Keanu Reeves plays undercover cop Bob Arctor in director Richard Linklater’s film “A Scanner Darkly,” which is based on the 1979 sci-fi novel by Philip K. Dick.
Rory Cochrane portrays Charles Freck in the film, which tells the darkly comedic but deeply tragic tale of drug use in the modern world. The story is illustrated by way of digital rotoscoping.
Digital rotoscoping is typically reserved for creating more life-like special effects and enhancing visuals in small segments of film.\r\nLinklater, however, decided to use it for a full-length feature film.
In “A Scanner Darkly,” Cochrane, playing Charles Freck, takes on a dreamy half-reality visage through digital rotoscoping.
Digital rotoscoping consists primarily of using animation software to repeatedly trace lines through a series of dots called splines, or mathematically defined curves connected by groups of points outlining an image.
A promotional poster for “A Scanner Darkly,” which opens nationwide on Friday. The film took six months to shoot, but the animation took more than a year.
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.
