Cel Shaded Cerakote Celebration: Beretta APX A1 Full Size Tactical
“You can’t ever be too rich, too good-looking, or too well-armed,” as the man says, and a Florida FFL Cerakote shop delivers on that mantra.
Fort Lauderdale-based A Really Bad Design is Alex Manzotti’s studio. A custom artist who cut his teeth using automotive paint on motorcycles and helmets more than 28 years ago, he first encountered Cerakote when a client insisted on using the coating on a bicycle. Four years ago, Manzotti and the shop became Cerakote certified, specialized in artistic applications, and today, as a 07 FFL/ 02 SOT, works exclusively with Cerakote, using it on firearms – and everything else.
A quick look at the shop’s social media shows they have done hundreds of firearms since then in any number of styles.
Cel shading
One of the most complicated Cerakoting techniques is mimicking cel shading or “toon art.” Cel shading dates back to the 1980s and is typically applied to flat animation to create the illusion of depth, effectively turning 2D into a perception of 3D. Moving into more modern eras, rotoscoping and Sobel filtering have taken traditional cel shading to a sharper edge, as seen in popular game franchises such as “Borderlands.”
Taking that 2D to 3D style and emulating it on a real object, such as a bike helmet or a firearm, takes skill and genuine artistic capability.
Manzotti has both.
Check out these five Beretta APX A1s he did earlier this summer as a project for the iconic gunmaker:
For Cerakote nerds, the colors used in the project included Periwinkle, Carbon Black, Yellow Jacket, Prison Pink, Slate, Aztec Teal, Burnt Orange, Black Cherry, Robin’s Egg Blue, and Green Mamba.
The result is two APX A1 Full Size Tacticals (Yellow and Gray), and three standard APX A1 full-size models (Cherry, Toxic Green, and Miami Daze).
Beretta sent us the Gray Tactical for a closer look, and it’s impressive. We specifically asked for the Gray as it would give us a better look at the technique, and with cel shading, it is all about the time-consuming technique.
“The work is entirely manual and has many steps,” Manzotti told Guns.com, speaking to how cel shading is harder to pull off when compared to some other effects.
As with everything, natural lighting makes colors look different.
We’d like to thank Alex Manzotti and the whole gang at A Really Bad Design for their help with this piece, as well as everyone over at Beretta who helped make it possible.