- "The best thing of working here was the amazing talent that you get to work with"-
Daniel on his cubicle at Disney
Daniel Martin Peixe, starts his career as animator in his natal city of Palma de Mallorca, in a small studio, "3D Videographics", where he collaborates in pilot projects of traditional animation and also in several local advertisements.
Later on, in London, he would start his professional relationship with Uli Meyer Studio, where he works in several traditional animation and CG projects. Between 2000 and 2003, Daniel participates in numerous works, not only in Uli Meyer, but also for other animation studios in the English capital, as Cartoon Network, Passion Pictures or Blue Sunflower.
In 2004, Daniel got on board in the animation team of the film "Valiant". Later, he would enter in the pre-produtcion of "Planet 51" and also in the production of "Happily N'ever After" in Madrid and Berlin respectively.
In 2007 he joins as animation supervisor to the studio based in Valencia called "Keytoon". There he supervises and collaborates in several advertisements and Tv projects, and also in two short films "The grandfather of Soul" and "Alma", this one directed by Rodrigo Blaas (Pixar). After his stage in Valencia, he is hired once more by Ilion to ge into the production of "Planet 51" as one of the five animation supervisors.
After this project of big budget and international renown, Daniel decides to try his luck in the American industry and, having received several very appealling offers from BlueSky Studios, Animalogic or McGuff (Despicable Me), finally the desired job offer arrives to him from Walt Disney, to collaborate in "Tangled" as animator, working with top supervisors as Glen Keane or John Kahrs.
- In your case, animation was a vocation since you were a child or a belated discovery?
I was very passionate about cartoons since I was I little boy, but also I was very curious about how they were made. I started very young doing flip book animations on the corners of text books at school. I was absorved by it.
- Is there anyone who marked you in terms of deciding to become a professional?
My teachers in art school encouraged me to pursue that career , because they could see that I was really into it. In general our teachers in the art school were really good at trying to teach us how to get in the professional world.
- Of all the people from whom you have learnt animation, who is your favourite and why?
I think the person who influecied me the most at the beggining of my career was Uli Meyer. He's a tall ,extremelly talented, charming and wise man. He knows a lot about the classical animation , he's been around working alongside some of the best , ( he worked in Who Framed Rogger Rabbit!). I learned a ton in his studio.
- Working at Disney, was a personal decision or a fate’s gift?
Not destiny , I tried very hard!! I tried many times in the past too. Not just in Disney , I tried working in the USA since 2003. But no luck until now. The timing was just perfect when I finished working on Planet 51, they were looking for more people for “Tangled” they knew me for previous attempts , so I decided to try again and it worked!
I was very passionate about cartoons since I was I little boy, but also I was very curious about how they were made. I started very young doing flip book animations on the corners of text books at school. I was absorved by it.
- Is there anyone who marked you in terms of deciding to become a professional?
My teachers in art school encouraged me to pursue that career , because they could see that I was really into it. In general our teachers in the art school were really good at trying to teach us how to get in the professional world.
- Of all the people from whom you have learnt animation, who is your favourite and why?
I think the person who influecied me the most at the beggining of my career was Uli Meyer. He's a tall ,extremelly talented, charming and wise man. He knows a lot about the classical animation , he's been around working alongside some of the best , ( he worked in Who Framed Rogger Rabbit!). I learned a ton in his studio.
- Working at Disney, was a personal decision or a fate’s gift?
Not destiny , I tried very hard!! I tried many times in the past too. Not just in Disney , I tried working in the USA since 2003. But no luck until now. The timing was just perfect when I finished working on Planet 51, they were looking for more people for “Tangled” they knew me for previous attempts , so I decided to try again and it worked!
- We know that working at Disney was not your only chance to work in the U.S., why did you reject the other offers?
'Planet 51'. Ilion Animation Studios, 2009
Yes, after working at Ilion, the stars were aligned and suddenly I had several job offers from studios. It felt really good to be “wanted” he he!! . The movie was a very demanding , high quality production and we had the opportunity to give the best of ourselves. That showed off later in our demoreels. So I wasn't the only one getting great job offers, almost everyone in the studio jumped in to a high-profile job after “Planet 51” . I choose Disney because of the history of the studio, the project “Rapunzel/Tangled” and working alongside with Glen Keane , was like a dream come true, nothing else could beat that.
- How was your welcome at Disney and what differences would you remark between Disney and the European studios in which you worked?
I was stunned for a long time by the magnitude of the Disney enterprise. This is a really HUGE company that not only does cartoons. At the beggining you feel like you are really small compared to all this , but people here respect you and treats you as an artist, and make you feel like part of the team. The big difference is the budgets that they have here, in the films that I worked in Europe , budgets where much lower , and things just need to get done and there's not much time to think about it. |
- Your career as animator passed from Illustration to 2D animation until arriving to the 3D. How was the transition from 2D to 3D? Do you miss the pencil and paper?
