The main character of the film, played by actor and artist Wiley Wiggins, walking through life in a dream. All Waking Life images © Fox Searchlight Pictures.

On November 8, 2001 in Los Angeles, an exclusive art gallery exhibit showcased the work of artists who helped in the creation of the critically acclaimed and widely discussed Twentieth Century Fox Searchlight film Waking Life. Puzzle Creative Development brought together and showcased the artists' work. Featured artists attending the event included Jason Archer, Paul Beck, Nathan Jensen and Travis Lindquist. Also in attendance to help put Waking Life in perspective with the greater animation world was Steve Brown, a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts' character animation department.

Gregory Singer attended and spoke to the artists and other attendees about the film, its creation and the bigger picture...has animation painted itself into a corner? Are we getting such a reaction to this film because it isn't what we expect from an animated feature? Far from the subject matter, Waking Life asks many other questions...

Imagine that we are all walking through life in a dream. This is the thematic cornerstone of director Richard Linklater's latest independent film, Waking Life. Having first wowed audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie is now, slowly, in wider release, courtesy of the distributive art house arm of Twentieth Century Fox Searchlight. Though largely a movie of philosophical ideas, a "narrative of digression," as Linklater describes it, the film does succeed, ultimately, in couching its ideas as entertainment. Without coming across as pretentious, boring or annoying, the film achieves its message, in no small part, because of the nature of its presentation: the fact that it is animated.

With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoring filmmakers this upcoming March (2002) with the first-ever Academy Award for Best Feature Animation, there has been some hesitation and contention within the animation community as to whether Waking Life should be among the considered films. For some people (not all), there arises a criticism: despite its visual "coolness," despite its innovative experimental technique, Waking Life is merely the façade of animation and not the real deal. For these people, not only should Waking Life not be a contender for the Oscar, they feel it is somewhat insulting to the craft even to nominate it within the category.

Before we delve into this particular brouhaha, perhaps it would be helpful to step back and give a brief summary of how the film was made, for those readers who may not already know.

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Originally, Richard Linklater, who has brought to the screen such films as Slackers and Dazed and Confused, worked with a small crew of four or five people to shoot the film as a live-action digital video. The coverage was edited, converted into a QuickTime movie, and then, using software developed by Bob Sabiston (more on him later), a team of about thirty artists -- working on G3 and G4 Macintoshes out of Linklater's Austin, Texas office -- painted over the live-action images, frame by frame, until the movie was essentially converted, or fabricated, into "animation." Ta-dah! One year later, having devoted upwards of 250 person-hours for each minute of final film, Waking Life made its animated debut to the rest of the world.

Now, there has always been a politely muffled feeling among animators that rotoscoping (drawing over live-action footage) is a fundamental cheat. People may not express this outwardly, but there is almost an unspoken understanding that rotoscoping is a shortcut circumventing the imagination, skill, nuance (and therefore, "magic") of traditional hand-drawn animation. This, of course, is ironic, in light of the fact that rotoscoping has been used since the very earliest North American animated features, including Walt Disney's Snow White (1937), wherein we bear witness to a beautiful maiden dancing around her idyllic forest world with a grace that is almost "too perfect."