Steem Cartoon : Layout Design

This time around, I will show you how layout designs are made. How it is reduced from storyboard, given to the layout artist for detailing, composition and perspective before it is finally given to the animation artist to incorporate in the final production.

The storyboard artist will usually use simplified line drawing merely to give the mood and angle of shot for the layout.

The storyboard artist may prepare more than one layout to test different angles and the layout artist may try to capture one that best suits his style and method of presentation.

This is the complete version of the layout that has incorporate the lighting, mood, ambience and colour temperature to give a good idea of the environment in the layout.

The layout is not only done for sceneries but also for objects such as this farmer's hut. The sketch is simple with some basic colours. Ever wonder why artist choose basic colours to be dull pastel colours? This is so that the colours does not affect the second layer that will be painted over it.

The basic storyboard sketch will also include characters. The rough lines by the storyboard artist will be refined and given a final touch by the layout artist before the colouring and detailing process are added. There will be lighting and shadowing to give the scene a better viewing pleasure.

The scene below is an epic scene from a bird's eye's view. The wide angle would also mean that there will be more details and specifics that must be added to the scene to make it more appealling. You can see the background such as the trees are in the rough. This is where the background artist will prepare the general setting and we will incorporate the drawing by using the layers in the photoshop.

So a good result in matching the storyboard artist's ideas into the layout to form the perspective and composition and finally the background artist, we get a final product like the one that I am producing below.

The following are examples of how layout design. Our job is to create a layout that is believable in accordance to the characters that we create for the animation. It is not a recreation of our world, but it is creation to tell a story that we have developed. Hence the synergy between the artists is important to really bring live to the work.

credit to @zomagic