Dani working at Uli Meyer Studios
Animating with the computer is a whole different thing , very different from holding a pencil and drawing on paper. But the principles of animation are the same, it just changes the way you apply those principles. Being a guy who's been drawing all my life, I really loved the idea of drawing all day as a full time job!
I actually did it for a while, but jobs in hand drawn animation were more and more difficult to get as the CGI movies started to get really successfull and the traditional ones not as much. So I had to learn to animate in Maya to open my job opportunities. Uli Meyer gave me the first chance to work professionally in CGI for a Sky tv commercial, and ever since I almost never went back to hand-drawn. And I really miss it, althoug sometimes is really painfull and difficult, it just feels like you put more of yourself in it , you are more connected to your work.
I actually did it for a while, but jobs in hand drawn animation were more and more difficult to get as the CGI movies started to get really successfull and the traditional ones not as much. So I had to learn to animate in Maya to open my job opportunities. Uli Meyer gave me the first chance to work professionally in CGI for a Sky tv commercial, and ever since I almost never went back to hand-drawn. And I really miss it, althoug sometimes is really painfull and difficult, it just feels like you put more of yourself in it , you are more connected to your work.
- After having attended to the deformation capacity of characters like Buck Ice Age 3 or Elastigirl from The Incredibles, is there anything that 3D animation can not do? Do you reckon there are still many differences between the expressive possibilities of 2D and 3D or is simply a matter of taste and style?
CGI animation has become much more accesible and much better-looking that ever. With enough resources you can do whatever you want in CGI , but that doesn't mean you have to. Some things just look better being drawn. As well as some things look better in CGI. Just depends on the creative decissions of the filmakers.
- From your experience, do you think is necessary for an animator to know as much 3D software as possible and update himself constantly, or is it preferable to focus on knowing a particular program?
Well, if you are an animator , you probably don't need to know much more that the basic animating tools , like the curve editor, channel box ,etc, basic stuff that any 3d sofware has. Once you know one , you know them all , more or less. There is no need to be completelly up to date with all the newest software to be able to animate. As long as you know the basic principles of animation and the basic CG tools mentioned before you are set!. Big companies like Disney or Dreamworks invest in their own software and in-house tools, custom made for animators, so it doesn't matter whether you know more Maya or 3dsMax or Lightwave.
- We would love to get an idea of how is working in a company with the proportions of Disney. Do us a small sketch of what is your job about and how is your day. For example, do you work in teams of animators? How many people are in them? How many supervisions you have a week? Do you distribute the shots in relation of characters or types of shots? How much freedom you have or how far your creative possibilities can arrive?
'TAngled', Disney Animation Studios, 2010
A day in the production of “Tangled” on crunch time!:
-First thing in the morning... coffe. Say good morning to everyone.
-We have dailies every morning around 9:30 or 10:00 am .Dailies are screenings of our last version of our animations, some days I show a rough blocking , some days I show a more fisnished version... Attending dailies are the 5 supervising animators, Glen Keane , the directors Nathan and Byron , plus the production people and the other animators. Everyone looking at your work-in-progress animation, and giving their feedback. Glen does his draw-overs on your animation using a Cintiq, making your work look like rubbish compared to his sketches.If the directors approve your shot, there is an applause, if the directors think the shot is really close, but not approved yet ,there is an applause but snapping our fingers..!! hehe!
-With all the feedback and notes to do I go back to my desk , check my emails, do my internet browsing and start doing some work!. If the shot was approved, I publish it and start working on the blocking for the next one.
-At 12:00 we have lunch brake , so it's time to eat. I like going to the patio where I can get some sunshine on my skin, the AC is really cold inside , so I need to compensate. We also have a buffet-style restaurant on the ABC building next door. In my way in and out the building some times I cross paths with people like Eric Goldberg, John Musker , Ron Clemmens..
-After lunch coffe again and go back to work! There is another daily in the afternoon so I better have anything prepared to show.
-Dailies again , show some stuff If I have something to show. If not , I just stay in my desk and finish up whatever I'm doing to show it the next day in the morning.
-7:00 pm , dinner! During crunch time we did lots of overtime so the company provided food for us. The food is in the hallway close to our offices so we don spend time going to pick it up. We eat it in the patio to get the latest rays of sun of the day.
-After dinner, things get darker and more silent, so is easier to concentrate to work. I try to have as much work done as possible to be able to show next day.
-11:00 pm or later... I start to get really tired , I get my stuff and I go home , but feeling guilty because my colleagues are still working, and plan to stay till later at night.
-First thing in the morning... coffe. Say good morning to everyone.
