The job of the layout artist in animation production is to stage the action of the film in a virtual environment and compose shots with a CG camera.

The layout artist uses the tools of the cinematographer —- character blocking, the camera frame, lensing, camera movement, point-of-view —- to capture the story and express it’s mood and meaning.

I’m a CG layout artist with 20 years of experience. I’ve done layout at Pixar and Lucasfilm on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monster’s Inc., The Clone Wars TV Series, Rango, Pacific Rim, Strange Magic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and other films, TV shows and video games.

Using footage from some of the most popular CG animated features, I explain the fundamentals of camera movement and framing from the point of view of the CG Layout Artist.

For those who are interest in the field of CG layout, or film making in general, here is a modest start at explaining the artistic thinking behind the work of the CG Layout Artist.

More videos to come...