This Wired story about the problems that plagued
Scanner Darkly really pains me. Richard Linklater (director of many classic independent films) and Bob
Sabiston were the creators of the classic animation film Waking Life. They were once again reunited to work on
Scanner Darkly, a movie based on a Philip K. Dick's novel starring Keanu Reeves. Unlike Waking Life,
Scanner Darkly needed a more realistic animation which took longer to recreate especially for the animators
who had very little experience in this area (or so it seems from the article). The project was so far behind schedule
that Sebiston was not only replaced but locked out of the studios. I am big fan of Bob Sabiston because, besides being
a cool guy (check out Waking Life DVD extras), he pioneered this method of rotoscoping. Also a big fan of
Linklater so it feels like my parents or somebody similar are fighting and I wish they'd stop. Anyway, if any of you
are interested in animation, I suggest you read the article mainly to see how much patience that artform requires.Behind the Scenes of Scanner Darkly
This Wired story about the problems that plagued
Scanner Darkly really pains me. Richard Linklater (director of many classic independent films) and Bob
Sabiston were the creators of the classic animation film Waking Life. They were once again reunited to work on
Scanner Darkly, a movie based on a Philip K. Dick's novel starring Keanu Reeves. Unlike Waking Life,
Scanner Darkly needed a more realistic animation which took longer to recreate especially for the animators
who had very little experience in this area (or so it seems from the article). The project was so far behind schedule
that Sebiston was not only replaced but locked out of the studios. I am big fan of Bob Sabiston because, besides being
a cool guy (check out Waking Life DVD extras), he pioneered this method of rotoscoping. Also a big fan of
Linklater so it feels like my parents or somebody similar are fighting and I wish they'd stop. Anyway, if any of you
are interested in animation, I suggest you read the article mainly to see how much patience that artform requires.Reader Comments
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1. I'm a big fan of Bob Sabiston also and very much enjoyed the DVD extra interview with him on the Waking Life DVD. I was hoping he'd release Rotoshop, the software he used to make it. I sent him an email asking to be included on the announcement list when it's release. That was a couple years ago. I just check the Rotoshop [page on his website][1]. Now it says there's no plan to release it, but you can email him to be notified of developments. :-(
To anyone else interested in Bob Sabiston's films, I suggest checking out this [hour long video][2] of a presentation he gave at the MIT media lab in 2002. It starts with an introduction by John Maeda (who I'm also a big fan of).
[1] http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Rotoshop.html
[2] http://www.media.mit.edu/events/movies/video.php?id=sabiston-2002-05-16
Posted at 6:36PM on Feb 25th 2006 by Simon Dorfman