Dan Platt is a a three-time award winning, photorealistic Character Model Supervisor that has worked at Magic Leap, known for creating "Mica", a real-time digital human. Prior, he was a Senior Facial Model Lead at Digital Domain, a world-renowned visual effects studio, where he virtually raised the dead using a digital ouija board.Dan modeled the now viral "virtual 2pac" that brought the late Tupac Shakur back to life for Coachella - winning a Cannes Titanium Lion, a Gold London International Award and a Grand Clio. He created the digital humans in Tron Legacy; de-aging Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner and created Kevin Bacon’s morphing persona as Sebastian Shaw in X-Men First Class. Early in his career, Dan was the visual development artist of “Sonny” for I, Robot and fanboys take note: he sculpted “The Star Wars Trilogy” movie poster, sneaking his initials into the wrinkles of Han Solo's sleeve. Check it out - we'll wait.While at Disney Animation Studio's, Dan was a production modeler on Bolt & Meet the Robinson’s and going old school; sculpted a variety of secret character maquette’s for the directors sequestered on the infamous 3rd floor. Oh, if the walls could talk.Classically trained as an anatomical sculptor and illustrator at the Philadelphia University of the Arts, Dan had a penchant for all things lurking in the shadows. In 1988, he focused his sculptural passions into creating iconic characters for sci-fi and horror films, video games and the toy industry. He still sleeps with the lights on.
Free with his knowledge, Mr. Platt has lectured and conducted digital modeling seminars in Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Paris, London and the U.S. From 2005 - 2011, Dan taught the Advanced Character Modeling in Maya class at CalArts and while at Disney; he was a modeling mentor, an instructor and modeling representative at a variety of Disney sponsored events.Specialties: FACS expert, Photorealistic virtual humans, 3D character design & development, pre-vis character maquette sculpting, hard surface modeling, anatomical expert, international lecturer, CalArts Modeling instructor, Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox & Photoshop. And... a certified fitness trainer.