Finding Nemo's lead animator Dan Lee has died at the age of 35 after a 17-month battle with lung cancer.
The Pixar Animation Studio's employee passed away on January 15 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, California - after enjoying an illustrious career working as a sketch artist, character designers and animator on a range of top cartoons including A Bugs Life and Toy Story 2.
Finding Nemo's director Andrew Stanton says: "Dan was a longtime member of our Pixar family. He single-handedly designed Nemo and has been a major influence at Pixar. Dan was a wonderful, irreplaceable, talented human being, and we miss him terribly."
Pixar's technical director Carmen Ngai adds: "He was a very talented guy. I don't know if he knew how actually talented he was."