Daniel Elliott

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Creative Practice:

Animation // Illustration // Video Production // Game Development // Photography // Creative Workshops

Artist Statement:

Daniel Elliott is a highly experienced Australian animator, photographer, and filmmaker with over 20 years of industry experience. He has worked in a variety of fields, including online marketing, television/streaming, and music video production, with the proceeds of this work being used to self-financed art, such as short films, comics, and independent game development. Daniel’s passion for art has taken his skill set and ideas around Australia as well as overseas.

In 2007, Daniel founded Visitors From Dreams, a production house that specializes in creating video content for advertising and television, as well as original short-form media and interactive entertainment. Throughout his career, Daniel has had the opportunity to work on advertising and marketing campaigns for brands such as Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, and Google, while also collaborating on and directing visual effects sequences in animated TV series for streaming services like Netflix. Daniel’s work in all mediums is known for its tactile nature, often utilizing tools such as vintage camera lenses and post-production effects like film grain to try and remove any and all digital sheen. He holds a core belief that imperfections are the key to creating work that feels entirely human in an increasingly digital age.

Growing up in the arts hub that is The Northern Rivers of NSW (currently residing in Armidale, New England, NSW), Daniel has been surrounded by creative media and the arts for the entirety of his life. However, without access to much in the way of arts education, he is entirely self-taught in all mediums. This has resulted in a melting pot of influences, from photographic styles such as Street Photography, more commonly associated with urban and city centers, to the marriage of visuals and music by filmmakers like Alby Falzon and David Elfick. Even 70s and 80s BBC animation from the UK, with its generally low budgets and herky-jerky appearance, plays a large role in his creative process thanks to its constant airtime on the ABC during his childhood. Daniel mixes these influencers and many more while striving to create media that is not just stereotypically Australian, but at its core is a unique reflection of Regional Australia and its people.