O Holy Night...

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of Our dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world In sin and error pining,
'Til He appear'd And the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope The weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks A new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

Truly He taught us To love one another;
His law is love And His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break For the slave is our brother;
And in His name All oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy In grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us Praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory Evermore proclaim.
His power and glory Evermore proclaim.

"Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat at manigong bagong taon!"

A Quick Doodle: Underground

©Armand Serrano.
Done in PS.

Nomad Gallery

I'll be part of the Nomad Gallery "Snowball Fight" exhibit this Saturday, 5th December 2009, 5-7pm. It will be held at the Los Angeles Meeting and Event Center, 10601 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90232. Tel: 310.597.9670. If you want to purchase prints of my artworks in the exhibit, go to www.themightynomad.com.

Hybrid

©Armand Serrano.
A quick doodle which I would call a hybrid since I painted it using Brushes app on my iPod Touch then up-resed, highlighted and detailed in photoshop. Took me 45 minutes total for the whole process.

iPod Touch/iPhone Paintings 7: Portraits, Etc.

Trying to bring this neat app into the next level for me by making tiny original portraits. The one above of Napoleon, was my very first attempt and turned out a bit stiff but the lighting works. I was happy with the next two (the lady and the corporal) when strokes were much looser.




These next ones were fun doodles. Over the holidays gave me an opportunity to doodle more on my iPod Touch everywhere I go and lovin' it. Except for putting them all together in Photoshop, all artworks are purely Brushes and no alterations made outside the app. A couple of these portraits will be included in Nomad Gallery exhibit I'm involved in next week. More exhibit details coming next. Enjoy.

All images ©Armand Serrano. All rights reserved.

Happy Thanksgiving To All!

I thank God for what He has done and is still doing in my life. Today and every single day, I intentionally never take for granted, thank God and be content for the blessings of life, family, friends, health, talent, job, etc...
Have a wonderful thanksgiving to all!
Enjoy your turkey...or chicken...

iPod Touch/iPhone Paintings 6: Brushes App vs. Sketchbook Mobile App

Man, I can't say how slow Sketckbook Mobile app is! When I just started blocking this one, Sketchbook crashed on me. I had to delete the app and reload from my iTunes for it to work. It was definitely a test of patience. What a relief when I added the ships using Brushes. Everything moved so smoothly...and much much faster. Hopefully Autodesk address these issues when they create an update. Brushes app is still the choice for me. More Brushes App below:



These were couple of doodles of views from our window at the studio.






All images ©Armand Serrano.

iPod Touch/iPhone Painting 5: Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile App

©Armand Serrano.
I started using this new app from Autodesk last week and got hooked since. Would it replace my favorite Brushes app for my Itouch paintings? Not yet. I still like the speed and very intuitive interface of Brushes. Sketchbook Mobile though has opened a whole new array of customizable tools that made me too excited and overlooked the slow responsiveness of the sliders. But after getting used to its interface, the slowness starts to bug me. Guess I need to be patient - for the price of $3, can't complain (Brushes is not bad too for its $5 tag). Anyway both these apps come in very handy when I have an itch to draw or paint anywhere, any time. Can't express more how useful sketching/painting on iTouch for me (still using my good old pointer finger) in thumb-nailing designs at the studio.
Next task: combining Brushes and Sketchbook Mobile apps cocktailed with PS Mobile. Stay tuned.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 3: Designing the Toast Boat, Classroom and School.

TOAST BOAT



CLASSROOM




ELEMENTARY SCHOOL







Still more to come...

©All images ©Sony Pictures Animation.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2: Designing the Roofless Restaurant, Spaghetti Twister, and Eiffel Tower

THE ROOFLESS

The Roofless was originally named Ralph's Roofless Restaurant (see if you can say that fast). The idea actually originated from the book. Since food falls from the sky, the restaurant sells utensils. I designed the interior with The Standard in LA in mind showcasing different utensils all around the place. The brightly lit tables somehow are paying homage to the legendary layout tables we used back in the days of 2D animation.






Below is my earliest design for the interior which was a quick thumbnail in PS having a bright colorful palette.



THE SPAGHETTI TWISTER

Here's an early concept design of the spaghetti tornado I did wrecking down the sardine cannery. Below are screen grabs of a 3D test with an animated spaghetti twister which I "retouched" to add a new NY skyline layout.

Here are the actual artworks I did based from that test above.


The design of the New York skyline was based from the artist Miroslav Sasek's style (remember the "This Is" childrens' book series) in his which we were alluding to early on in visual development. Same goes with Liberty. I noticed that his artworks has a slight general lean to the right meaning he's left handed. So I did the same. Kinda cool and added personality.



THE EIFFEL TOWER

These are very early concept designs that show the tower covered with pizza as well as the clouds. I designed these clouds with those tube-like formations where food supposedly would fall out from, and tendrils for fear factor. I made these tree studies thinking they might be useful for the same environment using Sasek's sensibilities but in a 3D volumetric form.





Still more to come next week...


All images ©Sony Pictures Animation.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 1: Designing the Jello Mold and Ice Cream Town

THE JELLO MOLD EXTERIOR




Designing Jello Mold was a totally fun task since right from the very start I knew it's going to be iconic for the film. The challenge: since we haven't seen a giant jello before, I have to check real kids' jello and observe how light reacts to its texture. The last image above, though, didn't make it to the movie due to story change. In the first version, Flint stuck himself inside the "deflated" rotten jello mold he originally built for Sam. The revised version was inside a garbage can instead which ended up in the film. Below are more jello designs.



THE JELLO MOLD INTERIOR





To cap the fun on the Jello Mold is the interior design. I haven't been inside a jello before. So to imagine what it's like in there is as challenging to me as to both the animators, who had to imagine jello's behavior when it's that big, and sound designers, who had to come up with how jello sounds in that scale.

THE ICE CREAM TOWN


The before and after approved versions of the ice cream sequence. Old houses and buildings around Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles and Culver City came in very handy for me in designing the neighborhood architecture. The ice cream covered version was kinda tricky. The ice cream had to be simple and very recognizable unlike the earlier version where I made them look like giant poop all over the town. Art Director Mike Kurinsky brilliantly added flavors and stripes on the final painted version.




To design the town, I had to come up with a way how to populate the area with the least amount of elements to be built in 3D. So I came up with three different L-shaped "Lego" blocks and interchangeably attached to each one creating different combinations that made up the whole town.

More to come next week...


All images ©Sony Pictures Animation.