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Created by the Japanese collaborative of artists, researchers and designers Masahiko Sato + EUPHRATES, their project named Ballet Rotoscope is an experimental short film that mesmerizingly follows the movement of a ballerina using a rotoscope animation method. A ballerina dances while the joints on her body are traced with a computer-generated rotoscope animation technique, an algorithm that brings a mathematical layer to her natural movements.
Invented in 1905 by Max Fleischer, rotoscope is a traditional technique for creating animation in which animators trace the actor’s outline over the live-action film to produce a realistic cartoon. The artists rediscovered and developed this technique from a new perspective by screening out various information. This reinterpretation is oriented towards the approach to accurately shadow the step-by-step motion of the ballerina as she dances in the room. Shapes and geometries that follow the dance trajectory become abstract animations. These independently-moving lines outline her specific movements within the space. The experimental project explores how live-action and animation can link and demonstrate new beauty.
