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1-2-3

Rotoscope

Rotoscoping is a fascinating animation technique where real-life footage becomes the foundation for your animated work. By tracing over video frames, you can create smooth, lifelike motion while adding your own artistic style and interpretation. This project invites you to explore movement, timing, and expression by transforming reality into your unique animated creation.

Your Mission is to create an animated sequence using rotoscoping. You will select or shoot video footage, trace key frames, and develop an animation that captures natural motion while incorporating your personal artistic style.

​

​Project Goals 

  • Understand the rotoscoping process and its role in animation

  • Analyze movement and timing in real-life footage

  • Practice frame-by-frame tracing and artistic interpretation

  • Combine realism and creativity to produce expressive animation

FIRST: make sure your KRITA is set up correctly for animating

Level 1

You MUST do all of the animation exercises below:

If you have already completed an Animation Cycle (this semester)

you may either:

- repeat one or more of the exercises to see if you can do better / faster.

- skip ahead to the assignments for this project.

1

Rolling Ball
(Timing)

Animate a ball rolling along a roller coaster. 

2

Bouncing Ball
(Stretch & Squish)

Animate a ball rolling off the abrupt end of a rollercoaster and bouncing on the ground. 

3

The Potato Sack
(Path of Action)

Animate a little potato sack hopping (flopping?) from one side of the canvas to the other

4

Jumping and Falling
(Follow Through) 

Animate a simple character jumping up and falling back down â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹

All four exercises should be completed within ONE 5-day week.

LVL1 CHECKPOINT

AFTER completing ALL 4 exercises,
but BEFORE moving on:​
​

1) Name your files correctly:

  • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level-ExerciseNumber

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-Rotoscope-1-1RollingBall

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-Rotoscope-1-2BouncingBall

  • Failure to follow this naming protocol will lead to a missing mark.

  • Use hyphens in image or file names --- no spaces.

    • Even though Windows and Mac computers allow spaces, the web is built on systems that do not handle spaces well. When a file name has a space, web browsers often change it to %20, which can cause broken links or make files not load correctly.

    • Using hyphens (-) instead of spaces helps your files work properly online.

​

2) Do the level 1 reflection

  • Download the template.

  • Move it to your Media Design folder in your OneDrive.

  • RENAME IT

    • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-ActionFigure-1

  • Answer the questions. You can focus on one exercise or answer for both.

​

3) Hand in all 5 files

Click here.

Level 2

​BEFORE YOU BEGIN

​1) GET the level 2 DESIGN BOOKLET

  • Download the template.

  • Move it to your Media Design folder in your OneDrive.

  • RENAME IT

    • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-ActionFigure-2

    • Failure to follow this naming protocol will lead to a missing mark.

​

2) Choose your level 2 assignment (below)​

​​

3) Start the booklet before starting your assignment

  • Answer the questions in the following sections:

    1. The Assignment-ID and timeline questions.

    2. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE PRACTICING​

    3. FEEDBACK

    4. PLAN YOUR APPROACH

​

4) do your assignment​

How to Do rotoscoping

How to Make a Rotoscope:

What you will need: 

To make a rotoscope animation, you will need something to...

  • take video (such as a phone, iPad, or camera),

    • Speak to your teacher ASAP if you do not have one of these.​

  • hold your camera device steady (we have phone-mounts in class)

  • someone to move

Storyboarding

For longer animations (aka your Project), you need to make a storyboard.

  • A storyboard is like a comic book version of a movie or animation, where you draw pictures in a sequence to plan out and visualize how each scene will unfold. This helps you organize and understand the flow of the story before actually making the film or animation.

  • Aim for 3-5 major scenes.

  • If you have narration,  write it alongside their storyboard, so that the two work well with one another.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

  1. Get your actor/camera-operator and any props (ex: a meter stick could become a sword)​

  2. Go to Location

    • Anywhere with a simple backdrop will do. In front of the classroom wall, for instance.

    • If using one of the phonemounts to help stabilize your video, you will need a chair or trolley to attach it to.

    • You only need the shutter remote if YOU are the one acting AND operating the camera.

      • it connects to your phone via Bluetooth. Speak to the teacher ASAP if its battery is dead.​

  3. Start Filming

    • Make sure you film in HAMBURGER orientation (sideways). NOT hotdog.