-We have dailies every morning around 9:30 or 10:00 am .Dailies are screenings of our last version of our animations, some days I show a rough blocking , some days I show a more fisnished version... Attending dailies are the 5 supervising animators, Glen Keane , the directors Nathan and Byron , plus the production people and the other animators. Everyone looking at your work-in-progress animation, and giving their feedback. Glen does his draw-overs on your animation using a Cintiq, making your work look like rubbish compared to his sketches.If the directors approve your shot, there is an applause, if the directors think the shot is really close, but not approved yet ,there is an applause but snapping our fingers..!! hehe!
-With all the feedback and notes to do I go back to my desk , check my emails, do my internet browsing and start doing some work!. If the shot was approved, I publish it and start working on the blocking for the next one.
-At 12:00 we have lunch brake , so it's time to eat. I like going to the patio where I can get some sunshine on my skin, the AC is really cold inside , so I need to compensate. We also have a buffet-style restaurant on the ABC building next door. In my way in and out the building some times I cross paths with people like Eric Goldberg, John Musker , Ron Clemmens..
-After lunch coffe again and go back to work! There is another daily in the afternoon so I better have anything prepared to show.
-Dailies again , show some stuff If I have something to show. If not , I just stay in my desk and finish up whatever I'm doing to show it the next day in the morning.
-7:00 pm , dinner! During crunch time we did lots of overtime so the company provided food for us. The food is in the hallway close to our offices so we don spend time going to pick it up. We eat it in the patio to get the latest rays of sun of the day.
-After dinner, things get darker and more silent, so is easier to concentrate to work. I try to have as much work done as possible to be able to show next day.
-11:00 pm or later... I start to get really tired , I get my stuff and I go home , but feeling guilty because my colleagues are still working, and plan to stay till later at night.
- Which tools do you like to use when you´re preparing a shot a part from the 3D software itself? Any special mania?
Depending on the shot, some shots have human motion , or subtle acting and those require shooting some reference footage to study the real deal. We have a video reference room for that purpose. Later we use that reference to get the main keyframes of our blocking. If the shot has a more cartoony feel , I like to do my planning in 2d using a propietary tool . I import the sequence of images in the Maya image plane, and I use it as reference for my 3d blocking.
- What have you most liked to animate in Tangled? And what has been the biggest challenge?
The best thing of working here was the amazing talent that you get to work with , from the directors to the animators, the tech guys etc. everyone here is super talented and is really inspiring. Glen is such a motivating guy , he fill us up with tons of energy on each speech that he does. The directors also where a blast to work with , they're full of creative energy and positiveness, but also very picky and demanding, in a good way. I loved seeing my stuff gettin better and better thanks to their notes and feedback. The biggest challenge was trying to keep up with the same quality that the other animators where giving.
- If you could choose, what part or which character from the movie you would have chosen to animate?
I wish I could have done more dialogue scenes with Rapunzel and Flynn, there is such a great chemistry beetween them.
- Let’s talk a little about you as an animator. Pixar has accustomed us to an idyllic idea of their studies. How is your workspace? Can you customize? Do you have some sort of “magical” objets, any old doll that has accompanied you throughout the years and your international jumps?
Roy E. Disney Animation Building
The building here is a bit like a labyrint , hehehe. But I have to admit that it has pretty cool things. Our offices are really good, lots of space for ourselves.
People can choose to be on their own or in a shared room . We can put whatever we want on the walls, like posters , drawings etc. some people has here his entire collection of Star Wars memorabilia...heheh! Some other people have a TV , a sofa, and a fridge. Just like home! Hehehe!! I didn't personalize my space so much, I have some toys that I recently bought but not a lot .
- Being so young and having worked at Disney, what is the dream now? Direct?
With my age?? I'm still young!! he, he, he !! I'd love to direct a shortfilm of my own some day, is something that I always wanted. And as a dream for the future , maybe being able to work somewhere a bit closer to my family in Mallorca.
- Do you ever think about taking forward your own project or short film like “Alma”, in which you worked as an animator under the command of Rodrigo Blaas?
Keytoon´s crew working on 'Alma'.
Yes, I loved the experience of working on an independent shortfilm like Alma with Rodrigo. Before starting my own project like that I'd love to learn more about the craft of directing and storytelling. It must be great to work on something you have created instead of someone else's stories.
After working on "Tangled", Dani has taken part also in the new Disney "Prep and Landing" short film called
"Operation Secret Santa".
"Operation Secret Santa".
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Thanks Dani for your time, we wish you a lot of success in you future and we will keep following your career.
LINKS: website: http://danielpeixe.com/ Blog: http://danielpeixe.blogspot.com/ Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Daniel-Peixe/125242712967 |
The Animator's Corner - 2011