On Layout

[robcat2075]

Always a source of useful animation pre-production information. Mark Kennedy has found some layout tips by Disney artist Paul Felix:

 

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2011/11/pa...yout-notes.html

[Rodney]

I thought I had responded to this topic but perhaps it was the Seven Camels blog that I commented on...

 

One of the reasons I collect handouts on Layout is that they go a long way in not just informing hand drawn efforts but also to A:M (camera work, stagecraft, order, flow, arrangement, etc.). Not only are they great for initiating layout ideas and firming up composition they help us learn more effectively how to communicate with the images we make. This especially helps when all we have is a sketch to work from and we don't have the original artist or director readily available to ask questions or to guide us along the way.

 

Another thing I really enjoy about the looser style of layout is that it allows for a fairly wide interpretation and that is were creativity among teams really starts to gel. For instance, if one person sketches a layout and another finds a way to plus it up in the process of translating that sketch into a model in 3D space.

 

Do to the requirements for pre-visualization they also help clue us in to an object's makeup in ways that studying the final product cannot. A painted background for instance may not clue us in to how the camera will move across that painting whereas the layout it is very often clearly laid out. Hence, the term Layout. It's a precise enough plan that all the most important elements are incorporated and yet there is enough room for additional creativity within that framework. In a good Layout everything essential is there.

 

These plans, in this case in the form of quickly sketched layouts, are essential elements of the creative endeavor. Without them we will waste time that could have been more effectively applied elsewhere.

 

Before Mark Kennedy's post I confess I did not no who Paul Felix was. I am happy to add him to the list of Layout artists I need to study and whose approach to Layouts I should assimilate.