THE EVOLUTION OF AN ARTIST

Armand traces the roots of this scene back through his career to find the moments that shaped it

“I created this image for the film Animal Crackers (aka Magic Circus). I can trace the evolution of this piece back to two experiences in my career.

I worked on Disney Animation’s Lilo & Stitch. I was a 2D layout journeyman, designing the backgrounds, the character layouts for the animators, and the camera mechanics for the shots. It proved to be a defining moment for me as an artist.

Working under production designer Paul Felix shifted my style and overall understanding on how I approach design. Felix’s work made a huge impact on my design sensibilities. What I learned from the overall experience of the film, I still carry with me now: control, clarity of shapes, playfulness in forms, proper flow, defining values through consistency in lighting, how values carry the weight of colour… I could go on.

The Animal Crackers images clearly shows that a touch of that Lilo style will always be part of me. That film also gave me the opportunity to do visual development, which opened the door for me to move into that field.

Then second was the experience of working on Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up. This was the film where I was involved fully in visual development and production design from the very start of pre-production, until almost the very end of production. That’s when my transition from a traditional artist to a digital artist was fully realised.”

“I did all the production design pieces for Animal Crackers in black and white, so the directors and I could focus mainly on the design language during the early stages of pre-production.” animal cracker