… ABOUT …

About

Biography_

As you can see, working with layers & nodes feels natural to me because I’m made of them!

Nested within a large, loving family, Dan grew up in one of the most depopulated region of Spain (< 4 person/km2). Since was 8, every night he waited anxiously to watch a "Behind the scenes"  TV show. He was mesmerized with all the processes needed for making a movie! It wasn't any film school in hundreds of Km away and he couldn't afford to move so far, so working on film industry was only an unrealistic dream back then! (that's why he start studying science, other passion of him)

But the call was louder so he leave science path on the side after finishing Biochemistry high school and he went to Zaragoza to study film, getting the top of class rates during higher education in Film, TV and Media. He got hired even before finishing his internships as head of a space dedicated to teaching filmmaking to young people. Dan loved being teacher and he learned lots from the experience, but he needed to grow profesionally, that's why he decided to move to Barcelona!

In Barcelona he deepened in different areas and industry crafts (lighting, camera op., color grade, visual narrative, editing, postproduction, photo, among others). Finally his heart chose the VFX path as it offered the perfect balance between artistic, technical, creative and logical-mathematical aspects. Also most of this knowledge was super useful towards VFX! When focusing on his VFX training, most of his expertness comes from online resources, short courses & master classes, with tutors like: (see here)

Once choosen the career of VFX, he decided to move to London with plans of saving enough money to afford advanced VFX studies, despite he barely spoke any english and no money to survive un such a city... Still he went for it, looking for his own VFX projects whilst working full time in a fast food company to pay the rent, and deepening on the VFX through internet resources ... before of being able to afford a vfx degree, He found himself working more and more regularly as a VFX artist, with recurrent happy clients, so he decided to quit his job and entering the joys (and pains) of a freelancer lifestyle!

Some of the projects in which I've worked so far: Black Mirror - "Arkangel" (Netflix) / The innocents (Netflix) / Poldark (BBC) / McQueen Documentary / God's own country (whole list, here)

I love to keep learning new things, so I’m currently enhancing my Nuke and Cinema 4D skills, in order to improve my profile as Compositor and VFX Generalist… Also improving my artistic skills as Digital Matte Painter.


Always seeking for projects and for opportunities that allow me to keep growing as a VFX artist. If you believe my profile could fit in your needs, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Biography_

As you can see, working with layers & nodes feels natural to me because I’m made of them!

Originally from a large, loving family, sitted in one of the most depopulated region of Spain (density of population less than 4/km2). Every midnight I waited anxiously to watch a TV show in which they showed “Behind the scenes” of some movies. I was mesmerized of all the work needed to get a spontaneous looking! Working on film industry was only a dream back then! (actually, initially I was planning to studying science, other of my passions, due I wasn't believing that someone in my situation could ever arrive to work in film industry!)

Pursuing the dream, I did moved to Barcelona... well, before that, I got the higher rates of my promotion of higher education in Film, TV and Media in Zaragozagetting hired by the company of my internships as a head of a space in which we taugh filmmaking to young people (in that job I also learned a lot!) I loved being teacher but I needed to grow profesionally, so that's why I moved to Barcelona... I trained in lots of crafts within the industry (lighting, camera op., color grade, visual narrative, editing, postproduction, photo, script writing, acting, etc). Finally I chose the VFX due is the perfect mix of artistic, technical, creative and logical-mathematical aspects. Also many of my previous knowledge it turned out to be quite useful towards VFX artist. Specifically talking about VFX training, most of my knowledge it has come from online resources and from short courses & master classes, with teachers like: (see here)

Once choosen the career of VFX, I decided to move to London, despite of barely speaking english and having the minimum amount of money… And, before of being able to afford the studies, I found myself working regularly as a VFX artist! So I decided to quit my survival job, to jump into freelance life! Some of the projects in which I've worked so far: Black Mirror - "Arkangel" (Netflix) / The innocents (Netflix) / Poldark (BBC) / McQueen Documentary / God's own country (whole list, here)

I love to keep learning new things, so I’m currently enhancing my Nuke and Cinema 4D skills, in order to improve my profile as Compositor and VFX Generalist… Also improving my artistic skills as Digital Matte Painter.


Always seeking for projects and for opportunities that allow me to keep growing as a VFX artist. If you believe my profile could fit in your needs, please don't hesitate to contact me!

