Rotoscoping

I thought of many visual styles and ideas initially that would technically be doable but I felt not practical considering the time limit and the power/aptitude of my computer. For example I know how to use Cinema 4D to a decent standard and can make some nice looking stuff in there. However, it takes an absolute age. Modelling, texturing, lighting and animating takes long enough but rendering can take upwards of 10 hours to render just a few seconds. My computer only has a fairly puny processor and so chugs massively when given anything with global illumination and sub-surface scattering to deal with. This would be doable in the time limit although the point of the client was that I needed to tailor my designs to them and if i render something out and they then change there minds it is too much work for me to complete to a high standard within the time limit. So I crossed that off the list.

I then wanted to think of programs, ideas and themes that were in a similar vein which would be eye catching, unique and engaging. My initial idea in cinema 4D was to have a very modern and abstract 3D environment. Sort of making everything look as though it was made out of paper. I could then use Latest Sport's key blue colour to highlight whichever aspects they deemed important. My inspiration for which spawned from this advert:

I loved the style of this advert. It was eye catching and using detailed beautiful lighting really made it pop. This inspired my original idea of a paper world in Cinema 4D however, as Cinema 4D was off the list now I wanted to think of another way that was still interesting to get the same idea across. I more or less immediately thought about rotoscoping. 

Rotoscoping is a technique pioneered by animators in the early days of film but now used extensively in the visual effects industry by compositors in their program of choice. I use After Effects as most of my compositing is done out of necessity rather than artistic desire. It is basically using the pen tool or masks in general to cut out a section of an image or video and have it separated from the rest of the frame. This is useful in films and used in almost all of them I would imagine. It allows you to film your actor on set pretending to react to an explosion that isn't really there. When you put the explosion in in post then it will be in front of the actor and you wouldn't be able to see there reaction. Rotoscoping allows you to cut them out and have them on their own layer placing them back in front of the explosion. Here's a visual example:

So as you can see Andrew rotoscoped the actor out to be in front of the explosion:

Raw plate

Final shot

As you can see with the side by side, the actor has been cut out of the original footage frame by frame and placed back in on top of all of the explosion assets. It is a very widely used technique particularly in the visual effects industry where it is near essential. However, I wasn't going to use it in that way I wanted to get back to the animation roots of the technique and create something more abstract and interesting.

I was inspired by the old Apple commercials and the "Take on Me" music video:

I think that these are two of the most synonymous and widely recognised representations of how I want to use rotoscoping. Obviously they are both far to complex and time consuming for me to accomplish. The apple one was done with people dancing in front of a green/blue screen which meant they could be keyed out almost immediately. That is how they are able to achieve that striking level of detail. And the music video I believe was actually physically drawn out by hand which requires specialist gear. I am going to just be using the pen tool within after effects and hopefully draw a blocky, simplistic representation of my chosen characters and make them move in a photorealistic way.