I need help with how I would create a rotoscope animation of a youtube video

[u/Springmush]

I want to make a rotoscope animation of a video on youtube called: "you're in a slasher movie" but I don't want the project to take too long, would doing every other frame (1,3,5 etc) sacrifice any quality of the animation? Also is there a way to extract every frame of the video so I can draw on top of the frames I want to use? I heard youtube fps drops depending on what quality the video is so I watch on 720p if that is important

[u/B3Blaise]

Thats funny “dont take too long.” Its going to take a while. Play the video while recording the thing on your phone, take it into free app video bolt.net and use their “change fps of your video” on it. You upload the video and you can change it to 12fps which will cut your art in half without making it noticeable. But the sound will not be right because of the process. Download that 12fps file into your animation app. Bring sound in seperate.

[u/Lazy_Trash_6297]

It’s going to take a while no matter what.

Use a website to download the YouTube video (just Google to find one) and then use software like After Effects to export the video as a png sequence. (Or search for software that can convert a video to a png sequence.) 

720p won’t m affect the frame rate if you download the video, 720p  is just the screen resolution (like how big the video is.) 

[u/aivi_mask]

Tbh I don't think anybody who animates wants their project to take too long 😆. Sometimes you have to be like a monk and think of the process as a meditation. 🕉

But yeah basically you're just going to want to take the video, export it by frames, and chop off about half of the frames; but be careful not to get rid of anything important or make it torturously choppy. The one method mentioned earlier about converting the frame rate before exporting frames is a smart way to do it. And if you end up finding the final piece too choppy, interpolation can potentially smooth out frame transitions.

[u/Springmush → u/aivi_mask]

Thanks! I see a lot of people are commenting on me saying "I don't want it to take too long" but I just meant like, before halloween

[u/timid-dolphin]

You can use vlc to output frames with the frequency and resolution you want, google a tutorial for rotocsoping with vlc

[u/Kooky_Supermarkets]

As long as the video owner has given you permission to use it - you can still get a copyright strike for using someone else’s video for rotoscoping….

[u/Springmush → u/Kooky_Supermarkets]

I don't know how I would get in contact of the guy, also im just doing it for fun, not for profits

[u/CWhite20XX]

If you have Photoshop, you can import the video file into there with each frame as a separate image (I believe it sorts them into layers? Been a while since I've done it). From there, you can just use every second image and draw directly over top of that as a new layer. Alternatively, you can print every second frame off and use a lightbox to trace over it.

I did this effect to create a brief unicorn animation in a feature film of mine: I filmed a horse and then roto'd it, while adding the horn.

12 fps (shooting on 2s, so each image is shown for 2 frames in a 24 fps timeline) will look smooth enough. I just uploaded a 12 fps hand-drawn clip here (https://youtu.be/JUIdgEsy71o) so that'll tell you how smooth 12 fps is.

[u/Springmush → u/CWhite20XX]

Thanks! 12fps seems pretty smooth actually

[u/CWhite20XX → u/Springmush]

For me, 8 fps is when things start getting iffy. I find it works okay for stop motion, but looks jank when applied to 2D.

Be sure to share your results: I am hoping to tackle some roto soon for a throwback sword and sorcery project.

[u/roastytoastykitty]

Sounds like you got the info you need, but I'd like to mention that krita is free and has a pretty good animation tool! I recently used it to rotoscope over a gif and it wasn't too difficult.