I define innovation as the progression of an idea being realized. In art, innovation came from trying new tools and techniques for creating works. The same can be said for the formative years of the animation industry. An technique that was considered innovative was “Rotoscoping”. Portraying movement in animation is mostly done through references of movement, but rotoscoping allowed animators to trace over film to animate movements, in order to get more accurate. It’s done through computers now, but when it was created by Max Fleischer, he used a transparent easel to trace over the film projector. While it was originally meant as a way to save time animating, it was actually more time consuming than animating traditionally.
Films like Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, American Pop and Fire & Ice and Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly were animated fully with rotoscoped, while films like Disney’s Snow White and Heavy Metal have rotoscoped segments.
(scene from A-ha’s Take On Me music video)