Memories: Disney Florida Layout Crew

Happy new year! Browsing through my old photo files, I found these memorable photos of the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida layout crew. Above was taken at the inauguration of the "brand new" animation building right after Mulan c. 1998. (l-r): Tom Humber, Richard Livingston, Kevin Proctor, Jeff Dickson, Norbert Maier, Armand Serrano, Bill Hodman, Andy Harkness, amd Arden Chan.
This was taken right before were done laying Brother Bear out. It was at the Coronado Resort in Disney World after a layout lunch. (l-r standing): Richard Livingston, Scott Kersavage, Robh Ruppel, Andrew Hickson, Joanne Tsuzanos, Craig Grasso, Bill Hodman, Andy Harkness, Tom Dow, Tom Humber, Billy George. (l-r seated): Mike, Franc Reyes, Jeff Dickson, Brian, George Villaflor, Armand Serrano, and Kevin Proctor (not in photo: Peter Deluca) c. 2002. Great crew...miss them all.

Christmas Begins With Christ

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14 written c. 758 BC)

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. " (Micah 5:2 written c. 710 BC)

"A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 written c. 600 BC)

Here's the Christmas story told with three of over three hundred Old Testaments prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus Christ. The first was completed when Jesus was born from a virign, Mary (Matthew 1:18-25). The second was his birth in a small town of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1). And the third was fulfilled when the Magi didn't report back to Herod the Great where the child was born. Fearing the throne will be taken away from him by the Messiah, Herod ordered the slaughter of all male children two years old and under. By this time, Jesus was taken to Egypt by his earthly parents, Joseph and Mary (a fulfillment of another prophecy). The probability of one being fulfilled in one man is 1 in 10 million. The probability of eight being fulfilled is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. It blows me away that the probability that over three hundred prophecies being fulfilled in one man are incomprehensible. The birth of Jesus Christ is truly the hinge in human history! Fulfilling the old covenant and ushering us to the new, from BC to AD! For two thousand years, no Herod "can put the God man down". Amazing.

May the true meaning of this season be with you all. Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year!

Paintings are all done in PS.

Beauty & The Beast

©Armand Serrano.
A different take on Belle and the Beast. We we're at the dental clinic for my daughter yesterday morning and they were showing this favorite film of mine which I haven't seen for a while. Got inspired and thought that it would be refreshing to see a different take on it. Here it is all done in PS.

Dirigible

©Armand Serrano.
Been busy helping out on our Hotel T. project here at Sony that's why I haven't posted for a few weeks. Anyway, here's an image of an airship that for some reason I kept seeing in my mind while driving home yesterday. So late last night, I grabbed my pen and did it in PS.

Pyramid...maybe?

©Armand Serrano.
Just another quick doodle in PS.

Equites

©Armand Serrano.
This is a traditional painting I did back in 2002 for our annual union exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art during my Disney years. Equites were gladiators on horseback. Traditionally, they were the first ones to compete in games, rode a white horse and only fight their own kind. Oil on canvas 18"x24".

Falls

©Armand Serrano.
A very quick doodle of a water falls in PS.

Lizard Troop Revisited

©Armand Serrano.
New images for an old personal project. Been revisiting my old story projects and looking into pitching one or two at the studio. I'm also thinking on the possibility of compiling them into a book together with all the artworks. We'll see.

Aqueduct

©Armand Serrano.
Another sleepless night last night so I decided to doodle in photoshop that turned out to be an aqueduct.

Doodles

©Armand Serrano.
A couple of personal thumbnail studies of light for a piece I'm working on.

This is a bit different than my usual post. I'll be sitting in as drummer for my friend's alternative band HiRise for their show this Saturday (since their drummer is on a business trip...but hey who knows...). Anyway, anyone who's in the Long Beach area and up for some good coffee, live music ( and good hookah if you're into it ), you're invited. Admission is free and all ages are welcome. I'll try to post some videos of the show next week (if they turn out good).

Surf's Up - Designing Big Z Beach

All Images ©Sony Pictures Animation.
Designing Surf's Up's "North" beach where Big Z lives was one of earliest tasks I had to undertake in the film and evolved through different designs. Here are some of them. Above is the approved sequence illustration for the "feel" on how Cody sees the place for the very first time. Cody character on the foreground was done by Sylvain DeBoissy.

Here's one of my favorite shots in the film. I designed the extreme down shot from Cody's POV on the cliff before he went down to the beach.

Now this one is the earliest aerial shot I did in order to map out the beach based from different story beats. The tall waterfalls on the left was supposed to be a sacred pond where Cody has to do his "karate kid" moment with Big Z and climbs to the top. Also if you notice right on the middle is a bluff where big Z does his beach chanting and be "one" with the waves. On top of a hill are two openings on the ground with smoke coming out which are the lava tube entrances. Towards the right is the main beach where Big Z's house (the huge banyan tree) and boardshack (bent palm) are located. Lastly, at the very tip of the island on the right is a surfboard shaped rock where Big Z is supposed to reveal himself to Cody.



Above are very early design explorations for his beach. Notice Big Z's pad and boardshack on the first two images. The third one are thumbnails to find the right shapes.





These last five images are the final approved design for the beach. Notice the sacred pond is still there. It was taken out later in production. Last two are elevations showing how rocks at the north shore used to form one huge monolith and eroded through the years. Enjoy.