Dear Reader:
Out of This World/Another World creator shows the rotoscoping process used to create the game's intro
How this #AnotherWorld sequence was made ? Here is the original shooting from 1990 used for #rotoscoping !
— Eric Chahi (@EricChahi) April 18, 2020
#EricChahi #indiedev pic.twitter.com/c4T6sg5Mtl
I've talked numerous times about Out of This World/Another World numerous times over the years, as it's one of my favorite games of all-time. It's a cinematic platformer that really pushed what the genre could be, and it also had some amazing visuals for the time. Ever wonder how those visuals were made?
In the case of the intro, rotoscoping was used. Rotoscoping is an animation technique where animators trace over footage frame by frame to produce realistic action. Eric Chahi, creator of Another World, used some rotoscoping techniques in creating the game's intro. You can see how that worked out in the video above.
Rotoscoping has been used in a few games, especially other cinematic platformers. Stuff like Prince of Persia and Flashback put the technique to great use for realistic animations of characters and more. While it might be a simple and commonplace technique today, this was pretty forward-thinking stuff for gaming back in the day.