An essential concept in both disciplines is the idea of “keyframes,” the frames containing the most dramatic movements or poses. Rotoscoping is technically a form of animation, so it’s helpful to apply traditional animation principles here. If you’re like me, you might be tempted to start your roto efforts by drawing a matte on the first frame of your shot and then continuing chronologically. In this post, we’ve gathered the resources you’ll need to get started with three of the most popular rotoscoping methods in Adobe After Effects: masks, the Rotobrush, and Mocha.īefore we dive into the details, let’s start with some guiding principles from VFX artist Scott Stewart ( Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many more): 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' (2003) Start with keyframes Whether you’re an animator, motion graphic designer, VFX artist, or videographer, you’ll probably need to rotoscope at least one shot in your career. Due to the frame-by-frame nature of the process, it’s easy to end up with “chattering” mattes whose jiggly edges destroy the effect.

Rotoscoping is simple in theory, but difficult in practice. Breaking a shot into individual layers allows you both to animate their properties separately and add additional assets between them, providing nearly unlimited creative applications. While notoriously tedious, the technique can add visual interest to your project. Put simply, “rotoscoping” refers to the process of separating foreground elements from the background of a shot by drawing a series of mattes, frame by frame. Time-honored booster of production value.

Elevate your production value with a classic VFX technique.Īh, rotoscoping.

Mocha pro rotoscoping tutorial