pm

Real hand-drawn rotoscoping CAN look okay if used artfully and sparingly. Examples include many Betty Boop cartoons and even Disney's "Snow White".

But, if you use it for everything and/or you use it wrong (tracing the whole actor instead of drawing a new character to the actor's movements)it can look very stupid. Such is the case in Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movie, which even he admits rotoscoping was a mistake.

This interpolated crap, on the other hand. Just looks gimmicky.

Marthaeus Autolykos on 02/15/2008 8:31 pm

TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TAKE ON ME TAKE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN TAKE ON ME I'LLLLLLLLLLLLL BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNE TAKE ON ME-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Styles Rockman (Guest) on 02/15/2008 8:56 pm

Rotoscoping was fun with Heavy Metal (Circa 1981, for those not privileged enough to have seen it) and that's pretty much it.

Pentegarn on 02/15/2008 10:29 pm

It took longer for Ray Jay Johnson to get old and annoying than it did for rotoscoping to do so once mainstream commercial media got their mitts on it.

Umbee (Guest) on 02/15/2008 10:44 pm

That's what it's called?
I always thought it was pretty crappy.

Dungeonbrownies on 02/16/2008 12:27 am

rotoscoping is ok in moderation, its artsy, hey, sometimes even beautiful to lok at, but i agree, the recent ads ive seen with alot of the rotoscoping is really driving me insane

Charles Schwab is BS (Guest) on 02/16/2008 2:30 am

Charles Schwab blows. They didn't help me with my financial situation. I'm going through foreclosure and all they could talk about is my 401k and retirement. Screw you guys. I'm glad a company from Citigroup helped me out with getting a bankruptcy lawyer and paying my debt down. BTW Rotoscoping blows!

neoboman on 02/16/2008 3:14 am

Couldn't agree more. Too many commercials use it.

A passerby… (Guest) on 02/16/2008 3:37 am

Hahahh I remember watching A Scanner Darkly.

I love the part where he is at the resteraunt thinking of the waitress topless. Classic.

I don't care for rotoscoping, but it was cool for a film about drugs, it made it feel like a 2 hour acid trip about acid trips..... wow.

And no special effects could recreate thos suits that made you anonymous. Evar.

Riot.EXE on 02/16/2008 4:33 am

No one mentions "Waking Life"? damn.

I've seen ONE of those commercials...and that's the only time I've ever seen rotoscoping used to advertise something...I didn't know, however, that it was around long before "Waking Life"...so, yeah.

Tom Foolery on 02/16/2008 8:46 am

It's about damn time somebody with any sense of style spoke up about the evils of those damned rotoscoping Charles Schwab commercials. I've hated rotoscoping since I seen the preview of 'A Scanner Darkly' years ago. Keanu Reeves being in the movie made it look dumb enough without the shitty rotoscoping. Now whenever those lame commercials come on, I started yelling obsenities at the television that would made a sailor cry; and I would know.

MilesMayhem on 02/16/2008 9:03 am

i dunno about rotoscoping in general, but i really like what Richard Linklater has done with it. A Scanner Darkly was pretty good, but Waking Life is an amazing example of how to use it effectively. I just though it fit really well with the movie, the whole dream vs. reality thing.

Ronin S on 02/16/2008 9:05 am

You could use this argument for anime too. I see lots of crap being done manga style these days since the style is so popular and there are a million people who are drawing it. But I still like well done anime series Full Metal Alchemist.

I don't have anything against rotoscoping. I liked how it was done in An American Tale and Forrest Gump. It's like anything else, it's how you use it.

Cedar (Guest) on 02/16/2008 11:05 am

Both Star Wars and Tron used rotoscoping I believe, but those were really only for glow effects.

MSJ (Guest) on 02/16/2008 11:17 am

'A Scanner Darkly' actually benefits from rotoscoping (and Keanu) because it's a movie about drug junkies. It's the same reason all the 'computer world' scenes in 'Tron' was animated, and not live-action sets. And as Disney and the 2D Prince of Persia games show, rotoscoping actually looks amazing in the hands of true experts. It's the same as with any animation or filming technique actually.

Angryhydralisk on 02/16/2008 12:41 pm

Commercials just suck now. Except the Snickers ones with the Viking and the other costumed folk. That commercial was the best.

calavera on 02/16/2008 1:24 pm

rotoscoping took several days off my life and i want them back! ....mnea, ill just waste em

i did a star wars movie for college and i had to rotoscope the lightsaber effects for a 5 minute duel and it was pure hell.

looked good in the end tho and i had a massive que infront of my mac when we showed our projects to family/friends. was the happiest moment of my life when i heard one of my friends parents say to their kid: ' why couldnt you of done somethin that cool instead of doin some art shit?'

