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	ARMAND SERRANO: MASTER OF HIS CRAFT
		A Filipino art designer is showing his skills at Walt Disney animated movie production creating important parts of several films that became box office hits including "Mulan" This work included the set designs for the opening scenes of "Mulan" where the Huns attacked the city that showed a lot of fighting and galloping horses amid a background of burning houses, trees and battle casualties. The artistic contents and the color combination of the scenes came from the rich imagination of Armand Serrano of Quezon City who now lives in Orlando, Florida with his writer wife Bing and two kids. Aside from "Mulan", Serrano also had important roles in the design and layout of "Tarzan" in 1999 and in this year's "Lilo and Stitch". He is currently involved in another feature animated film be released in the next few years. Company rules prohibit disclosure of the film. At one time during the production of "Mulan", the Filipino artist had some people working under him and making decisions on how the design should appear--whether in medium sight, close up or zoom out. "I also asked them to intensify the scene, advised the painters to accentuate the colors or blend this and that, and to make all objects pointed," he said illustrating his responsibility during production time. Serrano came on board the "Mulan" production in 1997, immediately after he moved to Orlando from LA Disney headquarters. After only five months in the project, he was promoted to key layout artist until it was finally released in June of 1999. "Mulan" was one of Disney's box office hit closely following the income of the "Lion King" and Pocahontas." The 34-year-old Serrano was all smiles as he looked back from the years when he was a struggling "inbetweener" (middle artist) of FilCartoons, Inc. in Mandaluyong, a subsidiary of Hanna Barbera studios in LA. Showing his talent in drawing, he was promoted to the layout department and that was the start of his animation career as a layout artist. While working for FilCartoons, he was involved in the production of: Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Johnny Quest, Addams Family, Pirates of Dark Water, Tom and Jerry Kids, Young Robin Hood, Greatest Stories from the Bible, Droopy, Police Academy, Yogi Bear, Fender Bender and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.		In early 1994, he moved to the Philippine Animation Studio, an independent studio working with the Marvel Television series. Which made him assistant head of layout department. He supervised layout for Fantastic Four, X-Men, Biker Mice from Mars and an animated music video for Prince. "We were doing a good job as indicated by the volume of job orders for US clients inspite of the numerous studios performing the same crafts in Malaysia, Japan, South Korea," Serrano said. "Some of the early morning cartoons you see on television every day were partly done by us," he added. He attributed the success of Filipino design artists from their skills, and partly, from their ability to speak English well, a prerequisite in cartoon film dialogues. "Our understanding of American humor, which is somewhat similar with ours, a product of the years we were an American colony (1898 to 1946) also paid off," he said. Until now Serrano wonders why he wound up finishing an engineering degree at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, when all along, from child to adulthood, his passion has been and will always be -- drawing and painting. He started showing passion for drawing at the age of 2. His earliest influences came from his two brothers who were architectural students at that time and did a lot of watercolors and structural designs. After seeing Star Wars at the age of 10, the movie inspired him so much that he started drawing personal comic books loosely based from the movie. At the same time, he started playing around with paint and completed his first serious watercolor painting at the age of 14. In 1996, Serrano came to the US leaving behind his lucrative job. To keep him in his job, his Malaysian employer even offered him to head the layout department, which he turned down to accept the offer of 7th Level Inc. a multi-media company in Glendale, CA that produces CD-ROM games. During his stay with 7th Level, he took up layout visualization and background design course at Associates in Arts School in Sherman Oaks, CA, In just a few months, he made a major step in his career by moving to Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios in 1997. After only five months in the "Mulan" project in Orlando, he was named key layout artist, which ushered in his active participation in the production of the movie. "To be in the animation is like being promoted from little leaguer to big leaguer like in baseball," he said.		The studio took almost five years to make a great animated movie like "Mulan". The preparation alone took years of labor. Researchers even traveled to China to gather information about medieval China and its then culture. Photos of the Great Wall, the old houses and the people came in big volumes, he said. "That is how efficient work is done at Disney," he said. Serrano believes there is a great potential for him and other Filipinos in Disney to be successful in their chosen field. He recalled the ascendancy of Mitch Bernal in the animation design department and another Filipino artist, Ruben Aquino who worked with him in the "Lilo and Stitch" project. Working with Disney for five years has given Serrano wider knowledge in the technical aspect of arts design. For instance, he had experienced working in 3-Dimension and blending it with 2-Dimension. He is also into computer animation, like the one that created the "Toy Story". He said there is a good future awaiting him at Disney, and he is looking forward for the day when he could be the art director or production designer for a live movie. :"But this depends on the opportunity that will arise," Serrano said noting his growing experience in filmmaking. Asked what message he could give to young Filipinos who would like to follow his footsteps, Serrano called on parents to "let your children follow their inclination. If they want to draw, support them. Don't lead them into something they don't like," he added. Incidentally, those words of advise are synonymous to the ideals of the individual who mastered the craft of entertainment -- and built the greatest entertainment empire in the world -- Walt Disney. (BASTA PINOY NEWS)
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