rotoscope
Americannoun
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Movies, Graphic Arts. a device that traces live-action footage and transforms it into animated sequences, used mostly in the 20th century before being replaced by digital technology.
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Digital Technology. a software application that merges live-action footage with digital animation and other graphics to create composite images.
verb (used with object)
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Movies, Graphic Arts. to trace (live-action footage) and transform it into animated sequences.
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Digital Technology. to merge (elements of live action and digital graphics) by utilizing a software application that creates composite images.
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of rotoscope
First recorded in 1935–40; roto ( def. ) + -scope ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It was so rough that there were times when he was having to personally narrate, and it was all on a rotoscope, which is sort of like cutting and pasting.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
Maitland used rotoscope animation in “The Eyes of Me” about blind teens, and in “Tower.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2018
No one who sees this wobbly but amusing hybrid of live action and rotoscope animation — an appreciably out-there debut feature from Brazilian director Pedro Morelli — will accuse it of being business as usual.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2016
No one who sees this wobbly but amusing hybrid of live-action and rotoscope animation — an appreciably out-there debut feature from the Brazilian director Pedro Morelli — will accuse it of being business as usual.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2016
The movements are supremely naturalistic: almost like watching an enhanced version of the rotoscope technique favoured by Richard Linklater in A Scanner Darkly.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2011
In the animated serial killer thriller “Canvas,” there’s a pretty significant disconnect between the rotoscoped look of the film, which is strikingly trippy, and the writing, which is often clunky and unnecessarily confounding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
As Faith oscillates between pixel-art gameplay and jarringly incongruous rotoscoped cutscenes, the latter are so much more obviously advanced that they generate an impression of the game clambering up the ontological ladder and coming alive.
From The Verge ● Oct. 29, 2021
Painted with flat, high-contrast colors in a style that evokes a rotoscoped music video, the canvases present the Angeleno artist and his friends as fish out of water in New York and its art scene.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2021
An unusual but welcomed choice of opening animated sequence that cover the backstory of the death of Dolittle’s wife Lily leads the impressive way with a rotoscoped quality before diving into the live action.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 15, 2020
From the creator of BoJack Horseman, Undone is a rotoscoped comedy-drama about a cynical young woman whose entire reality begins to fragment after a car accident.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2020
It meant visual effects had to do a lot more rotoscoping, match-moves and camera tracking, but in doing so, it gave the team the ability to tightly control character performance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
Each section has a wildly different look, from computer animation to CGI to rotoscoping to live-action stick puppets and actors.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2023
This isn’t the first time he has used animation layered over live performances, and this digital rotoscoping technique is especially attuned to nuances of gesture and facial expression.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2022
What sets it apart is its animation style, which is reminiscent of rotoscoping.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2020
Using the technique called rotoscoping, animators traced the footage frame by frame to produce the film that immediately won critical and popular acclaim.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 22, 2020
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
