Layouts

As I've been working, I've found that it's much more efficient for me to compose a series of shots first, then go back and animate those shots once all the layouts are done. Composing, then animating, then composing the next shot, then animating that shot, and so on messes up my rhythm. 

So, for the next couple weeks, I'm going to focus on completing all my shot layouts, so that I can just breeze through without stopping when it comes time to animate. The nice thing about layouts is that I can do any and all of them right now, regardless of whether or not the shot has dialogue.

I only need to do the layouts for twenty five shots a week to remain on schedule, but I'll probably do more, because it's nice to get ahead. 

Here are some screencaps of my process:

I start by loading the necessary boards into Flash, then determining which parts will be on which layers. I'll often draw each piece in a different color, so that they stand out from the reference drawing.

Then, I hide the board, clean up my lines, and change them to the proper color (usually black). In this case, I added Darby in later, since he wasn't originally in the boards.

Then I add the colors.

If I'm not exactly sure what the background will look like, I'll add a sort of general color fill, to provide some context as to the time of day.

Some more layouts in their various stages: