Everyone Can Learn To Drive But ... | Episode 0000

This blog is about Professional Rotoscoping and Paint.

  Rotoscoping (Roto) and Paint has often been overlooked. To be fair, Professional Roto and Paint is supposed to be overlooked. When Roto and Paint is noticed, the reason is because it's bad.

  What I mean by "overlooked" is that Roto is hardly known to people outside of the film industry and often misunderstood by those inside the industry. My own mother doesn't know what I do. And to those that know what Roto is, like other VFX professionals, some don't even recognize it as art. A fellow Roto artist once looked at me funny when I said I liked the art of Roto. He said there wasn't any art to Roto. He was aspiring to be a Compositor (Comp) and he saw Roto as a temporary stepping stone to that career. While I agree that Roto can be and should be a prerequisite to Comp - all Compers should have Roto skills - Professional Roto requires skill, patience, and vision. That also applies to Paint.

What is Professional Roto and Paint?

  The skills of Roto and Paint can be learned by anyone. However, as the late artist Lee Croft once wrote "Rotoscoping is sort of like driving a car. It's easy enough that virtually anyone can do it, but it's complicated enough that not everyone can do it well, and a large number of people do it badly. So while Roto work is largely "tracing lines around things," there is an art and a science to doing it well."

  Let's push the driving metaphor further - "Everyone can learn to drive but not everyone races Formula 1."

  A Professional Roto Artist's career progression follows the same path as a Formula 1 driver and other highly skilled professions. You learn the basics. In this case, the basics is tracing targets in a shot. You practice until that becomes second nature, developing your eye and speed. Then you become so good that the work you do has value. Roto and paint is valuable because it is an essential element to the illusions that dazzle audiences. That dazzle is something people will pay for. But the roto and paint must be convincing.

  On my first paid job, I could call myself a Roto Artist. But it took 3 years to call myself a Professional Roto Artist. And everyday I try to maintain my skills so that I can still call myself that. This blog is meant to spark an appreciation for Rotoscoping and Paint. If you're already a Roto or Paint Artist, I hope the knowledge here will help you become or help you stay a Professional.