An interesting new application for the Nintendo DSi is launching today, one that may grab the attention of animators and wannabe-indie filmmakers alike.

Inchworm Animation is a rotoscoping animation toolkit, developed by the creator of animation software used on films like Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. If you ever wanted to produce your own surreal animation pasted on top of live action footage, then this might be the way to get into it.

All you need to do is shoot some video with the DSi’s camera, then you can draw over it frame-by-frame to enhance the video, or replace it entirely with animation.

Despite being available for a relatively small 500 Nintendo DSi Points, the application comes with a powerful set of tools, including layers, antialiased and transparent brushes, onionskinning, underdraw, real-time animation and pattern-making. Animations can also be exported as a Flash SWF file or a BMP sequence when you’re done.