    • Give yourself a slight buffer of filming before/after the action. You can edit this out after.​

    • Make sure you're happy with it. You will build the rest of your animation from this.

  4. Pre-Animation Edits​

    • This is easiest to do on your phone, if that's how you filmed it.​

    • Use your phone's video editing app to trim off any excess video from the beginning/end, so that you ONLY have the footage you want.

​

Uploading and Importing to Krita

  1. Uploading:

    • Goal: to get the video from your device to the computer

    • Ms. U has had the best luck uploading to a Cloud Storage that she can also access on the computer, like the OneDrive app.​

    • Videos tend to be big so email won't work.

    • Make a new folder in your Media Design folder that is ONLY for this animation.

      • ex) OneDrive > Media Design 11 > Walk Cycle Rotoscope​

    • If you HAVEN'T TRIMMED YOUR VIDEO YET​:

      • Right click your file and select "Edit with Clipchamp" (this comes with Office365)​

      • trim off any excess video from the beginning/end, so that you ONLY have the footage you want.

  2. Krita

    • Krita must be version 5. If it's below that, inform your teacher ASAP.​

    • Launch Krita > File > Import Video Animation

    • Click the folder icon next to "Video File:" and select your video.

    • Set the FPS to 12

      • This means a 2-second video will need 24 frames.

      • A 10-second video will need 120 frames.

    • Click Ok.

    • Your video frames have now been added to your animation timeline​

Animating a Rotoscope!

  1. Create a new transparent layer above the video

    • This is where you’ll draw your animation—trace over the video frames here.

    • Make sure it is selected.

  2. Add your Frames

    • ​On your timeline, you should see your new layer listed above the Background. It likely called itself "Paint Layer 2".​

    • Right-Click on the FIRST rectangle in the timeline. Pick Keyframes > Insert Multiple

    • Set the number of frames as the number imported from your video (these are highlighted on the timeline)

    • Leave the Timing as 1.

    • Side = Right/After

    • Click OK.

  3. Make sure your onion skin feature is on.

    • Click the lightbulb icon just left of your frames on the timeline to turn it on.

    • Onion skinning lets you see frames before and after your current frame—this helps keep your drawing smooth and consistent.

  4. Start drawing frame by frame

    • Use the brush tool to carefully draw over the main shapes and movement in each frame.

      • ​You can use any style of brush you like. Ms. U prefers a the Pencil-2 in blue, at least for the initial pass. 

    • Focus on capturing motion, not every tiny detail.

      • Remember: make it exist first. You can make it look good later.​

    • It may help to reduce the opacity of your video layer

  5. Use keyframes and inbetweens

    • If you want, you can draw key poses first, then fill in the frames between to save time.

  6. Play back your animation frequently

    • Use the timeline controls to watch your work and check the flow of motion.

    • Try watching your animation with the video layer hidden.

  7. Make adjustments as needed

    • Tweak your drawings to improve smoothness and accuracy.

Post Production Edits

  1. Exporting your Animation:

    • File > Render Video

    • Tick "Export as Video"

      • Change "Render As" to "MPEG-4 video"​

      • Change the Video Location to a logical place in your Media Design folder.

      • Make sure you give it a proper name.

    • Untick "Export as image sequence".​

    • Click OK.​

  2. Use Windows Movie Maker for Post Production

    • Open up Windows Movie Maker

      • Yes, it's old. And it's still the best.​

      • If our computers don't have it anymore, alert Ms. U immediately. 

    • Start a new project and add your animated video file to WMM.​

  3. Narration, Music, and Sound Effects​​

    • Record your dialogue with your phone (see uploading above) or use one of the class headsets that have a mic.​

    • You can copy your audio file into your WMM project. Place it so it plays at the correct time.

    • You can do the same for music and sound effects.

Sharing!

  1. Make sure your WMM file is saved

    • Save it to the same folder as your original video and animated video.

  2. Go to File > Export​

    • Save it as an MP4.

    • Make sure you follow the class file-naming protocol!

​​​​​​

You're Not a Robot!

Make sure you hand in BOTH your final animation video

AND the Krita project file.

Pick and Do 1 Assignment using Rotoscoping:

A

Walk Cycle

Draw over live-action footage to create a smooth, realistic walk cycle animation.

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​​

focus on:

  • accuracy in following motion

  • consistent timing with live footage

  • smoothness and fluidity of movement

​​

Choose this if you want to practice realistic motion by studying and tracing real-life movement.

