PREMIERE: Carpet Event Disney Animation

I was at the Tron Uprising premiere at Disney Animation Studios in Glendale last weekend. All actor were there who gave their voice, such as Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood and Bruce Boxleitner.
It was a very nice evening. Some more stuff from the event soon.

© 2012 GETTY IMAGES / Imeh Akpanudosen

PRESS: 12 page interview L'Écran Fantastique

'L'Écran Fantastique', leading French Sci-Fi Cinema magazine, runs a 12 page feature on my work in this months issue 02/2012. My French is basic, so I don't understand all I am saying there. Be surprised!

 Cheers, Daniel

EVENT: 'Captain America' at ADG award show 2012

'Captain America' was nominated for best Production Design at the Art Directors Guild Awards, and nomineed production designer (and previous academy award winner) Rick Heinrichs invited us to join him at the award show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where weeks before the Golden Globes were hosted. 'Harry Potter' took the win. It was a great night.

Cheers, Daniel

COVER FEATURE: Daniel Simon GQ Mexico

My name appears on the currently cover of GQ magazine in Mexico. No specific interview, many double spreads of previously published images, large scale. Gracias GQ!

Cheers, Daniel

PORTFOLIO: HYDRA SUBMARINE HD RENDER

High res final design render of the Hydra Submarine from my portfolio. Subtle weathering, stickers, and a good stereo, maybe. Some details seen in my illustration were removed for the final film.

Cheers, Daniel
© MARVEL STUDIOS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Premiere

Attending the world premiere of Captain America on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. Marvel parked the drivable Coupe (700 hp V8) in front of the Oscar-famed Kodak theater. A beautiful sight and a moment of happiness.

Cheers, Daniel 

ART BOOK: CAPTAIN AMERICA DESIGNS RELEASED

Art Of Captain America Book is here! My credit on this film is Lead Vehicle Designer. 
38 of the 240 paged book are exclusively for vehicle design, featuring all seven crafts with sketches and final renderings. Marvel put a fantastic volume together, with lots of explanatory text by us designers. Also includes countless mindblowing character paintings by fellow artist Ryan Meinerding.

Cheers, Daniel 

OBLIVION - Universal release date

The Universal movie Oblivion - by Tron director Joe Kosinski - will open July 19, 2013. Tom Cruise is starring. I am designing under the lead of production designer Darren Gilford. Article here.

Cheers, Daniel

PORTFOLIO: Light Jet Illustration HD

The Small Light Jet was a joy to design. Having the pilot riding on a barrel like fuselage with his arms nestled in chopped off wing sections was the key idea. The style language then followed the Light Cycle, established earlier. Gun barrels were arranged to line up with the pilot's arms, visually extending him into the weapon. 

© COPYRIGHT DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cheers, Daniel

PORTFOLIO: Light Runner Sketch HD

Continuing the series of Tron Legacy showcase images is the final Light Runner design drawing. It's a hybrid of my standard sketch technique with ball pen and Prisma markers and a 3D Alias wireframe, completed with a Photoshop airbrush layer. Seen is the out-land mode with expanded tires, rotated wheel hubs for ground clearance, exposed rockets and a heavy rear to illustrate some acceleration.

© COPYRIGHT DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cheers, Daniel 

PORTFOLIO: Light Runner Image HD

With the movie out and today available on disc, I will publish step by step some portfolio pieces of my work on Tron Legacy, depending on approval by Disney. As you know, if you work for a film, its not yours, the studio owns it. So this piece here was published in the latest issue of Auto&Design, and I rendered it in Bunkspeed Shot. It's the orginal design data that I created with the help of Set Designer Joe Hiura. This view shows the coherent concept of exterior,  interior and chassis. Tire tread is an after thought and not in the movie. Enjoy in HD.

© COPYRIGHT DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cheers, Daniel 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: new trailer

See a few new shots of the Hydra vehicles coming to you this summer. I love Joe Johnston's overhead shot of the sub, check the entire trailer in HD here.

 Cheers, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Full Resolution Render LIGHT RUNNER

Mental images, the Berlin based company behind the world leading render engine mental ray and iray published a full resolution render I did on for Tron Legacy. Its the Light Runner at speed, rendered on iray on nVidia's cuda cores through the package Bunkspeed Shot. This one here is only 2000px for legal reasons, go to mental images here and get the full 5000 px...

Cheers, Daniel

UPDATE: ALIEN / OBLIVION

Ridley Scott's Alien prequel is "dead", the great news is that the script morphes into an original stand alone film Prometheus, Fox release date March 9, 2012. There might be some connections to the Alien DNA. Read more here.

I just started designing full time on Untitled Kosinski Project, an adventure I am involve with since 2009. It's an original story, with the lead team of Tron Legacy: Director Joe Kosinski and Production Designer Darren Gilford. No release date yet.

Best, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Behind the scene feature

UK based magazine 3D Artist features a 10 page interview, going in depth about my vehicle design work on Tron Legacy. Computer struggles, Hollywood challenges, art department pipeline and many exclusive new renderings

and making of photos. Text by Lynette Clee.

Magazine is out now in the U.K. just in time for the film release and will be at newsstands world wide in January.

Best, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Light Cycle featurette

Disney put together this promo short film, where I explain some thoughts that the design team under the lead of Production Designer Darren Gilford put into the new Light Cycle. 4 Minutes are too short to give you all the info you are looking for, but I hope you find some interesting things here.



For HD quality, please follow to youTube.

Best, Daniel

TRON UPRISING: Lead Vehicle Design

I am currently working as Lead Vehicle Designer for TRON: UPRISING, a long time undercover - now announced - animated TV series of Disney. Coming 2012. Director: Charlie Bean.

Source: Variety

Cheers, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: high res set pictures

Entertainment Weekly just released a cover story about Captain America, including the first official pictures showing the look and feel of the film.

More images here.

Cheers, Daniel

BREAKING: Disney releases Tron Light Runner clip

Today Disney released an exclusive film clip showing Quorra and Sam in the Light Runner. Follow the link and click 'Quorra Film Clip'.

Cheers from Tokyo, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: filming

Just coming back from the film sets of Captain America at Shepperton Studios in London. Sure I can't share anything. I am posting to let you know that everything I saw was done with passion and that the movie gonna look amazing.

Best, Daniel