Rotoscoped Animation of Filmed Parkour
I now see it as more crucial that this author succeeded in designing a workflow, than that the result is the best one possible.<p>In media, you're always challenged - implicitly - to discover a good workflow for doing something, to craft a structured approach so that the bulk of it is a matter of "coloring in the lines" or "filling in the blanks." Being considered a "professional" is mostly indicative of having some flexibility, and not staying stuck in a one-note style. For visuals like this, sometimes that means a very technology-driven approach like rotoscoping, mo-cap, 3D and procedural rendering, other times it means relying on basic conceptual drawing and animating skills.<p>And it's turtles all the way down. Before you can draw a character you have to design a character. And you need a process for designing the character so that they make sense in the context of the world or story. And then the world needs a design, and so on, and so forth, until you're looking at basic principles and philosophies driving the intent of the work. At least, that's how it would work if you built all of culture from scratch. In practice, creators start borrowing elements on whims or as they fall out of their comfort zone, hence why most of culture is remixed.<p>What you buy when you hire an artist is a "package of familiarity." Some artists are really great illustrators but are uncomfortable with designing original characters; some are good at comic book scenes with dynamic poses, others at portraits and fashion drawing. A Bob Ross landscape is defined by a process that is so straightforward that anyone could pick it up just by watching. And what defines "programmer art" is mostly that it has no particular workflow or structure in mind, it is entirely whimsy guided by pragmatic efficiency. Other media like music, storytelling, game design, and, of course, programming share these same qualities.<p>Here the author downplays technical drawing and drafting abilities, but those are as valid a form of presentation as any, and they help push the focus back towards the interesting part of the material, which is the realistic motion. A character cluttered with detail detracts from movement - this is true even if you look at the different versions of the first Prince of Persia and how they translate the same motions to higher fidelity platforms. Same frames, but they become more wobbly with colors, outlines and higher resolution. [0]<p>[0] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1zDjDFSW4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1zDjDFSW4</a>