B

1–2 Seconds of Action

Create a short 1–2 second animation capturing a clear, dynamic action (like a jump, punch, or reach).​

​

focus on:

  • expressive key poses

  • clean tracing of movement

  • timing that communicates energy

​

Choose this if you want to focus on capturing a powerful, expressive movement in a brief animation.

No POST PRODUCTION is required for these assignments.

LVL2 CHECKPOINT

AFTER completing your assignment,
but BEFORE moving on:​
​

1) Name your file(s) correctly:

  • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level-WhichOneYouPicked​

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-Rotoscope-2-AWalkCycleKrita

  • Failure to follow this naming protocol will lead to a missing mark.

​

2) FINISH the level 2 reflection​

  • aka the last section in the Design Booklet.

​

3) Hand in BOTH (2) files

Click here.

Level 3

The Project

Time to get started! For this project, you will create a longer, more dynamic rotoscope animation by drawing over video footage frame-by-frame. This is your chance to use everything you’ve practiced and bring real movement to life.

​

Your goal is to capture energy, rhythm, and motion through hand-drawn animation.


Choose an action that has clear movement and changing poses, not just a single repeated motion.

​

​​​​​​BEFORE YOU BEGIN

​1) GET the level 3 DESIGN BOOKLET

  • Download the template.

  • Move it to your Media Design folder in your OneDrive.

  • RENAME IT

    • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-ActionFigure-3​

​

​2) fill out the booklet as you do the project.

Your Rotoscope must include:

  • A 5–10 second rotoscope animation

  • A dynamic action (examples: dancing, sports movement, martial arts, skating, acting, or expressive gestures)

  • Drawings on every animated frame, with clean lines.

  • Consistent character proportions throughout the animation

  • Motion that feels smooth and believable when played back

​

Focus on:

  • Strong poses and clear changes in movement

  • Timing and rhythm (especially for fast or expressive actions)

  • Keeping drawings simple but consistent

  • Following the motion accurately rather than adding detail

 

Ready to Make?

  • Video:

    • 5–10 seconds long (after trimming buffer-footage)

    • Must be HORIZONTAL.​

  • Software: Krita

    • Frame rate: 12 FPS

    • Use proper layer organization

      • Video reference on the bottom

      • Drawing layers above

​​​​​

To Help You Get Started:

 

1) Choose an Action with Energy
Pick an action that:

  • Has clear movement across the body

  • Changes poses over time

  • Would look interesting even as a silhouette

 

Good examples:

  • Dancing or choreography

  • Playing a sport

  • Acting out an emotion or short moment

  • Jumping, spinning, or directional movement

 

Avoid standing still, subtle gestures, or camera-heavy shots.

​

​

2) Record Strong Reference Footage

  • Keep the camera steady

  • Make sure the full body stays visible (or the full face, if you are focusing on expressions)

  • Film in good lighting against a simple background

  • Record a little longer than you need, then choose your best section

 

​

3) Plan Before You Draw
In your Design Booklet's Prototype section:

  • Describe the action and why you chose it

  • Identify key poses (start, extremes, transitions)

  • Note where the motion speeds up or slows down

 

​

4) Animate with Intention

  • Start with rough, loose drawings.

    • Ms. U recommends using Pencil-2 in blue

  • Focus on motion first, cleanup second

    • When you're done sketching your frames:

      • Hide your video layer.

      • Create another layer .

      • Use your choice of brush/colour(s) to draw your clean lines.

      • Hide the sketch layer when you're done.

  • Play your animation often to check flow and timing

    • Once your animation plays smoothly and clearly, you’re ready to export.

    • Use Windows Movie Maker for any post-production needed.

​

​​​

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This project brings together everything you practiced in Levels 1 and 2:
you've got this!​​​

LVL3 CHECKPOINT

AFTER completing your project:​
​

1) Name your file(s) correctly:

  • Firstname-Lastname-CycleNumber-Project-Level​

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-Rotoscope-3Krita

    • ex) Laura-Ulrich-1-Rotoscope-3Final

  • Failure to follow this naming protocol will lead to a missing mark.

​

2) FINISH the level 3 reflection​

  • aka the last section in the Design Booklet.

​

3) Hand in aLL 3 files

Click here.

​

4) Return to the Media Design page and repeat the 1-2-3 cycle with a new project!​​

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