The Rotoscoping Saga

Fleischer started it all.

Max Fleischer is unarguably one of the first few animators who have dazzled audiences of all ages starting 1914. Bringing “Betty the Boop” and “Popeye the Sailor” to the silver screen would guarantee him a chapter in the history books, however Max’s greatest achievements wasn’t set on what he put on the screen but on “how”.

The technique called rotoscoping is the brain child of Max Fleischer where he used it in his “Out of the Inkwell” series together with his brother Dave. Rotoscoping then was an impressive technique used in producing lifelike animations. As a matter-of-fact, in the “Out of the Inkwell” series, Dave Fleischer was the live reference of the character Koko the Clown.

The rotoscoping process, at this time, works like this: A live action scene with the actor is shot and will be animated using a transparent easel. The film is then played back frame-by-frame on the underside piece of a glass. On the top side of the glass is the artist who manually traces the live-action sequence per frame of the film. These drawings are then cleaned up and are combined together producing a realistic effect animation.

Rotoscoping was used in several films made by Fleischer which have made a mark in the animation industry. To mention a few are Betty the Boop, Superman, Popeye the Sailor, and Out of the Inkwell (Koko the Clown) ... click here to read more