ABSTRACT
A good portion of a roto artist’s day is spent isolating human figures. The reasons vary quite often, but in most cases the readers' focus object will be human beings for which mattes must be created that isolate them from the rest of the shot. One human figure with minimal movement over a short number of frames can represent a shot with numerous shapes, all transitioning and moving separately from one another and all having different pivot points and key framing patterns. Knowledge of the anatomy of the hand and how that anatomy works is key for correctly breaking down the hand. The joints of the fingers make for excellent separation points. The shape of these joints changes pretty drastically because as the limbs and fingers bend, the skin around them expands and contracts, compensating for the movement of the surrounding bones and muscles.
