This fascination with the standardization of procedure was epitomized, perhaps, by Max and Dave Fleischer’s 1915 patent for the rotoscope, a device which used the cinematic recording of motion as an aid in the drawing process, with the aim of creating more fluid and life-like movement in animated characters. 

The rotoscope operator filmed a live actor, then animators traced over that film record frame by frame to create animated characters with much more fluid and lifelike movements. According to Max’s son Richard, the Fleischers’ development of this process (which initially and often made use of Dave in a clown costume) gave birth to their first popular trademark character, Ko-Ko theClown.

The Fleischers not only rotoscoped Ko-Ko on a regular basis, they also celebrated the rotoscope in the public relations for their Out of the Inkwell series (1919-1929). As the series name implies, the Out of the Inkwell shorts featured the material base of animation: the ink, pen, and paper (not celluloid) of it.

But they also celebrated the systematic efficiency of rotoscoping—as a mechanical means by which to produce more lifelike images—elaborating on their fantasy of automating production through mechanical processes, embodied by characters who drew themselves and their own backgrounds.