Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. A Scanner Darkly. Yellow Submarine. What do they have in common? Sure, they’re animated — but more precisely, they were brought to life through rotoscoping.
Rotoscope animation involves tracing over live-action footage frame by frame. It’s painstaking, deliberate, and a little obsessive — but the results can be magical. Depending on how far the animator wanders from the original, the final piece can feel hyperreal, dreamlike, or somewhere in between.
Over the past year, I’ve been rotoscoping short clips from my phone — little moments turned into living sketches, just to see what happens when memory meets motion. Here are a few early experiments. If you have a video you’d like to see in this style, let me know — I’m still learning, and I’d love the practice.
Henry scoring at sportsball.
Anna miserable in her new winter boots.
My first commission, courtesy of @melodyskates
Katie, Jeff, and I post-race celebration.
Rotoscope can also be used to create still frames, like this panorama from a Work & Co happy hour.