Layout artists lay out the film, more specifically backgrounds, character design and props/artefacts used for the film to bring them all together to fit them in a specific way. They put them together and lay them out according to what the sequence and shots call for according to the script and storyboard.
Laying out the shots, incorporating all these elements together means pre composing all the elements which can include camera movements - this can to some extent complicate the process. In most cases in Film composing is part of the post production, however, within Animation it's a constant process that you are layering images on top of one another. This can range from very simple images; foreground and background - composed very simply.
Layouts can also allow you to plot out the movement of the character through the scene - be sure to be mindful of the scene itself when you are including a character as to make sure the surrounding space isn't completely empty. When starting to compile the layers - make sure you are laying them out according to the tracking of the screen/camera, design it in a way that you can accommodate the camera movement.
They need to be very specific, because you need to understand the position of the camera before you shoot the scene. The relationship of the camera to the characters means you can frame everything within the scene to the pre-planned direction of the scene. You can also use this in a traditional sense where you layout the background and establishing shots of the scenes. This includes buildings, rooms and perspectives. Also elements that you use within your set.
This is beneficial because you also establish the background you are laying out for the scene, this can be done with a frame inside your image. The scene doesn't always have to fit the frame perfectly (in terms of it being too big) you can always adjust the frame to your image.
Layout Design: Tutorial Video
I found this tutorial video really interesting for layout designs, this is becuase I didn't realise the amount of work that can actually go into drawing the layouts for an animated film. Considering that could only be one scene, there is a substantial amount of detail and colour correction work. This is a technique I will definitely want to implement into the documentary for the 'talking heads' scenes where I could posssibly add a sense of realism to the scene from the layouts within the Documentary.
Layouts for Documentary - '1964' Part
Within my documentary, there will be a scene where it shows the audience how my Nan and Grandad met for the first time. I wanted this to be as authentic as possible, so I used old photos of the streets they used to live on to re-create their first meeting. I used photoshop as I'm able to layer the image as many times as I can to then transfer into After Effects without the image looking flat.
I really enjoyed working in Photoshop to produce this piece of work, however, when I enter the production process I am going to make sure there are no visible seams of the images coming together. As I found on this occasion I tried numerous amounts of times to remove the connecting seam from the pub to the fish restaurant, but it wouldn't flow together as I originally hoped.