Daisuke Tsutsumi

Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (堤 大介, Tsutsumi Daisuke) (born November 6, 1974) is an animation artist and illustrator living in San Francisco, California. He is a former art director of Pixar Animation Studios.

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 (see Lucasfilm). 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 Animation Studios in his current role. He is married to Mei Okuyamai, the niece of acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki. He co-directed The Dam Keeper which was nominated for the Oscar for short animated film.

• The Dam Keeper (2014) (Co-director)
• Monsters University (2013) (Lighting Design and Character Shading Art Director)
• Cars 2: The Video Game (2011) (Voice role: Sushi Chef)
• Cars 2 (2011) (Voice role: Sushi Chef)
• Toy Story 3 (2010) (Color and Lighting Art Director)
• Horton Hears a Who (film) (2008) (Lead Color Design)
• Robots (film) (2005) (Lead Color Key Artist/Additional Design)
• Ice Age (2002 film) (2002) (Matte Painting/Color Stylist Art)

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. Dam Keeper is being developed into a two volume graphic novel that will be published at First Second, an imprint of Macmillan.

In 2008, Dice (along with Ronnie del Carmen. Enrico Casarosa and Yukino Pang) 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 currently overseeing Sketchtravel (with Gerald Guerlais) which purpose is "Sharing a reel sketchbook between 60 international artists in order to do a unique book" and the end result auctioned off to benefit the various chosen charities that the participating artists choose.