Visual Effects and Rotoscoping

Iranian filmmaker and scriptwriter Sina Ataeian has written and directed the country’s first film using the rotoscoping technique.

“The 12-minute film has been filmed inside studio and will be dubbed by the actors,” said Ataeian.

“Some scenes include two- and three-dimensional computer images and forty designers have applied rotoscoping and devised the color scheme,” he added.

Sponsored by Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), the film will debut at Tehran’s 2009 International Animation Festival.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace the film’s live action movements, creating a silhouette that can be used to extract movements from one scene and use it on a different background.

Richard Linklater’s A Scanner darkly and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings are among the films which rotoscopy was used in their creation.