How to Use AI Software to Speed Up Rotoscoping Process

Rotoscoping has evolved significantly from its origins as a hand-drawn process to digital animation and today's AI tools. The breakthrough in AI rotoscoping software has opened opportunities for novice filmmakers and hobbyists while allowing more experienced video editors to save time on this traditionally labor-intensive technique.

In this post, you'll learn about rotoscoping and the pros of using AI-based drawing toolslike Mocha's PowerMesh. I'll also guide you step by step on how to use the brand-new tools in Mocha Pro, Object Brush and Matte Assist, to speed up your rotoscoping process.

Let’s dive in!

What is Rotoscoping?

Rotoscoping is a traditional animation technique invented by Max Fleischer. It was born out of the need to create more realistic and human-like movements for animated characters. Rotoscoping consisted of projecting live-action footage onto a glass panel and hand-drawing over the projected video frame by frame.

Rotoscoping was used to animate more accurate actions such as dancing, walking, and running. Fleischer used rotoscoping in his Out of the Ink series to bring his characters to life. Later, rotoscoping gained popularity and was widely used in many Walt Disney films.

Since its inception in 1915, rotoscoping has experienced fluctuations in popularity. Nevertheless, it remains a preferred choice for animation even today. This technique is known to be time-consuming, but with the advent of computer software for rotoscoping (and now AI rotoscoping software), artists have been able to decrease the time spent drawing frame by frame.

Today, machine learning tools have changed how we work in many areas, including the film and animation industries.

Many video editing software have integrated AI models to help speed up tedious processes and remove steep learning curves, such as rotoscoping, masking, and matte generation. Today, artists can spend less time on these slow and tiresome tasks, allowing them to focus on the creative aspects and enhance their animations, visual effects work, and storytelling. 

Pros of Using AI-Based Mocha PowerMesh

PowerMesh is an innovative feature of Boris FX Mocha Pro that improves Mocha's tracking capabilities. It allows for more accurate tracking of warped surfaces and organic objects such as fabrics, faces, and skin for match moving, rotoscoping, and digital makeup.

Here’s a breakdown of the pros of using AI and PowerMesh in your workflow.

• Track Warped Surfaces

  The traditional planar tracker has always been challenging to use for tracking warped and bent surfaces and moving organic objects like skin and muscles. PowerMesh overcomes these limitations, turning Mocha Pro into a powerful tool for digital makeup and rotoscoping.

• Tracking Accuracy

  PowerMesh introduces a sub-planar tracking process that understands the surface deformations from the video footage. This leads to quicker and more accurate tracking data for complex moving objects, such as skin stretching and folding fabrics, which would demand significantly more effort using other methods.

• Time-Saving and Faster Workflow

  Due to PowerMesh's precise tracking, you can minimize the time spent manually fine-tuning the tracking data or using other less efficient tools, streamlining the VFX pipeline. If you combine PowerMesh with other Mocha AI-driven masking tools, you can work even faster.

• Versatility

  AI-based Mocha tools and PowerMesh can be used in various VFX and roto tasks.

  • Rotoscoping

  • Match moving

  • Digital makeup

  • Object removal

  • Stabilization

  • Compositing

Speed Up Rotoscoping Process with Mocha's AI Rotoscoping Tools: Object Brush and Matte Assist

In the latest update, Mocha Pro 2025 introduced major updates to its feature set and two groundbreaking AI-powered tools for masking and matte generation: Object Brush, powered by Mask ML, and Matte Assist.

Object Brush can quickly generate a mask and convert it to an editable spline that you can track with PowerMesh. Matte Assist is a feature in the new Matte module of Mocha 2025 that allows you to create animated vector-based mattes from the spline generated by Object Brush. These two innovative tools and PowerMesh tracking will speed up your roto work, create garbage mattes, and track mattes with just a few clicks.

To follow this guide, you'll need to download the latest Mocha Pro update from the Boris FX Hub. If this is your first installation, you will receive the latest update. You can also continue using the Mocha Pro free trial.

Mocha Pro is compatible with most video editing and compositing software, including Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, Nuke, and Avid Media Composer. A standalone app is also available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

NOTE: Mocha’s AI tools are processed locally on your computer. Nothing is sent to external services for processing, protecting your data security and privacy.

• Step 1: Import Your Footage and Add Mocha Pro

  Open your preferred video editing software and import your video footage for rotoscoping.

  For this specific example, we'll be using Adobe Premiere Pro.

  

  Go to your effects library and search Boris FX Mocha > Mocha Pro. Add it by dragging it to your video clips in the timeline. Then, go to the effects parameters and display the Mocha Pro settings. Click Launch Mocha UI to go to the Mocha Pro user interface to begin.

  

  If you are working on the standalone application, click File > New project and import your video footage.

• Step 2: Create a Mask with the Object Brush

  Select the new Object Brush tool located between the spline and shape tools to create an ML Mask. Simply click on the areas you wish to isolate.

  

  You can add more areas of the subject by clicking on those parts and right-clicking on the sections you want to exclude from the mask. The isolated elements will be highlighted in red to indicate the mask.

  

• Step 3: Convert the ML Mask to a Spline

  You have the mask now, but you need to convert it to a spline to add it to your layer panel. Select the Pick Tool to convert the ML Mask to a spline.

  

  As soon as you click the Pick Tool, the new layer will appear in your layer panel.

  

  The spline you created with the Object Brush can be treated like any regular spline and tracked with PowerMesh. However, we will track and animate it using the new Matte module in Mocha. To proceed, switch to the Classic view from the Workspace menu to access more tools.

  

• Step 4: Matte Assist

  Now that you're in Classic view, go to the parameters below the preview window and select the new Matte module.

  

  Check the Generate Object Matte option under Matte Assist ML and click Render. When you click Render, Matte Assist ML automatically animates the mask throughout the video, saving you significant time tracking and manually adjusting the shapes.

• Step 5: Create Multiple Masks

  If you need to add additional masks to isolate more subjects, select the Object Brush again and select the new subject, then click the Pick Tool to turn it into a spline and rename the layer. Repeat the process with all the subjects on the scene.

  Go to the Matte module and select the Generate Object Matte option to enable Matte Assist ML for each layer. An icon appears next to the layer's name, indicating it is using Matte Assist. When you click render, all layers using Matte Assist will render simultaneously.

• Step 6: Export Data

  If you are using the plug-in version, you can easily save and close the Mocha Pro interface to return to your host. Then, go to the Mocha Pro settings to display the Matte parameters, where you can view and apply the matte and adjust settings for dilation, dilation quality, feathering, and inverting the matte.

  You can also export the mattes as rendered shapes. Click on Export Rendered Shapes in the Matte module or the File menu, and then select your export options.

  In the standalone app, you can go to File > Export Data and select which software you want to export to.

Final Words

Rotoscoping doesn't have to be a tedious task! Now, we can isolate objects in one frame with a single Object Brush, speed up the masking process, and automate the tracking process throughout the sequence with the Matte Assist ML to create quick garbage mattes for object removal and 3D camera solves.

As more automatic rotoscoping software and machine learning models are developed, we may observe an increase in programs integrating these technologies, enhancing the already impressive AI rotoscoping tools available today.

If you want to explore and learn more about Mocha PowerMesh and the new Object Brush and Matte Assist features, download a free trial of Mocha Pro for your favorite video editing software.

Good luck!