Remove Unwanted Objects: Rotoscope an Object Out of the Image

You shot an amazing clip… except a few frames

No worries! Let's rotoscope the frame. It's an option that allows you to rotoscope an object out of the image instead of reshooting the clip again.

Adobe After Effects is your go-to software where you can do this.

Apart from Adobe, you can also get the rotoscoping feature in other tools. To use them, you need complete knowledge of the process. Let this blog help you explore rotoscoping in an elaborate manner so you can use it for various purposes.

Let's begin!

In animation and film production, rotoscoping has revolutionized the modern media landscape completely. It involves tracing live-action film frame by frame to create real-life visual effects.

It helps make the animation look life-like. It's like adding a matte layer around a specific object element in a video and isolating it from the rest of the scene. This isolation helps treat the element in a better manner. These selected elements can be enhanced further, color corrected, and removed if needed.

Nowadays, the AI system can rotoscope an object out of the image with the help of properly trained data. Rotoscoping is not a new concept, as it was in practice in 1915 when animator Max Fleischer first used it to improve the movement of his animated characters. Using this technique in animation at that time, animated characters were given a more realistic look.

At present, rotoscoping helps experiment with boundary-pushing creative ideas and bring them to life. Remember the film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film) or the Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968 film)? All they used rotoscoping to give the animated characters life.

If you're using Adobe After Effects for rotoscoping, you can have two options here. One is to put the mask on the frame, and another is to use the Roto Brush tool.

First, you need to fix your mind on which object to rotoscope in the frame. Rotoscoping is basically a process of animating a mask over a frame of the subject in the foreground to make the frame separate from the background. This helps you create a layer between your foreground and background. You can put objects in this layer and edit them too in your own way.

It's more like adding your own layer in a video or image frame. However, at the beginning stage, rotoscoping can feel daunting, but with time, it will become easy. You just need to know the techniques and apply them in the right way.

Using masks is the most famous and also the oldest way to rotoscope animations. Adobe AE can rotoscope an object out of the image easily through its pen tool. It's a complete manual task where you need to use the pen tool to select the objects and the place where you need to create the keyframe. Outlining the object is the core task of this process, and you have to use other tools also to complete the process. It includes the feature tool, blur options, keyframe selection, and some keyboard keys.

The entire manual process of masking can be done automatically in Adobe AE when you use the Roto Brush Tool. It's Adobe's AI tool that can help you rotoscope frames in your animated or other kinds of videos. Well, you need to use the tool efficiently to rotoscope keyframes. Make sure that you perform the key adjustment well to mask your objects.

With the interrogation of properly trained data, AI can help rotoscoping images and videos automatically. Like the Roto Brush tool of Adobe, you can create your personalized image modification tool. This can enable more precise results and generate new creative possibilities for your system. All these things are possible when you train your AI or ML models with annotated data.

With the integration of ML algorithms, certain aspects of rotoscoping, like identifying and tracing people and objects in each frame, can be automated. In complex footage, identifying key people and objects is a critical task and can take time. Therefore, letting ML perform the tedious work is a right fit for the condition. Plus, achieving the highest end of prediction is possible with ML integration.

Besides ML algorithm integration, rotoscope animation software nowadays is quite popular for performing the key rotoscoping tasks. But the biggest issue the software creates is related to not having the precise results.

Well, it can be solved when a human annotator uses the software for rotoscoping tasks. Outsourcing is a good solution where you can get the person you need to handle your software and perform rotoscoping for you. Another option you have here is developing an AI system for rotoscoping. For that, you need to generate training data. Again, outsourcing data annotation can help you provide accurate training data for your AI development projects.