The Animation of Waking Life
The Animation of Waking Life Richard Linklater accomplished a vision that he had almost scrapped until the immergence of a new technique in rotoscoped animation. Waking Life is a film infused with the power of animation that takes us through a journey of dreams and makes one question their own reality. The method of animation used was the step to making this powerful piece of cinema a reality and would not have happened without it. Rotoscoping was inventing in 1915 by animation pioneer Max Fleischer. It is a method that takes live action footage and traces over the images to produce very realistic movement. It is because of this tracing method that some feel rotoscoping is a sort of a cheat or easy way out. However, rotoscoping and other forms like it are a way to explore animation and its creativity even further; it allows animators more artistic freedom by saving labor: “To not use these labor saving methods and tools would take us back to the days when acetate cells weren’t invented and you had not only to animate every frame but had to redraw the background every time as well.” It was this type of freedom that allowed everyone involved with the piece to create a film that is just as visually stunning . . .
Linklater explains that the film is, “two films in one—a double creative collaboration…I don’t really divorce the processes. Not only does the animation create the blur of dream-state vs. Waking Life is a film that uses animation and its technique of rotoscoping to its fullest. Roger Ebert, while interviewing Richard Linklater, stated that: “what you’ve (Linklater) found is a way to make film except that material that isn’t native to film. It is a system that allows artists to trace over the video (Quicktime) with Wacom pens and tablets with results that are very close to brush strokes on a canvas. Disney has managed to do it, but has proven to be extremely formulaic and tied only to children’s subject matter. It is a film of questions that may never be answered and is a journey of 30 different artists’ visions of the world. Waking Life has managed to break past this barrier while somehow remaining on an independent budget. Sabiston brought with him his own developed software nicknamed RotoShop. consciousness, it also magnifies and commentates upon what is being said between characters. ” It is exactly this overlapping of live-action and animation that adds to the questions of reality and dreams within the piece. The whole feature was first shot and edited on digital video cameras before it was touched by any animator. This method is accelerated due to the software’s interpolation system, which automatically connects lines within so many frames. To accomplish this Linklater enlisted animator Bob Sabiston as art director.
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