About

LION-ARTS is Daniel Enrique De León

PROFILE

I’m a passionate, multi-disciplinary Artist / Designer & upcoming Filmmaker, always striving to create the spectacular & breathtaking. In every passion project I undertake, I always aim to challenge myself, continually improve upon my previous works, and whenever given the opportunity -take an audience on an intense, meaningful, & shockingly beautiful adventure!

I am a Sr. 3D Artist / Digital Sculptor for Film / Streaming VFX, Unreal Engine / Real-Time (incl. AR/VR), Art/Creative Director, Texture/Digital Matte Painter, & Storyboard Artist, formally part of the Oscar Nominated teams of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021 -Digital Domain 3.0 alum) and “The Lion King” (2019 -MPC LA) among other iconic films. I also have extensive experience in Advanced 3D Printing for Functional Props, Monumental Statues, Collectibles, & Toys, all for a wide array of top-tier clients and brands, including: Indiana Jones, DC’s Black Adam, Katy Perry’s Vegas Residency Show, Digital Domain, MPC, HBO / WestWorld, Amazon Studios, Netflix, Apple, Dreamscape Immersive, Legend 3D, Formlabs, Wacom, Ultimaker, Sideshow Collectibles, Disney, ILM / LucasFilm, Jurassic World, Star Wars, Mortal Kombat, Marvel, Pixomondo, Shade VFX, Dropbox, Sight & Sound Theaters, PDP, and more.

I currently serve as CCO at Space Interactions, Inc.

BACKGROUND

While blessed to have a successful career as a professional artist, I crossed over from a formal education in Biology and Clinical Emergency Medicine -having worked in one of our nation's Top 50 E.R.s for several years before fully committing to my first love of Art & Storytelling. As of late, I’ve been working equally in the Film / Show Visual Effects & 3D Printing Industries -as I’m an Ambassador with Formlabs and Ultimaker Desktop 3D Printing companies. I’m also a huge Cetacean (Marine Mammals; Dolphins, Whales, etc.) and Animal Advocate, proud Corgi-Dad, and am always seeking to intertwine my fascination with real-world Science, Technology, Conservation & Compassion for Animals, with powerful Storytelling, and artwork via my range of creative & technical disciplines through a core belief:

“The Arts are where culture is formed & influenced.”

I’m personable; love inspiring others to excel in their passions, and am deliberate in encouraging them to positively affect the world around us through their given abilities and positions. Of Spanish lineage, I’m first generation American. From childhood, I was surrounded by excellent art & storytelling, from wonderfully illustrated books, fantastic films, and the latest & greatest video games, to being classically educated in 3 musical instruments & music theory for over a decade. Nature, Animals [extinct or alive], Dinosaurs (immense Jurassic Park fan; the original film and both novels profoundly affected my 10 yr old mind), Science, & Advances in Technology and Medicine have and will always influence & fascinate me.

Location: Greater Los Angeles Area (Beach Cities)

SKILLS

Software:

ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Unreal, Keyshot, Photoshop, Illustrator, Cura, Formlabs’ Preform, Mesh Mixer, Camtasia, Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, and more. Currently learning Marvelous Designer. Complete fluidity in both Mac & PC OSs and with a Wacom Cintiq or Intuos.

Digital:

Concept to Production-Ready, Extremely Detailed Sculpting, Low & High Poly modeling -both Organic & Hard-Surface for Character/Creature, Vehicle, Weapon and Object design, as well as Environmental elements suitable for Film VFX, Real-Time, & 3D Printing. Fluid Dynamics Simulations/Animations via RealFlow, Digital Matte Painting, Photo-manipulation/Retouching, Compositing, and Texture creation/editing. Digital Photography of live subjects -human/wildlife, Still Life, &/or any combination of those for stand-alone art, texture generation, or reference material. Experienced as a Motion Capture Actor and working on / learning facial Motion Capture using Unreal’s various solutions.

3D Printing:

Skilled in the use of my: FormLab’s Form 2 & 3 -SLA (Photopolymer Resin Printers), also have experience in the use of SLS 3D Printers.

Traditional:

Sculpting: Chavant Clay, Drawing: From life, photo reference, or imagination, Realistic or Stylized, Concept designs & Storyboarding. Creative Writing -Overall stories, Overarching/Interweaving themes, Character backstories, High-Impact: Intimate/Emotional moments, Complex Action Sequences/Set Pieces, etc. Strong research skills in the real-world via interviewing & shadowing experts, and of course, utilizing the internet/AI.

Film: Experienced in the use of Sony’s Alpha Mirrorless Camera system for Filmmaking and Photography with a wide range of lens & challenging lighting situations. Excellent understanding of, and a love for visual composition & communication.

GOALS & INFLUENCES

I am currently in production on my first, (very ambitious!) short film -A thrilling adventure, all motion captured for a photo-real CGI adaptation proof of concept, which I would love to be my feature film writer/directorial debut. It’s designed as a pitch piece. I’m also in early production for another pitch piece that’s also an animal-centric adaption as well…

I consistently keep myself busy on new, personal passion projects involving 3D Printing, Artwork, Film, and more while constantly advancing my knowledge & skill sets in the many tangential skills & subjects connected to those interests, as well as always watching & studying excellent films (TOTAL FILM JUNKIE), shows, and the rare video game. Also a deep admirer of many film & modern classical composers and their live (& of course recorded) orchestral concerts. Also a big consumer of excellent authors -Often going on long spurts of "reading" both fiction & non-fiction, though mostly non-fiction the older I get, and 99.9% of the time they're audio books now since I'm always utilizing my eyes & hands for all I do. All of this happens between & during any number of many stents at different studios/production shops in the L.A. area, as well as slowly completing a set of novels I started writing years ago, -Modern epics spanning genres of techno-action/adventures and supernatural-thrillers set in the near future, written with years of grounded science and real-world research & interviews, inspired by one of my biggest heroes -Michael Crichton.

Some of my other biggest creative influences are: Dean Koontz, Robert Ludlum, Alexandre Dumas, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Maurice Sendak, Sir Ken Robinson, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Christopher McQuarrie, James Cameron, Stan Winston, Phil Tippet, Dennis Muren, Ed Annunziata, John Rosengrant, Shane Mahan, Chris Swift, Mark ‘Crash’ McCreery, Neri Oxman, Ted Backman, Greg Broadmore, Chris Sanders, John Gurche, and classics like Antonio Canova, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, among many other creatives influences in the illustration, musical categories. As an artist, I firmly believe we need to bring more depth, intelligence, empathy, and optimism into the world through our creative abilities, because there will always be a deficit of it in this life.

Thank you for reading!