Pixar’s Inside Out

Concept Design, Production Art, and Additional Sets Art Direction

Armand Baltazar joined the art and design team for Academy Award-winning director Pete Docter’s Inside Out in the early stages of development under Production Designer Ralph Eggleston. He helped to create the dream world and contributed to finding the final look of the beloved character Bing Bong. Featured are both final designs and unrealized concept explorations of Riley’s Real and Dream Settings, Islands of Personality, Mind World, the floating Idea Factories, and the Head Quarters. Armand provided additional set art direction and color key design for moving sequences like Riley’s escape in the Memory Dump in production. Full Gallery

Pixar’s BRAVE

Color and Lighting Design and Additional Sets Design

Armand Baltazar joined Brave’s art and design team in the later stages of production under Production Designer Steve Pilcher and Art Director Noah Klocek. He created lighting and color keys for some of the thrilling action sequences and provided additional set and visual effects design for the film’s prologue. Full Gallery.

Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur

Pre-production Visual Development & Concept Design

Armand Baltazar joined the art and design team for The Good Dinosaur in its initial development under directors Bob Peterson & Pete Sohn. Armand developed the world of immense dinosaurs. Included in this task were designing the dinosaur farms, the untamed wilds and created visual story moments to help shape the story. Full Gallery.

Pixar’s Cars 2

Pre-production Concept Design, Set Design and Additional Set Art Direction, and Color and Lighting Design

Armand Baltazar was recruited for the art and design team for Cars 2 by Production Designer Harley Jessup and directed by the Academy Award-winning director John Lasseter and Brad Lewis. Armand helped concept design the world of cars in the early stages of development. During production, he focused on crucial set pieces for the prologue, Germany, Japan, and France races and led the design team for the Italian race sequence. His duties included: concept design, final set design with additional sequence art direction, storyboarding action set pieces for design and story dept., and color and lighting key design. Full Gallery.

Pixar’s NEWT

Pre-production Visual Development

Armand Baltazar began his adventure with Pixar as a visual development artist on director Gary Rydstrom’s feature animated film Newt and under Production Designer Bill Cone. Unfortunately, the film was shelved by Disney, but you can see some of the world design and story moments created during its preproduction phase. Full Gallery.

Image Movers Mars Needs Moms

After Christmas Carol, Armand Baltazar briefly worked on Image Movers’ second film Mars Needs Moms, before being transferred to Disney’s other bay area animation studio Pixar to help with Newt. While there, Armand explored Martian character designs, mechanized Martian suit ideas, and several key location concepts. Full Gallery.

Image Movers Christmas Carol

Pre-production Concept Art, Character and Set Design and Sets Art Director

Armand Baltazar joined a fantastic crew of artists led by legendary Star Wars Creative Director and Concept Designer, Doug Chiang, to work on Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis’s Christmas Carol. It would be the feature animation debut from Disney’s new animation studio Image Mover’s Digital from the San Francisco Bay area. Armand helped design sets and props for a Dickensian London, as well as a few supporting characters like the Mad Fidler, and explore the climactic graveyard sequences in the film. Full Gallery.

Disney’s Princess and the Frog

Pre-production Concept Character and Set Design, Story Moment Concepts for Visual Development

Armand Baltazar joined Academy Award-winning directors Ron Clement and John Musker on Disney’s A Princess and the Frog during its initial development and preproduction stage. As preproduction Art Director, Armand was instrumental in the development of the look of the film, Disney’s return to 2-D animation with a traditional aesthetic. Among his duties were to develop New Orleans, key locations in design, and concept paintings with storyboarded design beats. Additionally, Armand created initial character designs for the prince, his valet, Mamma Oddie, Dr. Duvalier, and their set designs. Full Gallery.

Disney’s King of the Elves

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

After the Gnomeo & Juliet production moved from Disney Feature Animation to Touchstone, Armand contributed several concept designs for Disney’s King of the Elves under directors Aaron Blaise and Bob Walker. Full Gallery.

Disney’s Gnomeo & Juliet

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AND ART DIRECTION

Gnomeo & Juliet was the dream project brought to Disney by music legend Elton John and producer David Furnish. During its development under directors Aaron Blaise and Bob Walker, Armand came aboard to concept design and art direct the art department. He created story- driven concept paintings, storyboarded design beats, and helped establish fundamental design principles for the look of the film. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Flushed Away and Monsters VS. Aliens

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AND SET DESIGN

After working on the BEE Movie, Armand joined the art departments for Flushed Away & Monsters VS. Aliens (then called Rex Havoc). He provided additional Visual Development paintings and set design work for both films. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Bee Movie

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AND SET DESIGN

Armand worked on the BEE Movie, Jerry Seinfeld’s passion project, and realized by DreamWorks Animation. He created concept paintings, sets, and prop designs to help establish the look and feel of the film. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Shark Tale

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT, SET DESIGN, AND ART DIRECTION

Armand Baltazar was amongst the first wave of artists to transition from traditional 2-D animated films to the current CG animation. Shark Tale was one of the earliest CG movies from DreamWorks. Armand created key visual development paintings, set designs, and color keys and co-art-directed the Whale Wash sequence for the film, earning him the 2005 Annie Awards nomination for Achievement in Production Design. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Sinbad

Work Breakdown: PRE-PRODUCTION VISUAL DEVELOPMENT, BACKGROUND PAINTING

Armand made his professional debut as a visual development artist in DreamWorks Sinbad. In pre-production, he helped to explore various locations and developed visual story beats for design. In production, he contributed set designs, prop designs and created final background paintings for the film. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Work Breakdown: BACKGROUND PAINTING, LAYOUT, AND LIGHTING & COLOR KEYS

Armand worked under Art Directors Luc Demarchelier and Ron Lukas in the Background Painting and Layout departments, respectively. He created color keys,
production background paintings in the BG department, and location layouts in the Layout dept. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks Road to El Dorado

Work Breakdown: BACKGROUND PAINTING, LAYOUT & COLOR KEYS, AND LIGHTING KEYS.

After Prince of Egypt, Armand split his duties between the Background Painting and Layout departments. In Layout, he trained lighting design under Marcos Mateu-Mestre and Samuel Michlap and was part of the lighting design team for the film. Full Gallery.

DreamWorks The PrincE of Egypt

Work Breakdown: BACKGROUND PAINTING, LAYOUT & COLOR KEYS

Armand began his professional animation and film design career at DreamWorks Animation on their debut animated film, The Prince of Egypt. Recruited after graduating from Art Center College of Design, Armand quickly moved from trainee to journeyman Background Painter during the film’s production. His duties included producing color keys and painting the finished production background paintings. Full Gallery.

TV Development BUILDBOTS Series 2018

Work Breakdown: CHARACTER DESIGN VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

Armand created robot character designs for an unrealized Young Children’s TV series for Harcourt Brace Publishing. The Robots in the series were neighborhood helpers that built helpful things for their community.

DUNCAN STUDIOS: TV COMMERCIAL FOR LEGO HIDDEN SIDE 2018

Work Breakdown: SET DESIGN, CONCEPT PAINTING

Armand helped the team at Duncan Studios create the animated TV commercial for augmented-reality ghost-hunting adventures at the LEGO® Hidden Side™. He created set designs and concept paintings utilized in the commercial.