Welcome to The Book on Rotoscoping: Quickstart Guides for Filmmakers, a collection of guides on the art and technique of rotoscoping.
Whether you’re a seasoned filmmaker or an aspiring animator, this blog (e-book coming 2026) will help you learn the knowledge and skills to bring your vision to life.
Rotoscoping is a fascinating animation technique that combines live-action and hand-drawn animation. It allows filmmakers to bridge reality and imagination, creating visually stunning and emotionally captivating works of art. As the CEO of Minnow Mountain, the leading rotoscope studio, and with a career spanning decades including acclaimed films like A Scanner Darkly, Tower, Undone, and Apollo 10 1/2, I am honored to be your guide.
So, why do you need to read this blog? Rotoscoping demands technical expertise, artistic vision, and meticulous attention to detail. This blog provides practical insights to help you build a solid foundation of rotoscoping knowledge.
Prepare to embark on an exciting journey into the realm of rotoscoping. Let this blog be your companion and guide as you explore the depths of this mesmerizing technique.
“A good painter has two chief objects to paint: man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs.”
–Leonardo da Vinci
While swimming in those depths we will mostly focus on creative rotoscoping for character animation and not more technical uses. There will be some crossover with VFX pipelines, but we’ll stick to the magical realms of drawing people that are having emotions. The thing da Vinci called “the intention of the soul.”
We’ll also go big time with top down views of process for producers interested in making a film using rotoscope animation.
I hope The Book on Rotoscoping: Quickstart Guides for Filmmakers helps you to make your film. Let’s get started!