Layout

Layout was kind of a weird step in the production of my short. This was largely due to the fact that there was no layout until the fall of 2013, after I had animated most of the first third of the film. Working by myself on the project for some time, I knew what I wanted for each shot, and I knew in my head how they would all connect (also, there was a storyboard animatic showing this too). Since I was the final approval of my own work, I found the layout step to be redundant, and I was able to take shots from storyboard straight into animation. I only found layout to be useful when I started showing my short to classmates and teachers the following fall semester (2013). The mix of boards and 3D elements made sense to me at the time, but it would confuse others. So my teacher requested that I put the rest of the short I to 3D as fast as possible. So over a couple days I made a rough layout of the film, following the storyboards as closely as possible. Luckily everything in my boards held up in the transition to 3D, and my short looked fine. From all of this, I can see the importance of layout in a large scale production setting, where dozens of people need to see the film in a more cohesive manner, and helps drive the film forward for the teams that follow that step. However, as an (almost) one man production studio, I felt it really just wasted time I could have been animating, since I already knew it would look fine. For personal work, having a strong animatic and boards can replace the need for layout.

Here is the layout version of the short I made in September 2013. It also includes all the shots I had animated up to that time. There is also some temp audio I used for my animatic to help me edit the short together. I own none of the rights to the music here (used for educational purposes, I promise!).