Shane Skekel (Guest) on 02/16/2008 2:16 pm

Doesn't Max Burbank do something similar with his crappy photoshop comics?

Marthaeus Autolykos on 02/16/2008 4:40 pm

Just think, all of you could have been spared this frustration if you watched less TV. There are less commercials in real life.

Vendettagainst (Guest) on 02/16/2008 5:28 pm

You remembered that it was a commerical for "Charles-Fucking-Schwab." That's the whole point of commercials. To get their name or product into your brain and try to make it stay there for as long as possible. Rotoscope FTW.

Rob COTV (Guest) on 02/16/2008 6:30 pm

woohoo Rotoscooping! Thanks for the mention Roger - you rock!

Zbu Manowar on 02/16/2008 9:08 pm

Rotoscoping did have a good use in A Scanner Darkly to showcase the Agent's little disguises, but outside of that I can't really see the purpose. It's neat to some extent, but it can't carry a movie.

Good article. :)

MSJ (Guest) on 02/16/2008 11:00 pm

I just realised most of the complain against rotoscoping stems from its use in ads.

That's understandable. Rampant commercialism ruins a lot of things.

Deez Nuts (Guest) on 02/17/2008 5:49 am

Suck 'em.

Sillygoth on 02/17/2008 9:12 am

You really hit the nail on the head. Rotoscoping for Charles Schwab is really a bit too much for me as well. I never saw Scanner, though I thought it might be worth a viewing, and I'd never seen that form of rotoscoping before, either. Thanks to Schwab, though, I can't be bothered. They've ruined it for me. I think I also might not hate it so much if it didn't seem like their commercials aired every ten goddamn minutes on the occasions that I watch tv.

incognit000 on 02/17/2008 9:33 am

Rotoscoping is saying "We want to do an animated film, but can't draw."

I've seen some rotoscoped animated films via The Animation Show and other artsy-things, and a few of them were genuinely beautiful (a short rotoscoped film in which the frames were replaced with paintings was so moving I teared up) but the thing is that these were short (~5mins) artistic films that got to explore the nature of rotoscoping. And that's the only way it can work.

Laura (Guest) on 02/17/2008 10:57 am

I think rotoscoping is great for being able to make something look realistic but also having the freedom of animation. That commercial is terrible though.

Hugo on 02/17/2008 2:56 pm

It sucks. That's the reason I didn't see that movie, I can't stand that ugliness. If only they would come out with this new DVD, "rotoscoping-removed edition", then I would see it. Maybe.
Now, the technique itself is not that repulsive. That old Heavy metal movie used a lot of rotoscoping as well, and that was quite cool. Not to mention he-man.

Mushi-Mushi (Guest) on 02/17/2008 5:04 pm

I remember seeing an ad - I don't remember what it was for, air freshener perhaps - where a man was walking around this house, done in rotoscoping. I just went "OH GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!"

porkboy on 02/17/2008 7:25 pm

"It just screams of some lame way a bunch of old men in suits are trying to be hip in an attempt to connect with the younger generation."

I think those "old men" are technically not the people in charge of that stuff. I don't think they would know enough to really care. They're probably asking fresh-out-of-college kids for ideas.

At my University, in our multimedia school, you can throw a rock and hit a kid who loves shit like "Boondock Saints." I mean, the movie's fine, but not God's gift to film.

Seriously, I don't understand the appeal of "Boondock Saints."

johnny (Guest) on 02/17/2008 10:09 pm

here is a good example of rotoscope when it is well done:
youtube.com/watch?v=5Fe6dQ1TwmQ

meushy on 02/18/2008 2:11 am

actually i agree.. scanner darkly was awesome... but yeah noticed they always seem to rip off anything seen as hip for small cash in... rotoscoping is only one of em

Anonimoose (Guest) on 02/18/2008 2:39 am

Rotoscoping has it's time and place as in Heavy Metal. It's over use is caused by either lazy or untalented artists. It's incredibly boring to rotoscope something.

The kind of rotoscoping you're talking about is vector based, probably done in Illustrator(?) which means it's almost inhumane in it's tediousness. I can't possibly imagine why anyone would want to subject themselves to making a vector based rotoscope anything.

The only positive side is that a film animated like that could be scaled to any size without losing clarity.

nilus on 02/18/2008 9:56 am

I hate Rotoscoping. It looks like crap. I hate the Rotoscoped part of the Animatrix. I hated Waking Life. I hated Scanner Darkly.

Its like someone said lets to a cool animated movie, but we still want people to think we have star power so lets just film a bunch of people and then MSpaint over them. Now I am not saying Rotoscoping is an easy process, its probably not. But at the end of the day it still looks bad to me, so I don't see the point

Meocuchad (Guest) on 02/18/2008 1:37 pm

I had been wondering what this type of animation is labelled as...
I'm not a big fan of it, either. I think we'd all be just fine w/out it. IMO, Scanner Darkly is a pretty good movie, but I wouldn't go hunting down other movies done in this fashion for that reason alone..