From one of the most depopulated areas of Spain to VFX artist in London, with very low resources. If you want to read the complete journey, click here 

Originally from a large, loving family, sitted in a less than 400 people village of Teruel, one of the most unoccupied region of Spain. Every midnight I waited anxiously to watch the “Behind the scenes” of some movie that they was promoting on TV. I was mesmerized of all the work needed to get a spontaneous looking! Working on film industry was only a dream back then!

Pursuing the dream, I did trained in lots of crafts within the film industry, until finally choosing the VFX due is the perfect mix between artistic, technical, creative and logical-mathematical aspects. Also I realized that many of my previous knowledge was quite useful for VFX (lighting, camera settings, color grade, visual narrative, etc).
I got higher education in film, TV and media in Spain. Though, most of my knowledge as a VFX artist it has come from online resources and from short courses & master classes, with teachers like Eduardo Díaz, Tony Lyons, Raúl Monge, Carles MarsalVicky Lau, Cristobal Vila, Andrew Kramer, Sergio rozas, Joaquín Gutierrez, Carolina Jimenez, Xuan Prada, Zigor Samaniego, Guillem H. Pongiluppi, Eduardo Pena, Alex Beltrán, among others.

I moved to London with almost not knowledge of the language and the minimum amount of money, anxious for developing my VFX career here… And, before I could afford my planned studies, I found myself working as a VFX artist from home for some recurrent clients! So I decided to quit my job in a London fast food company to jump into freelance life! Some of the projects I've worked on so far: Black Mirror - "Arkangel" (Netflix) / The innocents (Netflix) / Poldark (BBC) / McQueen Documentary / God's own country (For whole list, please visit "work" or my imdb profile)

I'm wishing for working in a VFX studio office, either as a employee or as a regular freelancer (not only working from my studio for sole projects, as I mostly did so far). That would definitely allow me to keep professionaly growing and to grant my best!

I’m always seeking for projects, chances and learning opportunities that allow me to keep growing as a VFX artist, so if you believe that my profile can fit in your needs, don't hesitate to contact me!



From one of the most depopulated areas of Spain to VFX artist in London, with very low resources. If you want to read the complete journey, click here 

 

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Matchmoving

Matte Painting

Compositing

 Rotoscopy

Removal

Animation

 Particles

Basic 3D

Visuals

Matte Painting    Compositing    Matchmoving    Rotoscopy    Removal    Animation    Particles    Basic 3D    Visuals

Skills & Software usage_

  • Creative vision and technical understanding of software and procedures.
  • Flexibility to adopt changes demanded within deadlines.
  • Keen ability to problem-solve, with interest for maths, logic and lateral thinking.
  • Good communication and team playing skills, also being able of working alone.
  • Patience and attention to detail.
  • Photographic skills.
  • Respect for the requirements of a particular pipeline.
  • Logical arrangement within scripts and projects, with general tidiness, good use of color tags and labels, and following naming conventions.
  • Experience with VFX supervising during pre-production and shootings (offering guidance & solutions on how to achieve best results, advising and solving creative problems on set)
  • Good use of colour, lights and shadows, for blending several elements
  • Ability to analyse difficult shots to find the most efficient approach for roto/keying (breakdown of shapes and keyframes, smart use of planar and point trackers, matte generation techniques)
  • Ability to address feedback, and to be self-critical of the quality of work produced.
  • Good knowledge of Shotgun, Ftrack, Frame.io and Frankie. Also Microsoft Office. Able to quick adapt to new ones
  • Enthusiasm to learn and develop professionally, with proactive attitude to research available resources.

A picture is worth a thousand words... You can see how was many projects done, within the detailed breakdown videos.

Software that I currently use _

Matchmoving

Matte Painting

Compositing

 Rotoscopy

Removal

Animation

 Particles

Basic 3D

Visuals

Matte Painting    Compositing    Matchmoving    Rotoscopy    Removal    Animation    Particles    Basic 3D    Visuals

Deepening About_

Do the colors of this site even matters?

Orange is a very special color to me:
Not only because the obvious relationships with buddhism,
Not only because twice every 24h the sky becomes completely orange during the minutes with most beautiful light of the day (with all the psychological and anthropological connotations that entails)

It's a color in between warm and cold colors (depending if it contain a bit more of red or yellow), between bold and calm looking. Red is always aggressive, blue is always cold and green always evoque nature... orange could become anything that he proposed!

The exact same orange will feels completely different If you combine it together with a navy background than if it's displayed together with yellow, but with the ability of not loosing radiant and optimistic traits! Because of this relation with other colours, we could say that orange is a very "friendly and ductile" color, able to adapt himself according to the situation.

