David Daniels is an American commercial director, filmmaker, and co-founder (along with Ray Di Carlo and

Chel White Chel White (born May 30, 1959) is an American film director, composer, screenwriter and visual effects artist. In his independent films and music videos, White is known for his stylized, often experimental use of images, unusual animation and nar ...

) of the

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

based animation studio

Bent Image Lab BENT IMAGE LAB (or BENT) is a production company and animation studio specializing in story development, television, commercials, visual effects, music videos, short films, experimental techniques and tech development in augmented reality (AR). Lo ...

. He has a master's degree in Animation from The California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts). Daniels' work includes computer (or CG), clay, foam, character, and mixed-media animation.

History

Early in his career, Daniels animated parts of ''

Pee-wee's Playhouse ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American comedy children's television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was develop ...

'', and sections of

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

's music video "Big Time." David later directed the original twelve

M&M's M&M's are color-varied sugar-coated dragée chocolate confectionery by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc.. The candy consists of a candy shell surrounding a filling which determines the specific type of M&M's. Each piece has ...

spots, helping define the CGI designs of Yellow, Blue, Red and Green personalities that are still being used decades later. His industry awards include an AICP award, a Clio, Mobius awards and a Daytime Emmy.

Stratacut

David Daniels used a technique called

strata-cut animation Strata-cut animation, also spelled stratcut or straticut, is a form of clay animation, itself one of many forms of stop motion animation. Strata-cut animation is most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like "loaf" of clay, in ...

, a form of clay animation in which internally packed "loaves" of clay are animated in thin slices, revealing the movement of the pre-sculpted images within. Daniels first used the technique of strata-cut in his 1985 film, ''Buzz Box''. Strata-cut was later used in animated segments of the ''

'' series during the mid-80s, and in the music video for " Big Time" by

(1986).

At Bent Image Lab

In 2008, David Daniels and Bent co-founder Ray Di Carlo co-directed "Hidden Formula", a Coca-Cola television commercial created for the advertising agency Santo, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2014, Daniels has also been developing

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

Screenings

Daniels' experimental animated film, "Buzz Box Remix" premiered at the 2007

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

. His Masterclass presentations in person at Santiago, introduced a new generation of animators firsthand to this unconventional art form. In 2017, David Daniels gave a one-man show at the historic

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

in New York City. Guests not only got to see his legacy of work but Daniels also gave an in-person demonstration.Anthology Film Archives: Film Screenings
/ref>

References

External links

*
Buzz Box
' on

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

David Daniels
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

David Daniels' official Vimeo channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, David American animated film directors American animated film producers American stop motion animators Living people Year of birth missing (living people) California Institute of the Arts alumni