
Rotoscoped Animation of Filmed Parkour - ropable
https://moral.net.au/writing/2016/08/27/animation/
======
faraggi
> I think this is an okay result, coming from a programmer with coarse drawing
> ability and zero prior experience of animating things.

Very humble conclusion, I think its a great result and I'd be more than proud
it that were my first work of any kind.

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bitwize
The use of rotoscoping to deliver realistic 3D animation has been used
extensively by Neill Blomkamp for his films: CG characters such as Christopher
Johnson (insectoid alien) and Chappie (robot) were animated by rotoscoping an
actor's on-set (or on-location) performance rather than suiting the actor up
in one of those ping-pong-ball suits and having them gesticulate in an
imaginary set in front of a green screen.

~~~
novaleaf
further down your tangent: one big disapointing suspensions of belief i had
with... was it District 9? was where it shows one of the police robots
flinching when the cement wall it's behind gets hit by small arms fire.

to me at the time it informed me that there was mocap going on, or a dumb cg
artist/director deciding that the robot had to react in a more humanlike
fashion.

of course now that i think about it, a military robot with auto-flinch-
reflexes could actually help it avoid hits (similar to why our flinch reflex
evolved i suppose) so that puts me in my place!

~~~
kqr
Hey, you seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy this:
[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/future-screens-are-
mos...](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/future-screens-are-mostly-blue/)

Basically, whenever some sort of "dumb" design decision in a movie annoy you,
try to come up with a decent explanation for why it's actually an intelligent
design decision. It's a lot of fun!

> The most interesting lessons from sci-fi come when you assume, for the sake
> of argument, that everything is in sci-fi is there for a reason–even things
> that look like mistakes. There’s a word for this, apologetics, which usually
> refers to the act of attempting to close logical loopholes in theology.

> Take Star Wars, for instance, in the scene when Luke and Han Solo are in the
> Millennium Falcon blowing up TIE fighters.

> If they’re fighting in the cold vacuum of space, why do we hear the ships
> exploding? Sound doesn’t exist without air.

> George Lucas probably figured that a silent gun fight would probably have
> been way less dramatic. He wanted to make the scene feel real to the
> audience, even if it was less true to reality. And if we move from the point
> of view that what works for the audience will work for the user, we can ask
> ourselves–could this make sense? Is there an explanation that can warrant
> hearing ships exploding in space?

> Well, what if the sound is the interface? Audio is a much more efficient
> gauge of surroundings, since it spans 360 degrees, whereas vision only
> covers 120 degrees. It might be that there are sensors on the outside of the
> Millennium Falcon that provide 3D sound inside the gunner seat. So when we
> hear ships blow up, we’re actually hearing an augmented reality interface
> that Luke and Han hear. Maybe?

> With design thinking, there are logical excuses for every interface
> discrepancy. And it makes sci-fi that much more fun to watch.

~~~
vidarh
The space battle/trading game Terminus takes this approach to providing a
"familiar" set of controls while still letting you exerience something closer
to realism.

You get to see nebulae and moving starfields, explosions gives of sounds, and
you can steer as if you're driving a plane, pretty much. But everything that
isn't "real" is described in the manual as assistance provided by the in-ship
computer to assist human navigation, and can be turned off if you prefer the
more austere and genuine look and feel.

Even the way the ship handles - if you look at one of the outside views, while
the ship is handling like a plane, you'll see directional boosters fire
accordingly; turn it off, and you have full control and can e.g. rotate the
ship and fire backwards at ships pursuing you, while continuing to coast away
from them.

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gaius
Also see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_(1989_video_g...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_\(1989_video_game\))

 _Much like Karateka, Mechner 's first game, Prince of Persia used rotoscoping
for its fluid and realistic animation. For this process, Mechner used as
reference for the characters' movements videos of his brother doing acrobatic
stunts in white clothes and swashbuckler films such as The Adventures of Robin
Hood_

~~~
Someone
That's in the article.

More interesting, IMO, is
[http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/](http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/),
which links to his journal which got published as "the Making of Prince of
Persia" (preview at
[http://www.jordanmechner.com/downloads/makpopsample.pdf](http://www.jordanmechner.com/downloads/makpopsample.pdf))
and to the Apple ][ source code for Prince of Persia
([http://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-
II](http://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II))

~~~
bemmu
Making of Prince of Persia is one of the best books I've read, even if it's
just a book version of his journals. It's really captivating as it records his
journey as he perfects his game (along with some distractions) and finally
gets it published by a major studio.

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buzzybee
I now see it as more crucial that this author succeeded in designing a
workflow, than that the result is the best one possible.

In media, you're always challenged - implicitly - to discover a good workflow
for doing something, to craft a structured approach so that the bulk of it is
a matter of "coloring in the lines" or "filling in the blanks." Being
considered a "professional" is mostly indicative of having some flexibility,
and not staying stuck in a one-note style. For visuals like this, sometimes
that means a very technology-driven approach like rotoscoping, mo-cap, 3D and
procedural rendering, other times it means relying on basic conceptual drawing
and animating skills.

And it's turtles all the way down. Before you can draw a character you have to
design a character. And you need a process for designing the character so that
they make sense in the context of the world or story. And then the world needs
a design, and so on, and so forth, until you're looking at basic principles
and philosophies driving the intent of the work. At least, that's how it would
work if you built all of culture from scratch. In practice, creators start
borrowing elements on whims or as they fall out of their comfort zone, hence
why most of culture is remixed.

What you buy when you hire an artist is a "package of familiarity." Some
artists are really great illustrators but are uncomfortable with designing
original characters; some are good at comic book scenes with dynamic poses,
others at portraits and fashion drawing. A Bob Ross landscape is defined by a
process that is so straightforward that anyone could pick it up just by
watching. And what defines "programmer art" is mostly that it has no
particular workflow or structure in mind, it is entirely whimsy guided by
pragmatic efficiency. Other media like music, storytelling, game design, and,
of course, programming share these same qualities.

Here the author downplays technical drawing and drafting abilities, but those
are as valid a form of presentation as any, and they help push the focus back
towards the interesting part of the material, which is the realistic motion. A
character cluttered with detail detracts from movement - this is true even if
you look at the different versions of the first Prince of Persia and how they
translate the same motions to higher fidelity platforms. Same frames, but they
become more wobbly with colors, outlines and higher resolution. [0]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1zDjDFSW4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1zDjDFSW4)

------
wyldfire
> Another similar use of rotoscoping was by Eric Chahi in his masterpiece
> Another World

Aside: "Another World" (aka "Out of this World") is available on Steam.