Teros (Guest) on 02/18/2008 4:01 pm

WHAT!?! People still use rotoscoping!?! I thought that died out after motion capture became easily available. I remember when rotoscoping was cool. I played a couple of games that make good use of rotoscoping, Flashback and Prince of Persia (the original 2D Prince of Persia, not the new crappy 3D ones.)

twelve on 02/18/2008 4:49 pm

I remember this one movie I saw and I'm pretty sure it was the first movie to utilize "roboscoping",...It was called Waking life and was a hell of a lot better than that piece of crap A scanner darkly

twelve on 02/18/2008 4:51 pm

P.S. not for nothing but the whole rotoscoping animation thing makes me seasick when I try to watch it

superior seven on 02/18/2008 7:59 pm

Rog, I cannot agree with you more. Those goddamned company's have taken new movie effects too far in these last few years. Man, I still remember when everything was "bullittime".

Output on 02/18/2008 9:52 pm

The "Take on Me" video was rotoscoped, and it was the best music video ever!

homor (Guest) on 02/19/2008 3:17 am

to me retro scoping is easy on the eyes.

retroscoping is much better when it's more like it is in the music video for "take on me", rather then that ad.

by the way, what is that ad selling?

Kench on 02/19/2008 4:13 pm

Actually -- as a few people pointed out, "A Scanner Darkly" isn't "true" rotoscoping. That movie, as well as the commercials that are in that same style, are actually all done by the same company, down in Texas, which has a specific program that..."cheats" (for lack of a better word) rotoscoping, so you don't have to trace individual frames.

I'm going to agree that there are cases when rotoscoping isn't effective...namely, when it is done just to look different. There ARE great ways that it has been used, though. So don't knock a style just because you see it a lot...knock the people who use it wrong.

Vendettagainst (Guest) on 02/19/2008 11:30 pm

Shaw Fu

nutgobbler (Guest) on 02/20/2008 1:12 am

you're all weird for getting so
upset about a god damn commercial.

go outside.

nutgobbler (Guest) on 02/20/2008 1:13 am

YOU SMELL LIKE MUH FUCKIN' FRENCH FRIES.

homor (Guest) on 02/20/2008 12:56 pm

the ads for the TV show Dirt are rotoscoped too.

Rune_Ferret (Guest) on 02/20/2008 1:08 pm

Rotoscoping has been used by animators when the budget is on the line (take Ralph Bakshi's Fire & Ice, or Lord of the Rings, or Wizards)

Count Mek on 02/20/2008 8:54 pm

Never seen the effect used before to be honest, but I'm in Britainland and don't watch TV, so that COULD be a factor in it...
Besides, I'm sure there's a simple effect or something that can get the same result, as opposed to paying a hundred forty gajillion dollars for it or whatever.

beatpole on 02/21/2008 5:05 pm

Why would anyone want to copy something Keanu Reeves was in, if he wasn't on a "things that must be destroyed" list, he should have been.

henry (Guest) on 02/23/2008 1:15 pm

a great movie, a style. you have no appreciation for art.

Captain Awesome on 02/23/2008 10:34 pm

G4 Sucks.

Nicholas (Guest) on 02/25/2008 11:30 am

I have seen rotoscoping a few times. It sucks. It makes images nearly impossible to see. It is like a cartoon with terrible fucking glare in the background.

Ditch (Guest) on 02/26/2008 12:19 am

Oh my god, yes! When I first saw those commercials I thought the same thing.

Forget the commercials why the hell did A Scanner Darkly need to be rotoscoped? Why does anything other than a Ralph "I'm too cheap to animate my movies" Bashski film need to be rotoscoped?

It doesn't look cool or hip it just looks... like a waste of time and money for something that is overall mediocre.

kevin knapp (Guest) on 11/24/2008 11:59 am

yes those charles schwab ads are pathetic.it's bad enough as far as the rotoscoping,but did you ever notice its always some scumbag yuppie with the arrogant smerk on their face,playing golf,on a ski slope,or the latest one that bespeckled yuppie opening a bottle of wine in his 3000 buck a month apartment......yuch.....

RedMan (Guest) on 02/27/2009 12:16 pm

I just attempted to watch the movie" Renaissance"
and I just couldn't get through trying to watch it. It is one of the most annoying tings i've ever tried to watch. I could care less about commercials, and I have to say that the movie "Heavy metal" was the best, not at all like the rotoscopes of late , in which some moron actually thinks people like to watch something that is totally black and white but about as easy to watch as veiwing photo negatives.

