Since the early 1990, artists Jean Cheville (real name Jean Chalopin) and Mike McNeilly have joined efforts to develop and create what they baptized "Artlived" forms. Both Cheville (an expert animation writer and producer, who is credited for the first ever 3D computer animation trial, in France in 1981) and McNeilly, are known by their peers as creative visionaries, believers of global-art, tending to search a mode of expression that encompasses all arts in one. While their association started strongly with the creation and 3D rendering of a first character they named Venus, circumstances of life separated them for nearly two decades, and Artlived was put to rest, only to be resurrected a couple of years ago, as now Cheville's aim is to return to the U.S., and especially to New York City, with McNeilly visiting regularly from Los Angeles.

The Artlived concept associates graphic art, computer 3D rendering, motion capture, and poetic drama writing. It aims at creating paintings that appear to be alive, ultimately stored on computer memories or micro-chips and displayed on any super flat high-resolution screens that could be hung in any Art Gallery or private residence, as with any painting.

At present Artlived caters to a single character per painting, but aims at creating fully animated short scenes involving more than one character.

Each work of art starts with a series of sketches to create a character, then this character is drawn and rendered with a 3D animation program to be later activated by wireless motion sensors. The motion sensors can create new forms of visual expressions simply by the way the artists activate them. This follows a series of written poetic dramatizations to create mini-Artlived paintings. The works can be silent or incorporate sounds, and can have a canvas of treatments depending on the artists’ sensibility and interpretation.