What is the Layout Stage in 3D Animation and why use it?

The layout stage in 3D filmmaking is crucial for setting the foundation of the scenes. It involves placing virtual cameras, characters, and objects within the 3D environment to establish the composition, framing, and spatial relationships. This process helps filmmakers visualize how the final scenes will look and ensures that the elements are positioned correctly before proceeding to animation.

Layout artists determine camera angles, movements, and overall scene composition during this stage.

It’s a crucial step in the 3D pipeline as it establishes the groundwork for animators, lighting artists, and other departments, ensuring a cohesive and well-coordinated production process.

Check out my “2023” layout process in action below.

I use the inverted commas because I am always developing and learning new ways of doing things. See behind the scenes as I work on laying out my litrpg short film series, Into Pixels.

And this video is a condensed version of above where I demonstrated a number of short cuts, modifiers, and addons I’m using in Blender to layout my short film.

Upcoming plans

As of the publish date, you find me deep in the layout stage of the LitRPG film series “Into Pixels.” I’m predicting a couple of weeks of work here.

Why so long? This is where we need to get the storytelling right! Every shot needs to work together in harmony to tell our story and set the foundation for the animation and props.

I’m going to do a few more live sessions based around this stage where I hope to draw out elements that will help people tackle some common problems they might have when working in this phase of the production.

I am also keen to get some feedback from other filmmakers about what they would be interested in knowing or learning, so please share.

Help me out!

Interested in the Into Pixels series here’s a link to the it’s landing page. You can also support its creation by subscribing on YouTube also by grabbing me a coffee once a month on my Patreon page.

If 4000 folks buy me a coffee once a month I’ll be able to employ some folks to make the whole planned series