The choice of mixing it with large amounts of white and light grey it represents to me the pleasure of working in a team, knowing your place and collaborating with others in favour of something greater than oneself, with no intention of been the main character of the show, but without passing through totally unnoticed.

"There's something about Layer"

The human being has always been attracted to overlapping images:

Negative handprint in prehistoric rock art... ancient art of shadow puppetry... photomontages like "the two ways of life" by Oscar Rejlander... films by Alice Guy, George Méliès or Segundo de Chomón...

But also you was attracted to it once painting fake moustaches on your schoolbooks pictures! or once using the instagram face filters...
Everyone loves to overlap images!

 

Everyone


Overlapping

Regardless doing it using a painted glass in front of camera, manipulating the fotoquimic frames, or using software with interfaces based in layers or nodes, to overlap images allow us to create fascinating universes, amazing realities that you can't find in any real place!

Matchmoving

Matte Painting

Compositing

 Rotoscopy

Removal

Animation

 Particles

Basic 3D

Visuals

Matte Painting    Compositing    Matchmoving    Rotoscopy    Removal    Animation    Particles    Basic 3D    Visuals

Deepening About_

Do the colors of this site even matters?

Orange is a very special color to me:Not only because the obvious relationships with buddhism,Not only because twice every 24h…
CONTINUE READING

The complete Journey

Ep. I - Beginnigs                                                …
CONTINUE READING

Matchmoving

Matte Painting

Compositing

 Rotoscopy

Removal

Animation

 Particles

Basic 3D

Visuals

Matte Painting    Compositing    Matchmoving    Rotoscopy    Removal    Animation    Particles    Basic 3D    Visuals

My way here_

Brief History

Passionate for filmmaking since really young, I did trained in lots of crafts within the film industry, until finally choosing the VFX due is the perfect mix between artistic, technical, creative and logical-mathematical aspects. Also I realized that many of my previous knowledge was quite useful for VFX (lighting, camera settings, color grade, visual narrative, etc)

I got higher education in film, TV and media in Spain. Though, most of my knowledge as a VFX artist it has come from online resources and from short courses & master classes, with teachers like:
In person:
- Eduardo Díaz from "El Ranchito" ("Game of Thrones", "Jurassic world", "The impossible", "A monster calls", "The skin I live in", etc)
- Raúl Monge ("Pacific Rim", "Colossal", "Hellboy II", "Pan's labyrinth")
- Carles Marsal (works for Adobe, National Geographic, Beefeater, etc)
- Alex Beltrán (Adidas, TMB, Seat, Volkswagen, etc)
- Cristobal Vila (the man behing the oustanding videos of Etérea Studios)

Online (From Udemy, Videocopilot, Domestika, Pluralsight, Lynda, etc):
-
-
-


I did moved to London with the minimum amount of money and almost not knowledge of the language, anxious for developing my VFX career here… And, before I could afford the VFX career,  I found myself working as a VFX artist for some recurrent clients, so I decided to jump into freelance life!


Some of the projects I've worked on: Black Mirror - "Arkangel" (Netflix) / The innocents (Netflix) / Poldark (BBC) / McQueen Documentary /
God's own country
 
(For whole list, please visit "work" or my imdb profile)


From one of the most depopulated areas of Spain to VFX artist in London, with very low resources. If you want to know the journey, click here 

I’m always seeking for projects, chances and learning opportunities that allow me to keep growing as a VFX artist!

The complete Journey_

Ep. I - Beginnigs

Originally from a large, loving family with limited resources, in a less than 400 people village, sitted in Teruel, one of the most unoccupied region of Spain. Every midnight I waited anxiously to watch the "Behind the scenes" of some movie that they was promoting on TV. Sometimes was repeated, but I didn't care much; I was mesmerized of all the work needed to get a result that looks spontaneous! Work in filmmaking was only a dream back then!

Pursuing the dream, I leaved the familiar nest at age of 18. I got higher education in Film, TV and media in "IES Los Enlaces", a public school of Zaragoza, getting the higher rates of my promotion. (Amparo Vilaplana was who discover me the marvelous world of postproduction, which it may be not a reputated name in the film industry, but it deserves a mention due is an amazing teacher!)


