Sunday, January 13, 2008

Surf's Up - SURFBOARDS Part 2

My friend Simon Rodgers (Sim-R) already warned me to post something or else... So here's my second installment on the Surfboard design for Surf's Up which by the way is nominated for Oscar Awards in two weeks for best animated film together with Ratatouille and Persepolis. Again, this is a surfing movie and it's a privilege to be the one to design the surfboards for the entire film.


Tank's approved surfboard above came a long way. Looking at these designs below, using his tatoo patterns and very fancy colored boards were tried. But the simpler "Jaws" motif was decided to be the best route to go.




The Japanese surfer's board was a hoot. I started with the obvious - Japanese WW2 patterns. I thought I hit the homerun till our senior 3d visdev modeler, Takao, said this could be very offensive to our Japanese friends. So I went for the high tech penguin version of a surf board which the directors liked. The characters painted on the board (which ended up on the big screen) means "Hannah Rules" - Hannah is my oldest daughter.






We have an Australian dude named Rory which the board design was based from aboriginal tribal patterns on boomerangs.




Last one on the list was the Brazilian surfer whose board has a shark bite. I love how it ended up on he big screen when art director Ron Lukas added loose shark teeth still embedded on the board.

23 comments:

Alessandra Sorrentino said...

It definitely looks like you had fun doing that! :) Gorgeous work on shapes and textures.
Oh I wish I could surf one day, don't really have big waves in Italy...well don't have big sharks either...

Marcos Mateu said...

These are great Armand, I already loved so much the display of designs
you came up with for the boards back then, and I still think they are sensational!

cristian said...

Awesome work, sir, amazing shapes and cool designs on all the boards!!
Great stuff, your posts are really impressive and interesting. Thanks!

Shuku said...

Go Armand! These are absolutely beautiful designs. I love the sharkbite board. Seems so...so...I dunno it just seems so fitting that sharks would try to eat that. And the Japanese surfer penguin's board is a scream. My favourite bit is 'Water jets out here while skiing'. I'd want a surfboard like that too!

We can surf here actually...hmm. Nah. Better stick to fencing; there are no sharks in that (except people with pointy objects.)

--Shuku

Seth Hippen said...

I love these designs, Armand! I wish Tatsui's board could've had the big unveiling like they had in the plans at one point, 'cause it's so cool.
I love that you got a shout out to your daughter in the movie. I did too, but I'm not telling you where!

flaviano said...

this is character design too! i think every style is part of every character.
and the trophy design is lovely too! nice idea the female names

Armand Serrano said...

Thanks guys. Glad that I could share these to everyone.

Ale,

Never surfed myself till Surf's Up. My goodness..now have a whole new respect for surfers.

Armand Serrano said...

Seth,

Glad to hear from you. Next we have lunch, I have to know where you hid it.

Jeff Harter said...

Wow, extensive! Thanks for sharing!

Dave Dick said...

Amazing designs! Congrats on the super deserved nominations!

Random Guy said...

Your work is really amazing! Very cool designs!

Philip Dimitriadis said...

Great designs here Armand, really nicely thought out and displayed.
You make it look so easy. This really looks like a lot of fun.
Love seeing this work from Surfs Up. take care,
Phil

Anonymous said...

'bout time !

Cool stuff Armand . Glad to see the movie grab a few annies also . Yup - it's a surfing movie .. It certainly has the heart and soul of one .

Alessandra Sorrentino said...

Hey Armand, thanks for your kind comment :)
Congratulations for all the awards Surf's Up just got, you guys definitely deserve this success.
Take care my friend.
Alessandra

Anonymous said...

Great designs.

Unknown said...

It’s great to see so much new stuff! I love how you were able to make the design of each character’s board specific to their character traits. Can’t wait for the next post!

NICOLAS P. VILLARREAL said...

These desings are great Armand! You guys did a great job on this movie. It became one of my favorite ones. Congratulations for all the awards!

Salud!

abeoh! said...

great stuff man!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Awesome board designs Armand !! I'd find it hard to choose a best one !!

sophan said...

cant wait to see this movie!

Elisabeth Nogales said...

beautiful!!! kiss eli.

Armand Serrano said...

Again, thanks for the comment everyone. I wish Quicksilver could take notice and make actual boards out of these designs.

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