Definition: rotoscoping

Creating animated characters by tracing an action movie with real actors frame by frame. Performed via the computer today, rotoscoping was originally accomplished in the early 1900s by projecting each movie frame onto a frosted glass easel, from which the illustrator traced and redrew the image.

Rotoscoping can be used to create actual cartoons or to create cartoon-like movies in which the actors are recognizable and the venues seem real, but the entire motion picture has a cartoon-like quality.

Adding Cartoons
Rotoscoping is also used to superimpose cartoon images into a real movie, where cartoon-drawn people, animals and objects intermix with human characters.