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World-Building with Visual Development Artist Armand Serrano

With the aim of promoting and nurturing creativity among the young generation as well as inspiring them to bring forth their talents in this thriving creative era, The One Academy organised the Virtual International Design & Creative Masterclass, following last year’s successful stint. The live sharing this year saw onboard eight master experts from various industries connecting to a wider audience of secondary school students and industry players keen on broadening their perspectives.

The first speaker to kick off this month-long initiative that ran from April through May was Armand Serrano, a visual development artist, art director and production designer for animated feature films and games. In his sharing titled “Visual Development and Production Design for Animated Films & Games”, he presented on his working process, philosophies, several of his past projects and designing methods, to much awe from the audience.

Entering his 31^st year in the animation industry, the master expert described himself as an “accidental animation artist”, who has a background in civil engineering but forayed into the animation industry after discovering that animation was being outsourced in his home country, Manila, Philippines. Once he got in, he decided that being an animation artist was the career direction that he wanted to pursue, and he didn’t want to be an engineer anymore, related the current Production Designer at Skydance Animation.

During his expansive career, he has worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, Blizzard Entertainment, Riot Games, Blur Studio, Niantic, and more. Some of his well-known credits include for animated feature films such as Mulan, Surf’s Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Raya and the Last Dragon, and the upcoming Marvel Studio’s television series What If…?, just to name a few. He had also done work for games such as World of Warcraft, League of Legends and Hearthstone.

In animation where specialization splits between character design and environment design, Armand Serrano specializes in visual development for environment, also known as a world-builder who builds the world that the characters live in. He said that there are two things a world-builder should simultaneously be – a designer and a storyteller – the designs have to make sense and the story has to be believable. He also pointed out that the three factors of a successful animated film are: a compelling story, appealing characters and a believable world.

“Research is just whatever is the most effective way of learning the subject that you are going to tell the story of,” said Armand, who supplied that an environment designer has to wear different hats, such as a painter, architect, engineer and interior decorator.

“The best thing that I would always suggest to students to be able to create a solid portfolio is to create a story and make visual development from there. Find a story that would inspire you. It’s important to have a story because it will give you a clearer picture of what you have to do. If you don’t do research, it shows in your artwork,” he reiterated.

He also showcased the 3D workflow and his working process of using Adobe Photoshop as a staple tool to draw and paint by hand. To help him visualise other worlds and places, he uses the Virtual Reality Oculus Medium that allows him to be practically inside the virtual world, to gauge the scale as if in a real set. He then uses the Blender software to manipulate the lighting to create many facets of a scene.

“Talent alone is not enough, but discipline and hard work are important too. I call it the 4P’s, you have to practice, have perseverance, patience and lastly, it takes a lot of prayers, to get in and also stay in the industry,” advised Armand lastly. The session ended with a Q&A session with the audience, where Armand responded to their queries from a professional animator’s standpoint as well as giving helpful pointers and advice to aspiring animators.

The One Academy is committed to providing the best art education programmes and continues to nurture its students passionately through its “Masters Train Masters” coaching philosophy, which has been practised for the past three decades, by providing diploma and degree courses namely Advertising & Graphic Design, Digital Animation, Digital Media Design, Film Visual Effects, Interior Architecture & Design, Illustration, Fine Arts and Paris Fashion Design & Pattern Making. For more information on The One Academy, visit or call +603-7875 5510 or e-mail your enquiries to [email protected].