rotoscope means A technique in which animators trace live-action movement frame by frame. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “rotoscope” is a great word
ROTOSCOPE — [Noun] A device or technique in animation where live-action film frames are projected onto a drawing surface to be traced, or the resulting animation. From the combining form roto- (from "rotating" or "rotary") and the combining form -scope (from Greek skopein, "to look at" or "instrument for viewing"). The device was patented by animator Max Fleischer in 1917. Unlike motion capture, which digitizes movement into data, or cel animation, which springs wholly from the artist's hand, rotoscope is a patient, manual graft of the real onto the illustrative. It is the ghostly ballet of a projected actor behind the animator's paper, the uncanny, fluid gait of a cartoon prince traced from a dancer, and the hauntingly precise flicker of a lightsaber born from a filmed baseball bat—a testament to art's eternal debt to, and rebellion against, mere reality.
Etymology
From roto- + -scope.
noun
- A technique in which animators trace live-action movement frame by frame.
verb
- To use this technique upon.