504 - Layouts

Here are the final layouts for all the scenes in the film:

Here are some of the things I was thinking about with the layouts:

• Making sure that the BG's work when composited (with the camera movements). There were quite a few scenes that had zooms or pans, therefore the BG needed to be large enough to accomodate that without being pixelated, therefore all of these are larger than the standard 1920x1080 format. I used red boxes to show the different camera movements
• Similarly, as discovered from the vertical slice there needed to be some extra space round the edges of each BG to allow for camera sway to be added in post
• Another element I had to think about before actually drawing them, was to see how many of the scenes could use the same BG. Some of them were closeup's of a previous scene (for which I would just use the same BG elements but redraw the main branch to ensure high quality), but for some there would be multiple different scenes on the same BG, but not necessarily in the same place, therefore I would have to create a BG that can accomodate all of them. This happened with the layout with 3 different coloured camera boxes, but also the last layout suits several of the scenes too
• In addition to this, there were several scenes that are extreme close-ups, and these don't need a layout as I would use a respective BG but blur it
• For the actual drawings, I needed to make sure that they were layered so that I could create simulated depth in post, and that each drawing was complete even behind layers nearer to the FG.
• Finally, when exporting these layouts for my group to use to animate on, I only exported the main branch that the bird would be interacting with (to make it easier visually and avoid clutter), and I made sure to include the dimensions of each layout so that they would use the right size.

I think overall they turned out good but I found it quite headache inducing making sure the layouts would be technically correct. I used references for all of them, and tried to create the feel of their respective habitats with the foliage in the BG, but also have it fairly stylised.

I found it challenging drawing the foliage as it needed to feel full but not be too cluttered and messy of a composition, and as I created more layers the images would get very busy. Layout is definitely not my strong suit, but it's something I need to get better at and this was good practice, and it gave me a lot of freedom due to the chaos of each scene.

Another area I found quite hard was trying to recreate the looseness of the vertical slice scene. I found I was being too stiff with the drawings and struggled to achieve that energy and sketchiness I had, however I don't think these layouts differ too much.

I think in the future to help me with the camera movements and to make sure the layouts are technically correct, I should do tests using rough layouts and actually recreating the final comp with them. 

Doing these also made me realise how much I need to improve my composition skills as well as my general drawing skills.