~~~
khedoros
It's on GOG, too (for the same price, when I checked just now). Also, there's
a reimplementation of the game engine, which uses the original data/bytecode
files: [https://github.com/joskid/Another-World-Bytecode-
Interpreter](https://github.com/joskid/Another-World-Bytecode-Interpreter)

------
michaelbuddy
Does anyone know how the term rotoscoping was coined? I've never understood
the etymology and have yet to get a good search result on it either.

~~~
ajuc
it comes from rotoscope - the device used. It can project the (possibly
rotated) frame of movie onto working area.

~~~
michaelbuddy
Maybe it is a rotation of the projected image. Again looks like we're still
inconclusive on this in terms of the etymology.

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Nexxxeh
Is the link for the GenLock tag wrong? It takes me to parkourpedia, which I'm
assuming is incorrect unless he's using the pictures in the wiki as a
demonstration? It's not clear to me, am I missing something obvious?

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nye2k
The greatest takeaway here is that, by using live action as reference for both
character posing and timing, you're able to shortcut visual appeal.

Read The Illusion of Life, Animators Survival Kit and the Preston Blair book
if you're serious about including animation in a project -- or befriend an
animator. Animators don't let other animators rotoscope.

~~~
cpfohl
I'm not sure I'd go as far as that. Rotoscoping creates a unique visual style,
I like the look.

Want to elaborate?

~~~
searine
To make animation appealing you need to anticipate, exaggerate, and
squash/stretch motion.

These do not appear on rotoscoped footage because they do not occur in real
life. If you rely on rotoscoping the result is bland movements which lack a
"spark of life".

In other words, rotoscoping creates an "uncanny valley" for motion.

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williamsharkey
The author makes some interesting comments, view the page source.

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etatoby
So what is the name of this (future?) 2D rotoscoped parkour game? I, for one,
am very interested.

~~~
cven714
In case you haven't seen it, Mirrors Edge [1] is an excellent first-person
parkour/action game.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1TJP1cxmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1TJP1cxmo)

------
turshija
> And just look at it! Even on the Apple II with only 4 colours it's mind-
> blowingly detailed and smooth!

It is amazingly smooth and so pleasant to watch, and this is the first time
I've noticed that !

~~~
vidarh
The realism of the animation was a big deal in pretty much all the reviews of
it when it was released, as far as I can remember (I didn't pay much attention
to the Apple II, as it was virtually unseen in Europe, but I remember reviews
of the C64 and Amiga versions).

I never actually played the game, but saw the animations, and they certainly
stood out.

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chrisweekly
Bravo! Wonderful post. Thanks for sharing! :)

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nxzero
Seeing this, I imagine something like Pokémon Go, but for parkour; aka get the
Lat/Lon for a location, record a parkour set, upload the video, create the
animation, generate score, allow other users to see location and animated
clips.

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ryanmarsh
What is up with the scrolling on this page? How'd they manage to break
inertial scrolling on iOS Safari? Really annoying.

------
Practicality
You might want to put this on your projects page. Although I do enjoy the
Fabio shopping gif.

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impe83
wow pretty cool stuff, yes Prince of Persia was probably the first one to use
it

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cousin_it
Taking shortcuts on your hobby, and being afraid of parts of your hobby,
defeats the point of having a hobby. Why not learn to draw and animate from
imagination? That way you'll be limited only by imagination.

Not to belittle the technical achievement, of course.

~~~
chris_st
Well, to each his own, I guess.

I spent several years learning to draw and paint, it was a great hobby. BUT, I
didn't get to the point of being able to draw character-type art. That level
of drawing is __hard __, due to the uncanny valley.

Also, I think it's also cool that he decided to try a different technique than
hand-drawing, and went on to (A) get good results and (B) document it clearly.
Doesn't feel to me like a "afraid of part of your hobby", more like "how do I
get around my own limitations?" thing.

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blinken
Great article, but why Python? I would have thought a proper functional
language like Rust or Scala would have been more appropriate.

~~~
vidarh
Why do you think the language matters for this, beyond picking one he's
familiar with?

