Rotoscoping: Animating from video/image sequence

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films.^[1][2] Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device was eventually replaced by computers.

In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.  For more info on rotoscoping, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping

For this exercise, we will take video of you doing a quick motion. From there, the video will be placed into your folder. 

Open Photoshop> File > Import > Video Frames to Layers

            This will open your video to photoshop and separate each frame into a layer. Make sure you open your timeline so you can see the video as frames. (Window > Timeline) Set your "Limit to every "" frames" to 3.

When it processes each frame to a layer, save this as lastnameRotoscope.psd in your folder.  

Create new layers above each image layer from the video and begin drawing over the image in whatever fashion you desire. We'll save this at 12 frames per second, so there should be between 40 and 60 frames for this exercise to create a 3-5 second clip. 

When you have completed each frame, create a background layer. Begin going through each frame and make sure that it is set up/captured properly (you have to make the frame correspond to the layers you have visible)

With this one we are going to save it as a video. File > Export > Render Video

Change the "Frame Rate" to 12 fps. 

Give your mp4 file (which is the file type you want, default for H.264 format) a title (lastnameRotoscope.mp4) and Render it. You can select which folder you want it to save to. 

Post to your blog when finished!