Day in the life
Pixar’s highly experienced digital artist shares how he spends a typical working day, and offers his expert advice
Experienced digital artist Dylan Sisson talks about his daily work routine
As a digital artist in the Renderman group, I have a number of responsibilities including managing marketing, creating demos, interacting with our users, and giving presentations at industry conferences, so I spend a fair amount of time on the road (at least before I started sheltering in place). I also spend a lot of time in Renderman, making images. I have a lot of freedom to creatively explore ideas and concepts which is great, and there is always new technology to learn as well which keeps things interesting. I will often get to try out new technology before it’s released, like NPR stylized rendering.
How do you get started and set yourself up for the day ahead?
My routine is simple, and quite possibly boring. I like to exercise in the morning, and clear my head before jumping onto the computer. Earlier in the day is when I take care of emails, planning, and minutia, and for the rest of the day I’ll focus on one project in depth. I usually forget to eat lunch.
What kind of day-to-day challenges do you face?
One of the challenges is managing the unexpected… it happens with the technology, planning, events, travel, everything. Especially when travelling on the road. From time to time, I’ll be in a situation where the challenges are completely unanticipated. For instance, once I gave a two-hour presentation in a freezing auditorium, and during a break I was brought a bottle of water from the hallway. It was frozen solid. It was literally freezing. So I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, and try to keep a sense of humour about it.
What’s the best thing about your role?
If you know the Renderman Walking Teapot… I created that. In 2003, I designed the first walking teapot as an inside joke. Now they’ve become a fixture at SIGGRAPH. So that’s a fun thing about my role, I’ve gotten to create some interesting stuff, like a music
video for the Walking Teapot. Of course, animation and VFX is also full of a lot of great people, and getting to know everyone over the years has really been a fascinating ride. There are so many talented folks out there – and that is one of the best things, being a part of this community.
How do you typically end the day? What needs to be done before you can leave? And how do you unwind from a day of creativity?
Since I’m connected all the time with my laptop, tablet, and phone, it can be easy for me to just keep working when I shouldn’t, checking in, etc. So I have to make a point to stop working at the end of the work day. No work email. No Slack. However if there is a deadline, I’ll spend extra time to get it done. As far as unwinding at the end of the day, a BBQ is always nice (especially since I’ve probably forgotten to eat lunch). My go-to is beer can chicken.
What kind of work do you do outside of your day job and why?
Outside of work, I still find time to make my own art. I do a lot of sketching with brush pens, often in restaurants for the staff (and occasionally for a free dessert). I’ve been exploring new media as well… recently I’ve gotten into sculpting in VR, and have participated in a few ‘VR Art Battles’. Sculpting in VR is really where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve begun printing a lot of my sculptures as well, making bottle openers, cocktail skewers, and coat hooks. After creating digital art, it’s refreshing to create something physical.
The functional 3D steel print of the Dragon Opener