Even before finishing my studies, I was hired by the company of my internships, as a head of "Ibercaja Zentrunclip" (a space dedicated to teach filmmaking to young people, supported by an important bank). That space housed different master classes and courses (which I could attend for free!), such the ones about After Effects teached by Cristobal Vila (the man behing the oustanding videos of Etérea Studios)

Ep. II - Too many passions within film making

I had already fallen in love with VFX craft since the first day of school, due is a mix between artistic, technical, creative and logical-mathematical aspects... but I also loved being in shootings and taking creative decisions during pre-production... That's why I tooked a while to choose.

I moved to Barcelona looking for keep growing professionally. Meanwhile doing mainly online VFX training, I delved deeper in terms of lighting, DoP, color grade (among other non related crafts)... But I never could to set aside the VFX: whenever I could, I did classroom or online courses of VFX, also I tried to implement some post-production in other fileds projects, etc.

Ep. 1II - The perfect marriage

The push I needed to choose Visual effects as a profesional career it was definitely during the course for unemployed people, "Supervision of VFX" by Eduardo Díaz from "El Ranchito" ("Game of Thrones", "Jurassic world", "The impossible", "A monster calls", "The skin I live in", etc), specially once he talks about his job as a supervisor on set, and also during the masterclass regarding Concept Art, by Raúl Monge ("Pacific Rim", "Colossal", "Hellboy II", "Pan's labyrinth").

 

But it wasn't the only relevant trainings related to the decision of choosing VFX as a career...
- Some time before, I was accepted to another course for unemployed people in "CIFO Hospitalet", teached by Alex Beltrán (Adidas, TMB, Seat, Volkswagen, etc) about color grading, in which I have much fun and I learnt a lot. That definetely directed me towards postproduction. 

- A couple of months after the course of Eduardo, I get definetely in love with the art of making a DMP during the course of matte painting by Carles Marsal (He works for Adobe, National Geographic, Beefeater, etc).

 

Looking backwards, I realized that actually all my trip until choosing VFX wasn't too bad: not only because it provide me a wider view of the whole picture, but also because I realized that many of my training was marrying very well with VFX, such as lighting, camera settings, color grade, visual narrative, etc (keeping as a hobby the few interests that are not compatible with VFX)

Ep. 1V - London Calling

I did moved to London with the minimum amount of money and almost not knowledge of the language, anxious of developing my VFX career here... And I found myself having projects as a VFX artist for some usual clients, earlier than expected; even before I could arrive to afford any VFX studies in UK! 

So in summer of 2016 I did quit my job in a London fast-food company, to embark on the adventure (in which I am so far) of having VFX artist freelance work, as a unique job (or, at least, as the main one... be freelance is not always a bed of roses...). I finally could achieve the dream I had since young, but that's just a new beginning!

I love to keep always learning new things, so I'm currently enhancing my Nuke and Cinema 4D skills, in order to improve my profile as Compositor and VFX Generalist... Also improving my artistic skills as Digital Matte Painter.

Featured projects I've worked on: Black Mirror - "Arkangel" (Netflix) / The innocents (Netflix) / Poldark (BBC) / McQueen Documentary / God's own country
 
(For whole list, please visit "work" or my imdb profile)

P.S: Deepening About_

Do the colors of this site even matters?

Orange is a very special color to me:
Not only because the obvious relationships with buddhism,
Not only because twice every 24h the sky becomes completely orange during the minutes with most beautiful light of the day (with all the symbolic and anthropological connotations that entails)

Is also a very special color to the film industry: For most of the vectorscopes, in addition of marks for the primary and secondary colors, there are a special mark for orange, the "skin tone line"
Is truth that not all the humans have this color of skin, but we could say in a very poetic way, that this specific line on the color orange is trying to represent the whole humanity condition (yes, at least in matters of vectorscope)

But been honest, all those reasons are not the truly reason of why Orange is important to me...
It's a color in between warm and cold colors (depending if it contain a bit more of red or yellow), between bold looking and calming looking. The exact same orange will feels completely different If you combine it together with a navy background than if it's displayed together with pink one. Because of this relation with other colours, we could say that orange is a very "friendly and ductile" color, but with the ability of not loosing radiant and optimistic traits. Red is always agressive, blue is always cold; but orange could become anything that he proposed! That's why I feel so close to this color.

The choice of mix specifically with white and light grey it represents to me the wisdom of choosing the best of all options... The amount of orange used, just with a few touches here and there, it represents the pleasure of working in a team, collaborating with others in favour of something greater than oneself, without intention of be the main character of the show, but without going totally unnoticed