Visual layout for animation

I wasn't really keen on sharing this project on my blog, as it wasn't one that I particularly enjoyed or did well. I've never been all that interested in layout. Part of it is that I'm not very imaginative in creating settings, the other part is that I've always been more interested in character development and not so much in non-living forms. Animation usually involves characters which is why I find it interesting. Layouts on the other hand are static and pay a lot of attention to color script and prospectives.

However, this blog is not just about the projects that I did well or enjoyed. Finding one's strength and weaknesses is a learning process and I think is something worth sharing.

Last last quarter (Spring) I took a class called Drawing for Animation: Layout and Visual Development. It focused on composition, perspectives and live-action camera simulations. Besides the technical aspects of drawing different perspectives, we also learned how the positioning of characters can convey the power structure and emotions in the scene. First, we formed small groups to collect references on the landscape, architecture, props and costumes for the time period and location of a story we picked. In my case we picked the latter period of The Inca civilization when it fell to the Spanish conqustadors. We got books from the library which (surprisingly) provided more useful resources than the Internet. We then concocted a story about a Spanish soldier who became friendly with the Chief of the Inca Empire only to have his commander and peers invade the Incas. It was a lot like Dances with the Wolves, without the romance element.

After that we individually went off to create layouts for scenes each with a different type of camera angle and/or movement. Overall there were eight layouts which were due at the end of the quarter. It was hard work and the majority of the time not very inspiring or interesting. But I must have gotten something right because I ended up getting an A.

Tools: 18'' straight ruler, triangle rulers, 4B pencils, col-erase blue pencil, 18 x 24 sketchpad. 

Low Angle

Here the Chief is leading the friendly soldier to his kingdom. The building is on higher ground hence the low angle from the soldier's point of view. The warriors look intimidating and imposing at this angle. Boy did I struggle with getting the angle of the Chief's head correct! I spent hours on the first version then had to scrap it and start over; which was too bad since I spent more time on the first one so it looked better except for the angle of the Chief's head.

High Angle

The Chief and the soldier are standing on high ground looking down at the village. It's not a extreme high angle since the horizon is still within the image. In a perfect world I would have added villagers but that would take too much time that I didn't have.

Dolly

This is a dolly shot that follows the child who runs down the side of the mountain, tumbles over, then gets up and runs to the warriors on the right side. The view port (16:9) is roughly 2/3 of the height of the image. I added the tree so the boy doesn't appear to be running for too long; the vertical line also makes him appear to run faster. This scene occurs after the child witnessed the Spanish ships docking at the coast.

One funky thing about layouts for animation is that there are certain things that we take for granted in live-action shots that need to be simulated in animation. In live-action as the boy is running past the boats we should see one side of the boats then gradually the other side. In animation we can't do it since the layout is static. The rule of thumb is to pick one side and have the boats face in an angle to the camera. Surprisingly viewers never notice this discrepancy because they are consumed by the action of the scene.

Crane

This is a crane shot that starts from the closer end of the bridge, passes the people on the bridge then up the path until it's pointing at the Inca structure. There are a number of issues with this shot. First, in a crane shot the camera does not rotate. So when the camera moves up to point at the structure, the structure should appear to be at the same level as the camera and not at a higher level. Second, this is not a very interesting scene in the story. I initially had drawn the procession to be Spanish soldiers marching into the heart of the Inca Empire before the attack. But the fact that the structure was so large and imposing actually made the soldiers appear non-threatening. I didn't want to change the layout so I ended up changing the scene to be a group of Incas returning home from hunting and food gathering, which is not a particularly interesting scene.

Pan/Warped

A pan shot is where the camera rotates without moving from its location. This means the perspective changes gradually from one end to the other, creating a warped spherical effect. Not a very interesting scene but served the purpose. This is the scene where the Inca child observed from a high angle the Spanish ships docking at the coast, from his point of view.

Inclined Plane

This is a scene I actually liked because of a number of techniques that I used in the composition. Here the Incas had been defeated; the Chief is captured and the bodies of the Inca warriors scattered around as the Commander of the Spanish conquistadors  (presumably Francisco Pizarro) arrived. Being the victor, it's obvious that the Commander is in the position of power. However, because the Chief is on top of the stairs on higher ground, compositionally he appears to be in the more powerful position. I didn't want to remove the stairs since they are an essential part of large Inca structures and it makes sense that a Chief would be in such a structure. So the first thing I did was have the Commander's back against the camera so that his face is hidden, which makes him faceless and therefore appear cold and distant. Second thing I did was have his body cover up a significant part of the composition so he appears large and looming compared to the other figures. The fact that his figure cuts vertically across the layout also made it seem that there is no going around him, that the Chief has no escape route. The last thing I did was tilt the camera to the right so the Chief appears to be at a lower elevation even though he's at the top of the stairs. I think I managed to create a scene where the Commander appears to have power over the Chief despite being in the lower ground.

Telephoto

Telephoto and Wide Angle are two types of camera lenses. The final two layouts are the same scene shot in the two different ways. The same object in focus (in this case the soldier) will appear larger and faster in a Wide Angle shot than a Telephoto shot. Other objects also appear differently in size and location depending on where they are in respect to the object in focus.

This is the scene where the friendly soldier is racing against time to warn the Inca Chief of their impending danger.

Wide Angle