What really kills me is that some could have been really good films, but they decided to make them unwatchable. 'A scanner darkly' was not so bad , but the black and white rotoscopes blow so much , and so badly.

Corrine (Guest) on 05/12/2009 5:52 am

:O So much info :D

the Thrasher (Guest) on 04/19/2010 5:01 am

Dammit!
I just spent ages typing a long comment, and when I hit the submit button my FireFox did something really weird.
Did it come though or is it lost and I have to do it again?

skeleton man (Guest) on 08/21/2010 11:51 am

I can't believe some of the BS I'm reading in here. Half the people aren't even talking about the SAME process when throwing around the term rotoscoping and calling it crap. It needs to die? WHO made you GOD of animation to determine what animators can and can't do?!

Here's a thought, if you don't want to see it, DON'T WATCH IT! I, for one, love A Scanner Darkly, American Pop, Fire and Ice and for 3D I prefer motion capture like FInal Fantasy and Beowulf. I'll take it over squashy and stretchy cartoon characters any day. But that's MY preference. I am not trying to take away anything from anyone elee.

Ash Wells (Guest) on 10/20/2011 5:42 pm

Ditto what Skeleton Man says. The Charles Schwab commercials are uniquely eye-catching and force the viewer to pay attention, even to a topic they might normally "tune out" such as investing. Charles Schwab says it "breaks though the clutter and brings attention to the voice of the investor so that people engage with investing." The fact that people are talking about it is a testament to their effectiveness. In addition, Schwab says a team of about a dozen artists painstakingly work on different parts of the actors' face over a period of about 20 days to complete a 20 second clip. Hardly a "very cheap" method of animation or "shitty photoshop filter". Think out the box a little and stop being so judgmental about everything. I'd bet a tidy sum of money Schwab tested these commercials in small focus groups and they played well the intended audience. See this clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRZbtSZ456Q

Robert Sharp (Guest) on 12/15/2011 1:22 pm

I agree with Skeleton man . He does make a valid point. People aren't even looking at all of the BS that is in the clip. Open Your Eyes!!!

VeeDoubleU3 (Guest) on 08/04/2014 4:28 pm

thank you skeleton man, rotoscope is honestly my favorite type of animation. It is for sure less than .01% of all animation, I have no idea why this guy is fed up with it even though it has been used only a handful of times in a 100 years. Scanner Darkly, Waking Life, LOTR, Fire and Ice, Take on me music video, 3 stooges....barely any even out there.

Jennifer (Guest) on 05/22/2016 2:56 am

A handful of times in the past century? No. No.

You guys are almost all under the impression, it seems, that rotoscope is only the style typified by 'A Scanner Darkly'.

But it's used constantly. The LOTR/Hobbit films? I mean the good ones, not the Rankin/Bass ones ( though I have a soft spot for their 'Hobbit')..? Yeah, all those.
The Don Bluth films...'American Tail', 'All Dogs Go to Heaven'...uh huh, those. The original 'Star Wars' flicks? Yep. All of the Disney movies, pretty much. Yeah, the old classic ones, like 'Snow White' & 'Fantasia' but a lot o' the new ones too...'Little Mermaid', 'Beauty & the Beast', etc. Hitchcock used rotoscope.
All kinds of movies that you don't think about because it doesn't look like what you think rotoscoping 'looks like'. It's like any other painting technique. I can use a brush and some paint to make something photorealistic, or somewhere in between, an Impressionist viewpoint, or I can flip off the other end and go full Picasso and try to tell you these four squares are really a woman juggling three squirrels.

Rotoscopy ain't that bad. The 'Scanner'' style might not be for you, but I'm gonna opine that people who think every one of the others I mentioned is an example of piss-poor filmmaking is blind.

Jennifer (Guest) on 05/22/2016 2:59 am

And I don't mean the first part of what I said as a knock against the last commenter, who said it.
I said it because that's the phrase that made it clear to me that a lot of people have a negative opinion of the style because it often is relatively subtle and so people think it's not as common as it is.

Jennifer (Guest) on 05/22/2016 3:03 am

The 'Sin City' movies...'Guardians of the Galaxy'...Betty Boop, 'Roger Rabbit'...both 'Tron' movies...sit through the credits and see how many times you see the rotoscope credit...ah..

Liam (Guest) on 06/09/2020 6:44 pm

Rotoscoping is cool for animation, especially as a tool for lifelike motion because it's hard to catch that by hand... but honestly if the animation is not expressing anything more than what's caught on the frame, then it's worthless. It's like if somebody made a painting so realistic that it was an exact replica of the photo and you can't tell the difference. Yeah sure, nice skills! But what did you just accomplish? Use those skills to express yourself, even if it's photorealistic, don't be a human copying machine.