01 / 07Articulate mattes
Rotoscopy
Every edge, every frame, by hand.
Frame-accurate articulate mattes for hair, motion blur and semi-transparency on 4K, 6K and 8K plates — built to survive close inspection on a cinema screen.
What Rotoscopy does
Rotoscopy is the matte nobody sees: a hand-drawn, tracked shape for every element that has to be separated from its background when a key is impossible. We build it in articulated pieces, track each one, and hand compositing an edge that stays honest through the whole cut.
You send
Plates or EXR sequences at 4K, 6K or 8K, an EDL, and a note on what needs isolating and why.
We build
Articulated shape hierarchies per element, tracked not stepped, with motion blur and edge feather matched to the plate.
You get
Per-element mattes as EXR or PNG with alpha, named to your convention, ready to drop into comp.
Articulate mattes
Before / After
Drag to see
the matte
The figure was rotoscoped for the light wrap and the ground contact. The key handled the green; the matte handled everything the key could not.
Articulate matte
Head, torso and limbs as separate tracked shapes
Edge feather
Matched to the plate's blur, not a global soften
Holdout
Ground contact isolated for the shadow pass
Delivery
EXR with alpha, per element
Process
Brief to
final delivery
Five stages, the same five every time. Open a stage to see what it means on a rotoscopy show.
01
Brief
What the shot has to do, what you are sending, and when it has to be back.
On a Rotoscopy show
Shot list with per-element isolation notes. We flag hair, transparency and motion-blur-heavy frames before bidding.
02
Analysis
Plates conformed and QC'd, every shot banded by complexity and given a method before work starts.
On a Rotoscopy show
Complexity banding per shot, a shape hierarchy plan, and a sample-frame matte approved before the run starts.
03
Production
One supervisor, one pipeline, daily versions on your review platform.
On a Rotoscopy show
Articulated shapes tracked through the sequence, feather and blur matched frame by frame, semi-transparency handled in separate passes.
04
QC
Checked at full resolution, frame by frame, against the delivery document.
On a Rotoscopy show
Checked at 200% against the full-resolution plate, 4K to 8K, and over contrasting backgrounds, with edge chatter and pops caught frame by frame.
05
Final Delivery
Colour-managed, versioned, named to your convention and archived for the life of the show.
On a Rotoscopy show
Mattes as EXR or PNG with alpha, per element, at source resolution and to your naming convention — plus the shape data if you want it.
Technical Showcase
How the work
actually gets done
- Technique01
Articulated hierarchies
Limbs, head and torso as separate tracked shapes, so a turn or a swing does not drag the whole matte.
- Technique02
Motion blur matching
Shutter-matched blur per shape rather than a global feather, so the matte fits the plate at speed.
- Tools03
Silhouette & Nuke
Shapes drawn and tracked in Silhouette on the native 4K, 6K or 8K plate, never a proxy, then checked and delivered through the same Nuke pipeline as comp.
- Quality control04
Contrast pass
Every matte viewed over red, green and grey to expose edges the plate alone would hide.
- Quality control05
Frame-by-frame review
No stepping between keyframes goes out unchecked. Chatter is caught at the shape level, not in the comp.
- Production06
Volume without drift
One methodology note per sequence, so the 300th shot matches the first whoever drew it.
In the Pipeline
Where Rotoscopy
sits
Every discipline hands the next one something. Hover a stage to see what it passes on, and click through to it.
- 01RotoscopyMattes hand compositing a clean edge for light wrap, grade isolation and CG integration.
- 02Paint & PrepA clean, stable plate that lets keying, matchmove and compositing work on the shot instead of on the rig.
- 03Wire RemovalA rig-free plate that keying and compositing can treat as if the stunt was never wired.
- 04CleanupA finished plate: nothing added, nothing left that the frame did not need.
- 05KeyingA clean alpha that lets compositing wrap the new background around the subject without a halo.
- 06MatchmoveA locked camera and undistort maps that let compositing place CG, set extensions and clean-plate projections with confidence.
- 072D CompositingThe finished frame — graded, checked and delivered as EXR or DPX to spec.
- 08FinalGraded, checked frame by frame, delivered to spec and archived for the life of the show.
Why AronFX
The standard
every frame
leaves under
- 01
Precision
Nothing leaves the building without a supervisor pass at full resolution. We check the frame the way a DI theatre will, not the way a browser player will.
- 02
Consistency
One methodology per sequence, written down before work starts, so the last shot matches the first even when a dozen artists touched them.
- 03
Scalability
Departments sized for volume and staffed to the difficulty of the shot, so a 500-shot show gets a schedule you can hold us to.
- 04
Technical expertise
Nuke-native and ACES colour-managed, with lens distortion, survey alignment and multi-pass integration handled as routine rather than as a special request.
- 05
Production workflow
Plate intake and technical QC within 24 hours, shot-level bidding with complexity banding, and a named supervisor on every show.
- 06
Quality assurance
Frame-by-frame checks against the delivery document, a difference matte with every prep delivery, and final review on a calibrated display at delivery resolution.
- 07
Client collaboration
We work inside your pipeline — ftrack, Syncsketch, Aspera, your naming convention, your delivery document. You should never have to learn ours.
Next Project
Have a VFX
project in mind?
Send us a cut, a plate or a shot count. You will hear back from the supervisor who would run your show, with a breakdown, a schedule and a number.