rotoscoping

thumb|Patent drawing for [[Max Fleischer's original rotoscope. The artist is drawing on a transparent easel, onto which the film projector at the right is beaming an image of a single film frame.]]

Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, live-action film images were projected onto a glass panel and traced onto paper. This projection equipment is referred to as a rotoscope, developed by Polish-American animator Max Fleischer. This device was eventually replaced by computers, but the process is still called rotoscoping.