The Three-Dimensional Imaginary: the narrative, time and the virtual

This paper aims to analyze 3D animation as a representational instrument of diegetic imagery in a live-action movie production. The visual issue of the image and its simulation of the real, as well as the very moment in which it is inserted, in addition to how time is presented by this visual narrative, are the points taken into consideration in this work. The movie chosen for these analyses is Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012), more specifically, the dream sequence of the main character. Therefore, the narrative characteristics are considered according to the studies by Gerard Genette and Gaudreault & Jost, and the concepts of time in cinema, by Andrei Tarkovsky. The moments represented in 3D animated images are also aesthetically analyzed considering the work of George Sifanos on animated image, and of Edmond Couchot on digital image. The characteristics of this sequence are furthermore analyzed taking into account Gilles Deleuze's concepts of time-image.