Rotascoping - worth the effort?

Rotascoping is a time consuming but rewarding process. In a 4 hour workshop I created and finished a second of animation that is loopable. This process is great as it gives the oppetunity to make figures animate without the same complex process of traditional animation.

Using the combination of live action footage and vector masking, digital rotascoping is a lot more consistent.

When picking assets for my rotascoping project I had two very clear objectives: A human hand or profile due to their distinct appearance. Its crucial to have very obvious shapes due to the nature of cut out method of rotascoping.

I also explored interesting colour schemes and decided on this one:

 

the footage I took I made a frame by frame contact sheet to give an idea of what I created. I intentionally over-animated my finger movement in order for the shape to convey better over a flat mask.

 

This is my result from this session but i would love to explore this area more:

The Magic of Rotascope from Sophie Wales on Vimeo.

These are other sources that inspired my work before my creation session.

Young The Giant: Something To Believe In from Drew Tyndell on Vimeo.

I have since gone back to rotoscoping my hands as a continuation from my first animation using the same colour scheme and style.

mayhem rotoscope from Sophie Wales on Vimeo.