Meet Danial Basyri: Animator, Drone Operator, Everything In Between
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After years of exploring different corners of the creative industry, Danial Basyri is finding out what happens when curiosity meets focus. Danial Basyri, more commonly known around the office as "DB", is a multidisciplinary creative whose work has taken him through animation, graphic design, photography, videography, 3D rendering, filmmaking, game development and drone operation. There are probably a few things missing from that list, too. He describes himself as “amphibious”, spending most of his time working alongside AICREATIVV’s creative team while occasionally capturing the real world from above. Now joining the team as an Animator and Drone Operator, DB is adding another first to an already varied creative career: working full-time in a creative agency.
Before AICREATIVV, much of DB’s career was spent freelancing and following his curiosity across different corners of the creative industry. His experience spans logo design, game development through his postgraduate studies and film production, including opportunities to contribute to projects connected with international names such as National Geographic through The Gula Anau Story, Nippon TV’s Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q! and CNN. As a research assistant, he also worked on the production of digital twins of Bruneian architecture and the feature documentary Wujud, adding to a journey that has earned him several awards and recognitions along the way. Despite the range of work, DB never set out with a carefully mapped plan to collect disciplines. More often, curiosity leads the way: he sees something interesting, wonders how it was made and wants to try it for himself.
A Little Bit of Everything
That curiosity is perhaps why DB has long identified with the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none.” Each new discipline has given him another way to express an idea, another tool to experiment with and another perspective he can carry into the next project. Being multidisciplinary has become an important part of the way he thinks creatively, but after years of working independently, joining AICREATIVV presented a different opportunity: instead of continuing to do a little bit of everything himself, what would happen if he had the space to focus?
Becoming part of a team means DB can now spend more time developing the areas he wants to push further, particularly 2D and 3D animation and drone operations. Where freelancing required him to balance the creative and administrative sides of his work, an agency environment allows him to put more of that energy into the output itself. It also means working alongside designers, copywriters and media practitioners who bring their own specialities into a project. Rather than his multidisciplinary background disappearing, it becomes something he can draw from while going deeper into a more focused role.
“I approach new projects with excitement because they give me a platform to experiment and push my limits.”
It was one of the things that drew DB to AICREATIVV in the first place. Beyond securing his first full-time role, he saw an environment where his existing skills could be put to use while his technical abilities continued to grow. There was also a larger ambition he felt aligned with: contributing towards a Bruneian creative scene capable of producing increasingly ambitious work and making its presence felt beyond the country.
Curiosity With Somewhere to Go
For DB, improving his own craft is part of contributing to that growth. He sees Brunei’s creative industry as one that continues to develop, with plenty of potential to push its work further onto regional and international stages. Experimentation, then, isn't simply about trying something because it looks interesting. It is also how he challenges himself to raise the quality of what he produces.
Some of his biggest influences demonstrate what that experimentation can look like. Fortiche, the animation studio behind Arcane, fascinates him for its approach to blending traditional 2D techniques with 3D animation. As someone working across both forms himself, DB sees the series as an example of the possibilities that emerge when creative disciplines aren't treated as rigidly separate. Red Bull inspires him for a slightly different reason. What resonates is the energy and personality behind a brand that continually finds new spaces to explore, particularly its use of FPV drone work in large-scale marketing stunts. To DB, both represent a willingness to push beyond what is already familiar, whether through a new technique, tool or way of approaching an idea.
That same attitude follows him into his work at AICREATIVV. DB doesn't want experimentation to exist for its own sake; he wants to find opportunities where his background in 3D modelling, VFX, compositing and animation can become part of something unexpected. One idea he already has comes from an unlikely comparison. To him, working at AICREATIVV can sometimes feel a little like Formula 1: fast-paced, constantly moving towards the next deadline, reliant on teamwork and always trying to remain competitive. He would love to turn that symbolism into a creative project of its own, using his skills to exaggerate agency life into something playful, quirky and unmistakably AICREATIVV.
In his element Showcasing his expertise to visiting studente
Going Deeper
There is another skill DB hopes to develop here that has much less to do with software, animation or flying a drone: endurance. Creative work can be demanding both physically and mentally, particularly when deadlines overlap or ideas don't come as easily as expected. Working alongside a team that has experienced those pressures gives him people to learn from, whether that means finding ways through creative blocks, adapting to more demanding projects or simply learning how to keep going without losing the curiosity that made the work exciting in the first place.
Perhaps that is why DB chose “enlightenment” to describe this chapter of his career. AICREATIVV marks his first milestone working full-time in an agency, but the significance goes beyond having a new title or working environment. It gives him access to different projects, perspectives and people while creating more opportunities to sharpen the skills he has spent years exploring independently.
For much of his creative journey, curiosity has encouraged DB to go wider: to try another discipline, learn another tool or see something interesting and immediately wonder whether he could make it himself. Joining a team isn't about leaving that multidisciplinary identity behind. If anything, it is giving him the opportunity to see what happens when all those different experiences are given a little more direction and a lot more room to develop.
DB is still curious, still experimenting and still looking for the next unfamiliar thing worth trying. Only now, all that curiosity has somewhere to grow.
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