I can’t get over the amazing lighting and mark-making by Dice Tsutsumi. Born in Tokyo, he moved to New York in 1993. He has had a remarkable career so far, particularly in the animation industry. At Blue Sky Studios, he worked as a visual development and colour key artist for ‘Ice Age’, ‘Robots’ and ‘Horton Hears a Who’. He later moved on to Pixar as an art director, giving him the chance to work on ‘Toy Story 3’. Dice has also had a children’s book published, titled ‘I can Hear’. Last but not least, I will mention his work on ‘Sketchtravel’ and ‘Totoro Forest Project’, two excellent projects that Dice has helped organise. To see more from this creative dynamo, visit his fantastic blog.

Robin is a visual developer working freelance in the animation industry. He has an absolutely incredible imagination! What I found by looking at his work were two things: He can draw anything. He can draw anything in a number of unique styles (brilliantly). I’m glad I stumbled on his website, Patch of Orange. In my eyes, Robin Joseph is a master of visual development. And how about that great colour work?

Robin’s clients include Aardman Feature, BlueSky Studios, Dreamworks Animation, House of Cool, Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Zar is based in North Hollywood, California. She is a Calarts ’09 graduate currently working as a character designer for Pixar. She creates some stunning ‘wood burning’ paintings, which you can find on her blog along with loads of other interesting visual knick-knacks. Well worth a visit. Oh, and for a little giggle check out her rant about wearing 3D glasses!

Zar has also been interviewed on the Chracter Design Blog, for those who’d like a little more insight.

Sandeep Menon currently works at Blue Sky Studios as a Designer, having previously worked as a product designer in India before moving into the animation industry. It is evident that some of the skills developed as a product designer have been successfully carried over into Sandeep’s animation concepts. I admire his imagination, but he also brings to the table a great attention to detail that really takes us into his world.

Noah is an Art Director at Pixar Animation Studios. I love his wonderful sense of lighting. Looking at his work, I thought the affable style would help bring a bit of festive feeling to the Lounge, seeing as we are so close to Christmas!

I adore the fluffy cute work of Marceline Danousha!

Gallery Nucleus has a great looking show on from the 10th of December 2011 to the 2nd January 2012 titled (you guessed it) ‘What If…’

What if it actually rained cats and dogs?
What if money really did grow on trees?
What if the moon were made of cheese?

For this exhibition, some of the super talented folks at Disney, Pixar, LAIKA, Blue Sky, Cartoon Network and Sony have created some very imaginative “What Ifs” of their own. Following our Super Big Micro Showback in 2010, Nucleus has again invited the artists behind your favorite animated features to create personal, bite-sized or “micro” pieces that will plaster our atrium gallery with most macro game of “WHAT IF…” ever!

Some of the artists contributing are:

Alina Chau, Bill Schwab, Jeremy Spears, Jin Kim, Leo Matsuda, Mike Yamada, my buddy Oliver Akuin and Zar Galstian.