Rotoscoping - Text 1
One might easily suppose that rotoscoping, patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 and consisting in tracing the movements of a previously-filmed character using a live-action camera with the goal of transferring these movements to a drawn figure, was invented in order to improve the technique of animated drawings. In fact the way films using this system could be perceived, in particular in the press of the day, demonstrates a fascination with this new “realism,” which brought together the animated drawing and live-action cinema. But we can see the extent to which this approach underlies a singular viewpoint on this kind of film, which held that an accomplished production was one which visually resembled traditional films of the day. But beyond this aspect, taking shape around 1920 no doubt in part because of this new technique, it is important to see that rotoscoping was initially conceived most of all for technical reasons. Fleischer himself explained that
while working with the Popular Science Monthly, I had an opportunity to write technical articles on the latest inventions and I began to wonder whether it wouldn’t be possible for me to apply mechanics to the cartoons and make it a practical thing for producing motion picture cartoons by machinery.[1]
The Rotoscope was undoubtedly the first fruit of this project, because it consisted in producing an animated drawing out of the mechanical capturing carried out by a traditional camera.
