Just like directors of photography, layout artists orchestrate everything from the angle of a shot to the flow of action within a scene. Animators then use layouts to plan the visual skeleton of animated worlds.
This article explores the work of layout artists.
What Is Layout In Animation
Storyboards resemble a comic strip that outlines the storyline. They offer a glimpse into the plot and highlight where key moments occur within a scene. Animatics, on the other hand, turn these static frames into animation previews.
The layout is another intermediate stage that expands on storyboards and animatics by meticulously planning the logistics of each frame – camera angles, staging, and the introduction of backgrounds.
Imagine animating a zoom on a forest: the layout artist is the one who decides the angle from which you view the towering trees, the path that wanders through the foliage, and how light filters through the leaves.
Why Layout?
The layout guides the viewer's eyes to focus on elements that drive the story forward, creating a visual hierarchy. For example, during an action scene, the layout artist manipulates elements to lead your gaze from a hero racing through crowded streets to the villain lurking in the shadows, sharpening the narrative's tension and dynamism.
A well-crafted layout enhances the story's emotional weight. For a lonely character in a vast desert landscape, a layout could emphasize the space around the character to amplify feelings of isolation and vulnerability. Far from a simple visual choice, it's a story-driven decision.
Consistency throughout scenes is also crucial for maintaining narrative flow. If a character picks up an object with their right hand in one scene, you expect them to hold it in the subsequent scenes. The layout ensures details like this remain consistent.
1. Camera
Camera work within animation layout focuses on the frame's perspective, which is as critical as in live-action filmmaking. By emulating real camera behaviours like motion blur, depth of field, and focal length adjusted by 3D software, layout artists can create authentic cinematographic experiences.
A thoughtful camera layout serves multiple purposes: it establishes mood, suggests narrative depth, and conveys subtle emotional cues, like the creeping push-in from a wide shot to a close-up of a character's face.
- Layout artists spend time experimenting with their DCC tool to understand the features of virtual cameras. They try common techniques like panning, tilting, and tracking to see how they affect the storytelling.
- They practice setting up scenes with different focal lengths. A wide-angle lens can give a scene a broader sense of space and context, whereas a telephoto lens can isolate elements and focus the viewer's attention on specific details.
- The depth of field in scenes guides the viewer's attention. You can keep the background blurry while focusing on a character to emphasize emotional reactions or reverse it to showcase the environment's significance.
2. Composition
Layout artists break down storyboards and animatics, turning initial sketches and sequences into layouts.
Composition in animation layout refers to the strategic arrangement of visual elements within a frame. It's the art of balancing subjects in a way that guides viewers' attention, maintains visual interest, and supports narrative intent.
Effective composition can turn a chaotic scene into a coherent visual story: in a battle scene where chaos reigns, good composition could direct the viewer's eye to critical characters amidst the frenzy.
- Layout artists start with basic shapes like circles, squares, and triangles to represent characters and major elements. This approach helps them pre-visualize spatial relationships and action flows, making sure each element occupies the right space relative to others. For example, if you're setting up a conversation between two characters, simple shapes can help you quickly decide their placement and interactions in the frame.
- They can also practice sketching small, quick thumbnails to test multiple composition ideas rapidly.
- The Rule of Thirds is a foundational tool for composition: you divide your frame into a grid with two vertical and two horizontal lines. Placing key elements at the intersections or along these lines can create more balanced and engaging compositions. For example, positioning a character's face at an intersection can naturally draw the viewer's attention.
- Layouts also use leading lines to guide the viewer's eye through the scene. They can be natural elements like roads, rivers, or even how characters are posed. In a chase scene, you might use a leading line created by a winding path to draw viewers' attention toward the character being pursued.
- It's important to maintain a clear focal point by reducing clutter around it. You can achieve this by using color contrast, blurring background details, or adjusting the lighting. In a scene in a crowded marketplace where the protagonist needs to stand out, a layout artist could use brighter colors or more defined lines for the protagonist.
3. Staging
Staging refers to characters and objects' position, scale, and angle within a scene.
It's the difference between an audience passively viewing a scene and becoming emotionally engaged. The subtle tilt of a character's head or the looming shadow cast by an ominous object can reveal critical story plots.
- Slight changes in scaling and perspective can dramatically alter a scene's emotional tone: a high-angle shot makes a character appear vulnerable compared to a low-angle shot to convey power.
- Layout artists change the position of characters, adjust the lighting, or modify the camera angle and observe how each variation impacts the scene. For example, repositioning a character from the background to the foreground to see how it shifts the focus.
- Another technique is to look at a scene in silhouette to check if the emotion and action read clearly without facial features or details.
4. Setting
The setting establishes the scene's time, place, and mood through lighting, set dressing density, prop variation, and architectural uniqueness.
The setting dictates how a scene feels: a dimly lit alley cluttered with debris sets a vastly different tone than a sunlit meadow.
- A base grayscale shader helps strip away the distraction of color, allowing the artists to focus on how lights and shadows affect the mood of a scene.
- Layout can also have a varying density of set dressing and props to shape the scene's atmosphere: a cluttered, dense set can create a sense of chaos or intimacy, while a sparse setup suggests loneliness or cleanliness.
- Unique architectural features define the setting's personality: exaggerated lines, distinct shapes, or unusual materials make the setting memorable.
- Adjusting lighting to frame essential areas guides the viewer's eye and evokes specific emotions. Same with different light sources―e.g. a soft diffused light for tranquillity or harsh directional light for tension.
5. Consistency & Clarity
Consistency and clarity in animation layout involve maintaining visual continuity across shots to make each transition natural and logical.
Consider a scene transition where a character walks from one room to another. Without consistent lighting, camera angles, and character scale, the sequence would feel jarring, disrupting the viewer's immersion.
- It's commonplace to document specific guidelines for each scene to act as a reference, including preferred camera angles, lighting conditions, and character positioning.
- After choosing camera angles that best fit the tone and action of a scene, layout artists maintain these angles when appropriate to avoid disorienting the audience.
- The light source and intensity also have to remain consistent within a scene unless a significant reason demands variation, like a change in time of day or dramatic impact.
- Layout artists pay attention to character sizes in relation to their environment. Clear character turnaround sheets help with consistency.
- They frequently revisit sequences in animatic form to spot and address inconsistencies.
Conclusion
The layout of a scene is key to creating engaging stories. From camera work that mirrors real cinematography to carefully crafting settings that anchor audiences in imaginary worlds, layout sets the stage for every animated masterpiece.
But it's not the final production step—far from it! Once the team completes, it moves on to secondary animations, adding details, textures, secondary props, and so forth, in an iterative loop before post-production and delivery. You can read more about it on our blog!
