SURF'S UP Trailer 2 in HD

©Columbia Pictures.
Here's a better site for the second trailer in Quicktime HD. Click the image to watch.

SURF'S UP Film Clip

©Columbia Pictures.
By the way, you can view the new second trailer at THIS SITE. Enjoy

Dense Jungle

©2006 Armand Serrano.
I've notice that I've been designing a lot of foliage and organic elements for features in the past six or seven years. As of last month, I'm officially doing visdev on "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" for Sony which is slated for 2009. And the first production task I have to do is design two environments heavy on foliage. Why am I not surprised! Anyway, so I've been busy lately with work, at the same time doing the final editing for the music video and finishing up the script for my David and Goliath project on the side. So for now, I'm posting another practice piece which I did last year. I love playing around with foreground elements using them to create another "aspect ratio" for my shot. The intention for this practice is to make the elements graphically designed yet dimentional and not to feel like "cut-outs". Lighting plays a big part as always.

Tonal Sketches for Mulan

©Disney.
My little daughter watches Mulan over and over again and everytime I glance at the TV, I still can't help but watch and enjoy it over again myself. It's such a beautiful movie and brought back a lot of memories and artworks in mind. Seeing some shots that I did, I went through my files and dug up these two artworks what we used to call tonal sketches. Whenever we finished a cleanup layout, we used to include also a smaller composite drawing complete with tonal renderings of both bg and animation pose. This represents how we see the complete layout on the screen and the basis for the background painting. These were done in pencil and grey pantone markers on heavy animation paper ten years ago!

Music Video 2 - Boards and Stills

We edited the first half of the video over the weekend and here's a side by side comparison of some of the storyboard panels to the corresponding production stills.

Music Video

Last weekend, I directed a music video for a joint project of Santa Clarita School of Performing Arts and a junior high school in Valencia, CA. It's a hip-hop song titled "Listen" geared towards the teens and young adults regarding the importance of listening and diversity. These are some of the storyboard drawings I did.
It was a two-day shoot with a little over a hundred cast and crew and three months preparation. My friends from DSI Studios brought their talent and equipment all the way from Long Beach. We shot everything in anamorphic widescreen 24P HD. Lighting and grip equipment courtesy of Pat Christman and his crew. I have to give it to my wife, Bing, the associate producer, for managing very well the logistics of the production especially feeding that many people for two days. I don't usually put photos on my blog but I'll make an exception. By the way, photos courtesy of my good friend, Aixa Deluca, the official photographer. Below are some pictures during production. Now, we'll be in post production at DSI.

(Above, clockwise from left: me, assistant director Mike Merrill, DP Paul Olson, and 2nd unit director Marc Hampson; we used 2 Panasonic HVX200; my wife, Bing, at work; on the set day 2.

My DSI friends: (left to right) Paul Olson, myself, Aaron Fairley, Marc Hampson, and John Olson during a break. For complete photos on the video shoot, click here.

Visual Development Class

I'll be offering a mentorship program on visual development in animation for both students and professionals which will start next month. This will be in the Valencia area of Los Angeles and here are the details.

Class will be Fridays 7-9 pm starting March 9 to April 27 at the Santa Clarita School of Performing Arts 23502 Lyons Ave., Suite 106, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

CURRICULUM

Week 1 • March 9 • Research
Week 2 • March 16 • Design Explorations
Week 3 & 4 • March 23 & 30 • Visual Storytelling
April 6 • Good Friday • No Class
Week 5 & 6 • April 13 & April 20 • Background Design
Week 7 • April 27 • Portfolio Preparation

Cost $700.00

Since this is a personalized mentorship program, space is very limited. Click here or email to artist@armandserrano.com your name and contact number to register and you will be given payment instructions. Payment accepted through Paypal or personal check.
Note: This is a first come first serve basis. Please email only if you're serious in taking the class. Bring your own drawing materials. Any medium of preference is accepted (eg. graphite, markers, laptop with tablet, etc.).

Click here to see poster in my website

Castle

A practice artwork. Going back to the basics of shapes and the importance of values for color and composition.

Bird Kingdom

©Armand Serrano 2006.
An artwork for an animation idea I pitched last year.

Another Proud Daddy Ad

Happy new year to you all and it's good to be back here in LA. I'm starting up this year with another proud daddy ad. My youngest, Ella did her fourth print ad and second for Babystyle catalogue. I know I know I'm bragging again but hey what the heck, this is my daughter and I'm very proud of all my kids' accomplishments. This was shot just before Christmas and here're the URLs if you want to see the online catalogue:

http://www.babystyle.com/
http://www.babystyle.com/content/baby/main.asp
http://www.babystyle.com/common/dProductFrame.asp?ClassID=3933
http://www.babystyle.com/common/dProductDetail.asp?pmid=21157&dept=1&sc=2306

I believe this will run until spring. Enjoy.

O Come Let Us Adore Him!

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. " (Luke 2:8-16)

Below is the step by step from the rough stage. I want to come up with a composition not commonly seen. We always see the wise men especially on Christmas cards but what about the shepherds? They were the first ones on the manger. Baby Jesus has to be in the center but above the shepherds so it has to be a downshot. Mary and Joseph will frame the baby. Lastly, I want to imagine the feeling the moment the shepherds open the door having a glimpse of the Savior for the very first time. As soon as I applied "ink", I realised that the arm of the shepherd on the door became too strong and interesting taking away my eye from the main subject. So I deleted it and instantly, the scene felt calmer.

I'll be on vacation for two weeks so I bid you all fellow bloggers Merry Christmas and a joyful new year! May you all have a wonderful holiday season. Be back next year.

Workbook Series #4: Lilo & Stitch "Aloha 'Oe" Sequence Part 1

©Disney.
Schedule has been pretty busy so Im posting a workbook series for now. This is the most tender moment and probably the longest sequence in Lilo & Stitch. I'll save the other half for next time. You may notice that some of the shots has been modified. Nani is bidding farewell to Lilo by singing "Aloha 'Oe". Originally, we have Cobra Bubbles pull up into the driveway. He saw this emotional moment and decided to leave to come back the next day. So here is the original workbook version that I did and it's easy to follow along with the story. Also posted is the rough layout for the establishing shot of the hammock.