GDANSK, Poland — A project that daringly set out to bring to life iconic paintings — many created in just one day — has proved to be a staggeringly laborious cinematic effort taking years to realize.

The creators of “Loving Vincent,” a biopic about van Gogh, say it is the first full-length animated film to be made entirely of oil paintings on canvas — an astounding 62,450 of them — all of which are derived either from the artist’s original works, like “The Starry Night” and “Cafe Terrace at Night,” or are heavily inspired by his distinctive, thick brush strokes.

The world got a peek at this work in progress when a stunning trailer was posted online in February, becoming an overnight sensation with 115 million views on Facebook. What viewers didn’t see was the many human hands behind the project.

Of the 95 painters involved, 65 arrive every day at an enormous, sweltering hangar at the Gdansk Science and Technology Park here in northern Poland, to reimagine, amid thick fumes of oil paint, van Gogh’s canvases.