Daisuke Tsutsumi


Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi is an animation artist and illustrator living in San Francisco, California. He is a former art director of Pixar.

Biography

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Dice moved to New York in 1993 where he enrolled at the School of Visual Arts. After graduating in 1998, he began a two-year stint as a staff illustrator at Lucas Learning Ltd. In 2000, Dice was employed as a visual development/color key artist for Blue Sky Studios where he stayed until 2010 when he joined Pixar before leaving in 2014 to start Tonko House. He is married to Mei Okuyama, a jewelry artist and the niece of acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki. He co-directed The Dam Keeper which was nominated for the Oscar for short animated film.

Filmography

Dice has appeared in both volumes of Blue Sky Studios Out of Picture anthology, contributing the stories "Noche Y Dia" in Volume 1 and "The Dream of Kyosuke" in Volume 2.
The Dam Keeper has been developed volume graphic novel published by First Second Books:
In 2008, Dice initiated the Totoro Forest Project, a fundraising exhibition/auction to support the non-profit Totoro Forest Foundation. This initiative also produced a corresponding art book reprinting the various pieces contributed and included the likes of James Jean, Charles Vess, Iain McCaig and William Joyce among others.
He is also overseeing Sketchtravel which purpose is passing a real sketchbook "from one artist's hand to another like an Olympic torch in an artistic relay through 12 countries over 4 and half years", and the end result auctioned off to benefit the various chosen charities that the participating artists choose.