Romancing the Rotoscope: Self-Reflexivity and the Reality Effect in the Animations of Jeff Scher

Abstract

In this article, the author considers the experimental animations of Jeff Scher in relation to the current obsessive quest for a total `reality effect' in much contemporary commercial computer animation. While Scher does not use a computer to create his works, he does extensively use a rotoscope, a device with a long and complex connection with the construction of illusionistic effects in animation. The author discusses Scher's unusual appropriation of rotoscoping techniques, his links with certain historical tendencies in avant-garde cinema, his interest in the relationship between the individual frame and the creation of movement in animation, and his reflexive engagement with fundamental principles of cognitive and visual perception.