Producer animated about his work

COMING TO LIFE: David Sardinha, Pineapple Studios owner, runs a staff of four focused on graphic art, video and 3-D animation. He cites a 1996 visualization project for the then-proposed Iway as one of his favorite projects. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
COMING TO LIFE: David Sardinha, Pineapple Studios owner, runs a staff of four focused on graphic art, video and 3-D animation. He cites a 1996 visualization project for the then-proposed Iway as one of his favorite projects. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Pineapple Studios owner David Sardinha runs his small video, animation and virtual production company in Portsmouth by coordinating creative talent, including his own.
With three individuals working remotely and specializing in graphic art (Steve Cranshaw, based in Virginia), video (Jim Tavares in Fall River) and 3-D animation (Rupert Nesbitt in New York City), Sardinha can focus on producing content from his home office.
“In 1995, I hired Steve,” Sardinha said. “He’s a tremendous graphic artist. His background is fine arts. He’s taken all of that talent and transferred it to Photoshop work and he’s brilliant at it. My point when I hire people is to get people who do the things that I do at least as good, or better, than I do. And I’ve worked with them long enough that we can speak in short-hand.”
Originally from Portsmouth, Sardinha launched Pineapple Studios in 1992, after working at some special-effects companies in Hollywood in the early 1980s and doing some “simple animation work” at an aerospace company.
He also worked on the original “Star Trek” movie building models for a subcontractor for Walt Disney Productions, which produced the original “Tron” movie, a 1982 computer-generated animation, he said.
But he moved back to Portsmouth to “open up shop and see what I could do,” because, he said, he wanted the control and satisfaction that comes with working for oneself.
“I conceptualize, solicit the business deal with clients, write scripts, and record voiceovers, as well as shoot and edit ,” he said. “I act as the producer, where I’m putting all the pieces together. I come up with the basic vision, farm out the pieces and then put the whole thing together as a final package.”
The ability to control one’s creations is not to be underestimated, he added. “I’m the one who determines what I need. I get the final say on everything and that’s a big thing for me,” he said.
Besides Photoshop, some of the tools Pineapple Studios uses include 3-D Studio Max and other animation software, and Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere and After Effects for video.
“I started working in the field and learned most of it just by being with people doing this stuff,” he said. “I had worked on radio, so I could do voice work. I had done video and movies, so I thought, ‘It’s the perfect opportunity to be a one-man band.’ ” A lot of work merging video and 3-D animation came his way in the 1990s and 2000s, starting with the R.I. Department of Transportation in 1996. One of his favorite government projects, shown at public hearings, involved helping planners and the public visualize the Iway, a Providence River Bridge moved to its current location in 2007.
“We built a virtual model of the highway system and flew over it and filmed it, [showing] where the new location would be and the surrounding area,” he recalled.
Once the studio built a virtual computer model, Sardinha was able to ‘fly’ over that model, moving the camera virtually as if it were flying over the whole area. The 3-D presentation was shown on public television and at public hearings across the state, he said.
This type of work is still coming in from all over the country, including from Phoenix, and as recently as four months ago, from Tennessee.
When the Great Recession took hold in the U.S. in late 2007, it hurt business at Pineapple Studios, however, and now the company is commissioned more often to do smaller projects, Sardinha said.
“The recession hit us hard because the government funding got hit hard,” he said, “so the first thing that’s going to go is video work. There was a big hole that was left there. It’s gone from having a small number of large contracts to having a greater number of small contracts, so I’m out there hustling a lot more.”
Bigger jobs could pull in anywhere between $60,000 and $150,000, while the less-involved contracts range in revenue from $5,000 to $20,000, he said.
Being the producer is the part of the job Sardinha loves the most.
One of his favorite projects is shooting 2-minute video introductions of top executives at small companies for use on their websites. He’s done dozens and charges $85 for each one, finding most of those clients through Prophet Share Inc., in Warwick, where small businesses receive training and support through collaborative seminars and workshops.
But multimedia in all its formats appeals to Sardinha.
“I’ve always loved animation since I was a kid,” he said. “Once the computer got involved, it made it easier. The creativity doesn’t stop until you’re done.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Pineapple Studios
OWNER: David Sardinha
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Multimedia production company
LOCATION: 93 Wapping Road, Portsmouth
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1992
EMPLOYEES: 4
ANNUAL SALES: $250,000

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