Interview with Bob Sabiston

6 Jun 2008

One of the most memorable examples of rotoscoping – especially for my generation who grew up in the 80s – was the A-ha music video Take on Me. When did you first come across the technique and what film/ artist made the biggest impact on your work?
Robert Dean, University of Glamorgan

I think I'd seen rotoscoping before, but that A-ha video was the first time it really made an impression on me.  However, I wasn't really drawn to rotoscoping initially.  I got into animation through computer animation and regular hand-drawn animation.  It was years later, in 1996, that I decided to try rotoscoping -- mostly as a time-saving device and also as a way to accurately capture a specific person's expressions.  I was mostly coming at it from the perspective of trying to do moving life-drawings.

Did you in fact direct the animated version of the Perfect Human in The Five Obstructions and not Jorgen Leth?
Ewan Jones Morris, Graduate, International Film School Wales
 
I directed the animation, but Jorgen and his son put together the edited video that we used as a basis for it.  Apparently one of the 'obstructions' for that one was that he be fairly 'hands-off' in directing it.  So his son Asger did a lot, I think.  They gave us the 5-minute edited clip and about 20 minutes of B-roll footage that we could use as various backgrounds and added elements.  I credit them for creating a poetic, graceful short film that we could embellish with our artwork.
 
When working on A Scanner Darkly did you ever feel restricted by the boundaries of rotoscoping?
Josh Hughes, International Film School Wales 
 
Like, do I wish we could have gone crazier with the animation and have more people turning into bugs and things?  In a way, yes.  But Scanner Darkly was designed to be a very realistic style, and the book is not really very "trippy" even with all of its drug content. 
 
Also, I actually left the production early in the animation phase, so I never really got burned out on doing all that realistic rotoscoping.  If I had stayed, I think that yes it probably would have driven me up a wall.



A number of video games - including the recent Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and the impressive but short lived The Last Express - have incorporated rotoscoping to various degrees of success. Do you think the form is commercially viable?
Laurence Hall, University of Wales, Lampeter 

Yes, I think it could easily be used in video games, at least in the same way that 3D animation is used for cut-scenes and such.  I'm not sure about the interactive element - when you talk about rotoscoping you're talking about hand-tracing specific segments of video, so I'm not sure it would work for the game itself.  But cel-shading is able to get a pretty close approximation of rotoscoping, and that is used successfully in many games.  You could probably also use rotoscoping for a 2D game, but these days games are almost all 3D.

Have you any plans to make available the Rotoshop software to the public?
Fran Baker - University of Wales, Newport
 
No, not really, unfortunately.  We are such a small group of people, and we really are interested in making films.  Developing the software into a usable commercial product is not something I have felt driven to do.  And then there is the 'problem' that then the exact same look would be everywhere, which might ruin it for me.  That said, I am surprised that no other company has copied the software yet.  Once you see the same tools in Flash or After Effects, programs like that, then I may as well try to compete -- but like I said, it isn't something I'm very enthusiastic about doing.  I'm not a very good businessman in that way.
 

What role do you think artists can play in promoting, or selling, such difficult issues as sustainable living and encouraging people to become more environmentally aware?
Harri Dalton, Aberystwyth University
 
I guess in their own lives they can practice those things, set an example.  But also, clearly through the stories they tell and the artwork they create, they can try to spread that message. Many artists take a political stance with their artwork, which is a related issue. Really, I think artists, entertainers are probably the people that can do the most about it.  It is somewhat encouraging to see some of these animated kids films having a socially conscious message to them, because the kids that see them will absorb that. I haven't seen Pixar's new "Wall-E" yet, but it seems to be going in that direction. 

What’s the one piece of advice you give to someone looking to get ahead in the media?
James Nee, Ffresh Festival Coordinator
 
Well, I'm not sure the focus should be on 'getting ahead', as such.  I think that if this type of work is something you enjoy, then you should try to find a way to spend as much time as you can just following that passion, on your own projects.  Almost my entire career has been spent working on little projects that had zero budget and got seen by nearly no one -- they were just me trying to make something cool.  So, in a nutshell :  make something you like for yourself, and other people will surely see the value in it one way or the other.  These little for-nothing projects get noticed and lead to other, bigger things.
 
Also, it helps to put some thought into analyzing what you like about other work out there in the world.  Try to figure out something new that you can bring to it, something you have not seen done that you would like to try.  Not only does that make your work stand out, but it will also motivate you since you are learning and trying something new. 
 
Also, try not to bite off more than you can chew, early on.  Keep it simple and short when you are starting out.
 
Sorry, that's three pieces of advice.