Daisuke Tsutsumi

Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (堤 大介) (born November 6, 1974) 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 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.

Filmography

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

Books
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:


 * The Dam Keeper (2017)
 * The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness (2018)
 * The Dam Keeper: Return from the Shadows (2019)

Special projects
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 overseeing Sketchtravel (with Gerald Guerlais) 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.