With the deft strokes of a computer mouse Rachel Tiep-Daniels can transform a conceptual drawing into a three-dimensional world that provides the stage for the action in an animated film.

"It’s kind of like sculpting, but you’re in a computer," said Sudbury native Tiep-Daniels, who creates sets and backgrounds in computer animation.

A visual development artist for DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles, Tiep-Daniels’s latest animated movie, "Kung Fu Panda," opens nation-wide on June 6. The film stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and a host of other major actors who provide the voices for the characters.

"I’m proud to be on the film with so many amazing artists," said Tiep-Daniels who attended the premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood last week. "I decided not to watch any of the screenings because I wanted to be surprised. The movie was beautiful and amazing. Everything I hoped it would be."

Tiep-Daniels said that her work area, where she sits surrounded by four computer screens and an art desk "looks like I’m in a space ship." She is able to model the characters into three-dimensional images from an original concept drawing and can paint and draw on the screens to create the environments, or backgrounds, for the film. Creating the environments and characters is the job of a modeler.

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