ROBIN HOOD project

I've worked on a personal take on the Robin Hood characters for a Kickstarter book project (Masters of Anatomy).
Here are a selection of concepts created before getting to the final designs for the book. They show a bit of my process when trying to nail the character for the story I have to tell. When I started I was looking for an interesting twist to it within the given limitations. Not an easy thing to achieve as it has been seen so many times. The moment I found my angle I worked out character personalities and ultimately the style I thought was appropriate for the tone. It has been a fun exercise considering the small scale of the project,  and I like some of the characters that came out of it.

An army of pigs and a flock of birds are landing in Italy!! Angry Birds Il Film arriva in Italia il 15 Giugno. Showing more artwork here:)

Some drawings to show how I transformed the Angry Birds  from the mobile game design to the characters that we see in the movie. I started exploring different visual grammars before defining the final one with the producers. I was a very exciting challenge to create a vision and translating the game character designs for the silver screen. More coming!!

 The image above is the final look of film released as first marketing image for the public. I finalized the characters in all their definitive details (from a look point of view) in this image.
BG design is by our production designer.

The development of Red as a final design and CG look took a lot of work and time. I'll describe the process  in a separate post:)

HAL: character design evolution from the mobile game to the movie screen

This is a progression of drawings that shows how I transformed the character HAL in THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE from the one the mobile game to a character that could perform and entertain an audience in the theater for two hours. 

Below is a 2d short that came out last month. and in wich Hal (Anthony Padilla) and Bubbles (Ian Hecox) have an existential crisis. ahha love these guys, enjoy!

More characters coming!

More ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE artwork

These are designs created for the Mighty Eagle 2d sequence. It was refreshing for me to work on a character that was going to be animated in 2d rather than translated in CG. For this sequence I pitched  to Directors and producers an Art Deco spin on the look of the character to amplify the sense of strength and dynamism of the caricatured Mighty Eagle that we need to visualize.
Luckily everybody liked it and got into production.
Here are some poses developed from the boards and some early character exploration of the 2d Mighty Eagle (background by Pete Oswald). Pete's background paintings were very inspiring to work with.
The illustration in the previous post is the image sold the Art Deco spin concept.

The Angry Birds Movie. Designs and art of book sneak peek

Such exciting times!Our movie is #1 in America so far and we are at the second week of release the upcoming weekend. Here are a few designs I did while Art Directing the Characters on the film. I'll start posting more regularly now that there is more time available.
Enjoy!

And here is a Vimeo Link to a sneak peek of The art of The Angry Birds Movie book.

 

Panel and signing book event happening Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles on Saturday June 4th 2016. See you there!

NEW: character Sketches from a project I worked on

for a book that got financed through kickstarter: Character Design Masterclass
I did many different designs for these characters before landing somewhere I was happy about.
The big guy is the one is going to be in the book in full color.
I had lots of fun on this project and I'm looking forward to see what other designers did!

Happy holiday season ya all!:) cuteness overload!

 while working on the cast of characters for The Angry Birds Movie,  one of the most fun moment was to design the hatch-lings ...and here they are...so cuuuuteee!:)

KICKSTARTER project! CHARACTER DESIGN MASTERCLASS with Masters of Anatomy starting NOVEMBER 17TH

I'll be part of this supercool book together with 130 artists. Some of them being my favorite designers in the industry. Its a massive volume with more than 1000 original character designs.  So Exciting! All the artists are designing characters for a great classic story: Robin Hood.
It's a great artbook to have for those who love character design. Check all the project's details here on the Masters of Anatomy website. The Kickstarter will take off on November 17th

Character design process: observational sketches

Another precious practice to help designing interesting characters is sketching from life. Lately I had the chance to do it more often and I love it:) And when I don't have the time to do much I try to squeeze in at least one drawing a day. It takes just a few minutes and it is an excellent habit.

A little video sample of part of my design process

This is just one way I like to go sometimes to find my characters. It's a great way to find fresh ideas. It helps me to avoid falling in my design habits. I draw a scribble on the page, or ask somebody else to do it, and then I look for interesting character shapes in it.
I find this technique a great exercise to do and lots of fun to practice.
I will use then these concept drawings as a start for further  exploration of the character.

Angry Birds Movie teaser trailer ! Enjoy!

I love it! Go Fergal and Clay!  Also after so much work on these characters I love how everything turned out!  The team at Sony Picture Imageworks did a fantastic job! So proud of the results. Go team! really can't wait to watch this movie in theaters now
 Enjoy!

The Book Of Life is among the contenders for the Oscar 2015 as best animated feature :D!

Really enjoyed working on the designs of Director Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua for their beautiful and bold film. Here are some samples from the art-book.

Current project I'm working on: The Angry Birds Movie

Finally the Angry Birds Movie first look image was released a few days ago:D I've been working on the characters for this film from early concept to final look/cg translation as as Character Designer and Character Art Director. I love this project:)...so much work and energy put in it by all our artists:) I feel extremely lucky to be working with such talented directors and teams at Rovio and Sony Pictures Imageworks. The movie is getting a stellar cast!
Check it out:
http://www.mtv.com/news/1949022/angry-birds-movie-cast/

quick sketch

posing for a picture.

playing around with an oldie

I played around with an old design and pushed it a bit more. I like to to through this kind of process to find a character :)

here is the older take: