Monday, December 17, 2007

Surf's Up - SURFBOARDS Part 1

One of the most exciting tasks I was given in Surf's Up was to design the surfboards (all except for one, the ice board which was designed by my good friend Marcelo Vignali). Here's my first installment showing designs for the Shrine, Geek/Big Z, Cody, Lani, Chicken Joe and the generic competition (Reggie's) boards. All my board designs are completely done digitally in color with suggested textures using photoshop on top of backgrounds painted by Paul Lasaine, Joty Lam and Noelle Triaureau and characters by Sylvain DeBoissy. All images ©Sony Pictures Animation.


Above: What's left of the surfboard from Big Z's "accident" were put together and turned it into a shrine. Below: My concept for the Big Z board that was used in the film was it's a part of him being "one" with the board. So I used the same flower pattern on his body for the design on his board and it worked.



These next concept designs for Big Z's old boards are based from long boards and patterns used in the 30's-40's. Somehow, long boards for me, signifies age, experience and stability which are what Big Z was all about.




Cody's board has to be plain and simple to stand out and since he built it from scratch with Big Z from a log.


For the earlier concept designs, I used the pointed short board for Cody to show his restless personality and speed.


You'll notice that for Lani, I used a pattern from one of Big Z's shrine concept boards above which has the typical Polynesian "Lilo & Stitch" feel. She uses a medium board which for me signifies a combination of both speed and stability.


The first concept I had for Chicken Joe's "cornboard" was an actual sliced corn cobb that he uses as surfboard. Can you see the "hidden" liger underneath paying homage to his previous Napoleon Dynamite character.


Then for the one used in the film, I figured that since Chicken Joe lives in the backwoods, their surfboard design never changed through the years so the shape of his board was patterned from the old longboards with flat tips circa 1920's. Notice the hammer marks and nails sticking out on the deck.


Reggie is a very flashy, flamboyant promoter so the surfboards he issues to surfers have to reflect his personality. That's why they're painted with bright colors (has the plastic feel like Reggie's character) and has his logo (which is his face) on each one (for he's full of himself). Again short board is my choice to show speed and competition.



More surfboards to come and HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL...

32 comments:

Shuku said...

Armand these are just beautiful! There's so much character in the boards; I love how you use the different designs and colours to give a little more insight into the characters.

--Shuku
5 days to Christmas Play

Armand Serrano said...

Thanks Shuku and more power to your Christmas play.

Marcelo Vignali said...

I sure wish someone would hire you to make these boards in real life! Can you imagine surfing on a real cornboard?

You did an outstanding job on these board designs.

Philip Dimitriadis said...

Armand, great designs and good variations here!!! Nicely thought out. (Great way of thinking for modeling). Nice work!!!

Andrew Bosley said...

Hey Armand! Really cool stuff! It must be fun to take all that is a character and design an object to represent that personality. And surfboards--How fun is that! Thanks always for sharing! Hope you and your family are well.

g1toons said...

real fun designs i like how each board compliments its owner nice

Mark McDonnell said...

Nice man!!!!

I dropped into wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I got lost for 10 minutes wandering image to image. Beautiful work Armand . . .you still make me smile and move closer to the monitor. It's very nice to see your digital work and the mastery of your color sense now. It's been a good few years, always impressive work my friend.

I wish you and your family a happy and healthy Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Tim was kind enough to leave a nice statement . . he's a pretty talented and amazingly diverse creative spirit. My best to you and your family Armand.

God Bless,

MAC

Anonymous said...

Cool designs Armand . Lots of variety and choices .

Looking forward to seeing what you turn out in the new year - something epic I'm sure ;)

Alessandra Sorrentino said...

Armand, you did an amazing job designing these boards. This way props and details can give a lot more to the story and the audience, providing precious informations about the characters and how they are connected to each other. I was also very impressed when I saw how Paul designed the different kind of wave track for each character. You guys are an incredible team! ;)
Keep that up!

Dave Dick said...

Beautiful and thoughtful designs Armand!
Merry Christmas to you too!

Martin Wittig said...

Oh man! These are so cool!! Fantastic work as always!! Happy Holiday's, and I will be back soon for more inspiration:)

Marco Bucci said...

great stuff man. I love how an object so simple gets the Armand treatment! You can see that this was a fun project.

A. Riabovitchev said...

Armand,Amazing work !So many great ideas.
I wish you and your family Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!:o)

C.Deboda said...

Great post! Nice seeing the thought process in the designs of these boards. Needless to say, great job on them. And a happy holidays to you too.

Hans said...

Hey Armand,

Thanks for stopping by. Yeah I'm still around, though my blog has been standing still for way too long. I have some personal projects I'm starting up in the new year and will definitely get back into some blogging again soon.
Those board designs looks awesome, it must've been fun to work on. It's cool to see the many different designs you've come up with. I really like the corn board!
How's your film project coming along?

Best wishes and happy holidays to you and your family and have a happy New Year!!

Hans

SCOTT CAPLE said...

Hey Armand,
Thanks for the comments, and same to you.. Gotta keep warm up here!
RE: the post; guess i oughta buy that book!

scott

Billy George said...

Those are awesome Armand! My kids are big fans of the movie and they loved seeing this post with all your the boards. The corncobb board rules!

Hope you and your family have a great Christmas!

Unknown said...

Armand, it was great meeting you the other day. Your work is inspiring! I'll make sure I stop by next year on one of the sketch club sessions.

Pc man said...

Beautiful!!!

Paco K.

blabla said...

wounderful boards! I simply loved that movie!

Germán said...

Amazing work. Surf´s Up is one of my favourite movies, I really like how the production design is serving the story and characters.

Happy New year, man!

Tim Bye said...

Amazing work Armand! Really impressive and fun!

Erwin Madrid said...

These are great and beautiful movie! Thanks for sharing.

Wayne Porter said...

i really love your work! your designs are stellar and i am very inspired by you artrage piece. i have never heard of the program, but i am going to text it out for sure! take care!

Chris Wahl said...

Haha. Wow, what a fun job that must have been.

Great work.

Unknown said...

Great to see all the concept arts!

Kei Acedera said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kei Acedera said...

Wow, so much work was put in the boards--they're wonderfully designed! The corncob board so clever! I really enjoyed the movie too. Congrats!

Alfred Llupia said...

Fantastic development job Armand.Each design have personality.I hope you had a beautiful christmas.Greetings.

Alessandra Sorrentino said...

hey there Armand, just dropping a line to say hi :)
hope all is well over there! ciao ciao
Ale

Simon Scales said...

Fantastic stuff...really great seeing all this behind the scenes Surf's Up work...keep it coming!!!

Armand Serrano said...

Thanks, everyone.