Evolution of Hotel Transylvania Teaser Poster

Poster design for an animated film in a big studio is a bit tricky. We collaborate with the marketing department and they have the creative control. My task for the Hotel Transylvania poster is to lay down the ground work based from the idea/images (below) provided by marketing. Above are the designs I came up with.

My images were accepted by marketing and had their own artists do some final changes and add the necessary details. Here's the final version.

All images ©Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures

Hotel Transylvania's Newest Trailer

Click to see the newest trailer.

"Meet Ze Artists" Event

I'll be speaking at the Tigobo Animation's MEET ZE ARTIST event at the Titmouse Cartoon studio in Hollywood on August 3rd. For more info, click here.

iPad Paintings: ProcreateHD and ArtRage Apps

First two artworks were done using my new favorite art app, Procreate HD. It has the easiest-to-use interface among painting apps out there. Plus amazing brushes and paint tools. It's hi res capability is perfect for the new iPad retina display. The third painting was done with ArtRage app. Artrage carried over its strong oil texture and behavior to this mobile app version. Fun.

All images ©Armand Serrano.

"Hotel Transylvania" Teaser!

A couple of "teaser" artworks for you from Sony's upcoming animated feature Hotel Transylvania coming out September 23. Have a glimpse of the Invisible Man at the concierge on the first image. Click here for trailer.

All images ©Sony Pictures Animation / Columbia Pictures.

Ron Lukas' Blog

My good friend Ron Lukas has a blog now! Ron is an amazing painter and art directed several animated feature films both for Sony and Dreamworks. Check his blog out and enjoy.

http://www.ronlukas.blogspot.com/

Late Nights...

©Armand Serrano.

Backyard

Compared to the epic, fantastic and fictional grand vistas, the simple and ordinary locations become more challenging to design. The battle is taking the ordinary and common and transform them into something fresh and interesting. Its a balance of shapes, composition, amount of stylization, and lighting. In laying out the location shot, its very crucial to do it and solve all the issues in values to establish the foundation for proper lighting and color. Here's an exercise I did and I want to share including the step by step. Both were done using only two preset brushes in PS - a hard brush for the sketch and my favorite no. 19 brush for wash. Enjoy. 

Backyard-1

Backyard-2

All images ©Armand Serrano.

Bayer TV Ad

A beagle made up of fleas! a design I did a while back for a Bayer TV commercial. Goal is how to make this concept not so disgusting...  ^_^

All images ©Armand Serrano.

Harmony Procedural Drawing Tool

A few years ago, I was introduced to this procedural drawing tool called Harmony by mrdoob.com. Like any other tools, it was difficult to begin with. No undo button. But once I got used to the behavior, it's fun. Here are some of my early doodles. I even used this tool for some design work at the studio. Enjoy.

All images, ©Armand Serrano.

Disney Visit

With good friends I used to work with at the Disney Animation Studios during a recent visit before the holidays. So much memories I have with Disney after working on four feature films between 1997-2004. (l-r) Andy Harkness, Ruben Aquino, Bing Deogracias-Serrano, me, James Finch and Jim Finn.

Arthur Christmas 3: The Hangar and Mission Control

All images©Sony Pictures Animation.