From Jedi to Gladiator

©Armand Serrano.
Back in 2001, I gave a talk at my kids school about animation. My daughter's classmates asked me to draw something Star Wars for them. So I did this quick sketch of Obi Wan and Darth Maul in a duel. I made copies and gave them to everyone in the class. Later, I was asked to join a union exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art and my son proded me to paint that sketch. A Jedi duel was not exactly what I had in mind but I didn't want my son to feel bad either. So I compromised. I took the pose from the duel and turned them into gladiators in the arena. We both ended up happy with the result. I titled the artwork "Secutor and Retiarius". These are two different types of gladiators. A Secutor is known for it's fighting move which is to chase the opponent. It has a wide round helment with tiny eye holes. He wears either a leather or metal bands on his right arm and carries a short sword called the gladius. He also has a shield and leg guard. A Retiarius on the other hand is literally translated as the "net man" or a fisherman. He uses a trident and a net to catch and fight the opponent. Sometimes they use a neck guard and fights completely naked (don't want to be on that side!). This combination is a favorite in the arena. Anyway, the artwork made it to the exhibit together with two other gladiator paintings. This was done in oil on 22"x26" canvas (photo was enhanced in photoshop).

Achish Briefs Goliath

©Armand Serrano/Redeemer Films.

Again, this is another moment from my indie live action project.

Brother Bear Layouts

©Disney.
A couple of Brother Bear BG Layouts. The first image was for the scene when Kenai wakes up for the first time as a bear. I forgot what the second one was for.

Sony Pictures Animation Lobby

A month prior to the opening day of Open Season, I was given the task together with my friend, Marcelo Vignali to design our new lobby. The lobby of the new Sony animation building, other than a very small logo and a few tiny framed artworks, was practically empty at the time. The task was surprisingly given to both of us and the most important thing is to have a wall showing the process of animation here at Sony. I'd say it was a challenging task. We had to figure out everything from artworks, layout, to what kind of frames and matte color to be used. It was a tedious month for both of us but very rewarding at the end. Our friend Marcos Mateu gave us a much needed helping hand on doing the finishing touches. Well here's a photo of our month-long endeavor.

El Pacifico - "Cabrera!"

©Armand Serrano 2006.
My latest posting on El Pacifico is out. Our pirates are approaching the coast of the island of Cabrera and somehow Dinga-man knows what to expect. Enjoy.

SURF'S UP Trailer!

Hello all! The very first Surf's Up trailer is debuting in front of Open Season. You can already view the trailer by clicking here. It's spectacular!...penguins don't dance, they surf!

Goliath

©Armand Serrano/Redeemer Films.
This artwork is done in Photoshop and if you want to see the step-by-step process for this, check out the Character Design Blog. Also featured there is an inteview and a few more artworks.

On another note...
Ladies and gentlemen! my good friend MARCOS MATEU just uploaded his long awaited blog. Check it out, it's amazing! Click here to see Marcos' blog.

Workbook Series #3: Lilo & Stitch Prologue

©Disney.
Greetings and yes, I'm still alive. Schedules has been hectic due to work, family visits and start of school. Haven't done any artworks other than work related so I decided to continue on my workbook series. Here's the Lilo & Stitch prologue that I did in 2001 and a bg layout for the sequence. I think I'm missing a few panels but you can still follow along with the story.

Lizard Troop 3

Here's a concept art of subterranean jungle lizard camp for the Lizard Troop.

747 in Honolulu

©Disney
I would like to supplement my friend Marcelo's posting on his blog regarding the 747 on Lilo & Stitch. The whole sequence was just completely done when 9/11 happened. Then the directors called for a layout meeting. They announced that we have to redo all the city shots and skycrapers and turn them into mountains. We have to abandon the first part of the sequence where Stitch is suppose to climb on-board the 747 cockpit and scares the pilots off the plane. Instead, we added a shot of Jumba reactivating his spacecraft "parked" in the jungle. Brian Jeffcoat, (which in fact, the one who patiently taught us how to do Maya in layout and one of the best I've worked with) redesigned the plane and turned it into Jumba's spacecraft keeping the prominent shapes and size of the 747 in order to reuse the existing animation. The challenge for us in layout is to make the new mountain bgs work with the existing 747 animation. So next time you watch the chase sequence, replace the mountains with skycrapers and the spacecraft with 747. Even the shot of the guy with the ice cream come is the same. But he was supposed to be crossing a busy street in downtown Honolulu with towering scycrapers around him when the plane comes by and hits his ice cream. They promised that this sequence would be in a special boxed DVD which until now we're still waiting to happen.

The artwork I have here (fig. 1) is when the 747 already landed and settled on the beach. It was a key backgound layout for the beach sequence with the aliens. The second one (fig. 2) is a screen grab from that sequence.

El Pacifico - "Hesus To The Rescue"

Check out my latest posting on El Pacifico.

Just A "Proud Dad" Ad

My youngest, Ysabella, recently completed photoshoots for Children's Place and Baby Style catalogues. Here's a Children's Place ad on the August issue of Parenting magazine. She's the one on the left. My two other kids, Hannah and Luke, attend Santa Clarita School of Performing Arts in Newhall, California. If your kids or you know someone who wants to do no non-sense acting lessons and living north of Los Angeles, I would highly recommend this school. You can check out their site here.