Danielle Feinberg

Danielle Feinberg
Born
Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University
Occupations
  • visual effects supervisor
  • cinematographer
  • computer scientist
Years active1997-present
EmployerPixar Animation Studios (1997-present)
Notable workWALL-E (2008)
Brave (2012)
Coco (2017)
Turning Red (2022)

Danielle Feinberg is an American Visual effects supervisor, cinematographer and Director of Photography for Lighting at Pixar Animation Studios. She directed lighting for the Academy Award-winning films WALL-E, Brave and Coco and was the Visual effects supervisor for Turning Red.

Life and career

Danielle Feinberg was born in Boulder, Colorado and graduated from Boulder High School. Growing up, she attended summer camps and after-school programs for students interested in computer programming and engineering.[1] She attended Harvard University, where she was introduced to computer animation in a computer graphics course during her junior year.[2] She graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in computer science.

After graduating from Harvard, she started working at Pixar in February 1997 as a technician managing the large libraries of data and images for rendering A Bug's Life.[1] She has since been credited for leading work in visual effects, technical direction, and graphics.[3]

Outside of Pixar, she mentors girls to help them find inspiration in STEM through groups like Girls Who Code. She gives talks in the United States and abroad, using them when she can as a platform to encourage girls to pursue STEM fields.[4] In fact, Made with Code, which is an initiative launched by Google, was kick started with her inspiring keynote.[5]

In 2015, she appeared in the documentary Code: Debugging the Gender Gap. In November 2015, she delivered a talk on science and art at TED Talks Live in New York at the historic Town Hall Theater. It was also streamed by PBS.[6] In 2022, she was featured along with Domee Shi, Lindsey Collins and Rona Liu as the leading women of Turning Red in the documentary Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red.

Filmography

Feature films

Year Title Role Notes
1998 A Bug's Life lead render technical director
1999 Toy Story 2 master lighting artist
2001 Monsters, Inc. master lighting artist
2003 Finding Nemo computer graphics supervisor lead development on ocean graphics unit[7]
2004 The Incredibles lead lighting artist
2007 Ratatouille master lighting artist
2008 WALL-E director of photography for lighting
2012 Brave director of photography lighting
2015 Inside Out master lighting artist
The Good Dinosaur master lighting artist
2017 Coco director of photography for lighting
2022 Turning Red visual effects supervisor

Short films

Year Title Role Notes
2003 Exploring the Reef technical supervisor short documentary film distributed with Finding Nemo
2006 Lifted lighting artist Initial theatrical release with Ratatouille
2008 BURN-E lighting consultant
2009 Partly Cloudy lighting Initial theatrical release with UP
2020 SparkShorts - Loop supervising technical director
2023 Pete directory of photography for lighting Independent short film, directed by Bret Parker

Awards

Year Movie Award Notes
2011 Marie Claire Magazine Women on Top Recognized as the top "Film Techie"
2013 15th Assembly District Women of the Year Issued by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner for Feinberg's work with girls in STEM
2015 NCCWSL Woman of Distinction Awarded by the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders
2018 Coco Won Annie award Outstanding achievement for product design in an animated feature production.[8]
2018 Girls in Tech Creator of the Year Awarded by Girls in Tech
2022 San Francisco Business Times OUTstanding Voices Awarded by San Francisco Business Times for Leaders paving the way for LGBTQ equality in the workplace
2022 Breaker of the Glass Ceiling Awarded by the Women of Siggraph Conversations

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Suechting, Max (July–August 2015). "Action, Camera, Lights: Putting the finishing touches on animated worlds". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  2. ^ "Q&A with Danielle Feinberg". Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  3. ^ "IMDb Danielle Feinberg". IMDb. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  4. ^ "Danielle Feinberg on getting women in STEM". YouTube. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  5. ^ "Made with code kicks off with Danielle Feinberg". YouTube. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  6. ^ "Danielle Feinberg at TED Talks Live". 6 April 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  7. ^ "TED Talk: The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life". 6 April 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  8. ^ "Nominees for Annie Award". Retrieved December 10, 2017.