Lesson Plan: Rotoball
Written by David Gran
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Activity: 
Students create a rotosoped animation based on the following sentence: A ball gets passed to you. It transforms into a (noun) as you (verb) with/ to it.  It somehow transforms back, and gets passed on to the next person.

Objectives:
Students will learn that they can capture realistic motion through rotoscoping to suppliment the limitless possibilities of animation. 
Students will:
•	Integrate frame by frame aninmation with tweened animation.
•	Create unique animations that emply a variety of drawing and animation skills.
•	Formulate ways to consolidate these forms into a unified composition.
•	Collaborate with students from other schools and countries.

Materials: 
•	Worksheet and storyboard paper.
•	Video Camera and lighting equipment.
•	Basketball or soccer ball (prop for rotoscoping)
•	Computer
•	Non Linear Editing Program (Such as imovie, Final Cut Pro, Windows Movie Maker)
•	Animating / Video Compositing Program (Such as Flash, Photoshop CS3, Adobe After Effeects, Wax)
•	DVDs or CDs

Topic Question:
How does rotoscoping differ from other kinds of animation? 

Association Questions:
What are some of the advantages, disadvantages to rotoscping?
How can rotoscoped animation be integrated with other kinds of animation?

Transition Questions:
How would you animate a ball transforming into something else?
How can you use layers to create a unique space for your animation?
What choices could you consider in creating backgrounds and foregrounds?

Procedure:
Students are asked to think of an interesting noun and verb combination and write them down.
Students are introduced to their project idea, and create storyboards based on this sentence for a 15 second animation.
After the storyboard is completed, they film each other by setting up camera and lighting equipment.
Students import their video into the computer and edit their video to 15 seconds using a non-linear editing program.
The video is exported, and imported into their animation or video compositing program.
Students create an animation that integrates a rotoscoped layer based on their video with their own animated layers.
Upon completion, all student videos are attached together.