A "Proud Daddy" Ad Again

We went to the Old Navy shop in Valencia yesterday and were greeted by my youngest daughter's ad on the toddlers' section for sweaters (she's the curly haired one on the left and right). She did a two-day shoot for this two months ago in Culver City and didn't expect for it to come out in stores till fall. Sorry guys but can't help to post another proud daddy ad. Take care you all.

Space Dock

Seldom I draw sci-fi art and I admit I'm very picky and selective about it. I have a few hours of downtime at work so might as well be productive and do a practice. My goal in this piece is to show a design that I haven't seen before but within the boundaries of believability. It's a dock and a town built on what's left of a moon where space sailors could hang out. Anyway, I'm happy on how it turned out and thanks to Marcelo and Simon for their constructive comments. Now go back to work.

Comic-Con Surf's Up Book Signing

You are all invited to to stop by the Sony Pictures booth this Friday, July 27, 2-4 pm at the 2007 San Diego Comic Convention. Paul Lasaine, Marcelo Vignali and myself will be there to do a Surf's Up book signing session. The Sony booths are located at 4137 and 4419.

Tropical Jungle Design Part 1 - Surf's Up

©Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures.
Part of my job in Surf's Up was to design the interior of the jungle. The task was to create a sequence illustration that would visually represent the whole jungle sequence. The middle and bottom images were part of my very early studies for the elements that would populate the jungle. The verticality of the vines appeals to me big time and decided to use them a lot. Also, photos from a hiking trip in the jungles of Palawan back in 1992 in the Philippines came in very handy to remember the experience of how it is inside a dense tropical rainforest. The product is the illustration on top where Geek travels with Cody back to his secret home.

Surf's Up!

©Sony Pictures Animation.
Finally after three years, here it is! Definitely the best looking animated film that came out in the last couple of years. Enjoy the movie.

Surf's Up Book

©Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures.
If you haven't gotten it yet, head on to Barnes & Nobles or Amazon and
grab Surf's Up - The Art and Making Of A True Story. It has loads of visual development pieces from the earliest concept designs to designing the waves. Here's a sample of my artwork inside - one of the main characters sitting on his ritualistic sandcastle while chanting to call the waves. Done in prismacolor on vellum. Enjoy the book. Below is the original Surf's Up design team doing research atthe Quicksilver surfing competition in San Onofre, California back in summer 2004. (l-r) Sylvain Deboissy, Paul Lasaine, Marcelo Vignali, Armand Serrano, and Ron Lukas.
Make a note on your calendars - movie comes out in the US and Canada on June 8. For worldwide release dates, click here.

Carved Temple

A recent practice piece that actually started as a doodle in Photoshop playing around with the idea of a carved temple inspired by Petra. But instead of being carved from a rock, a temple is carved from a massive tree. Anyway, it's a visdev idea that might come in handy for another project in the future.

Dense Jungle 2

This is another practice jungle piece for lighting snd composition using mid-ground elements for framing. Done in Photoshop.

The Empty Tomb

Easter is here and what a great opportunity to illustrate the origin of this very significant celebration - the empty tomb. This is my depiction of the dawn after the stone was rolled away for all to see that the Savior has risen from the dead. This is a fun one hour Photoshop session and I only used two colors - green and red. As red echoes the death on the cross, green swallows it up with hope and new life.
Happy Easter to all.

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.