The layout artist is the person who determines the position of the virtual camera and choreographs the position of the characters and their movements during the course of the shot. Their work begins with the receipt of an animatic (a.k.a. story reel) of a sequence. The layout artist’s job is to lay the groundwork for post-production shots in the visual effects production process.
The layout artist talks to the director to understand the story and the emotion and to determine the language of the shots to be used. They then consider the framing of the shots, the composition, camera angles, camera paths and movements, and the rough lighting for each key scene. This is the job of the layout artist, in other words, to make the virtual camera tell the story better.
Becoming a layout artist requires a number of different skills. The first and most basic is to learn and become proficient in vfx-related programs. He will need to create realistic 3D environment layouts in VFX programs, temporary layouts and prop modelling if necessary, and facilitate collaboration with environment artists. The layout artist gives the characters some poses and rough animations and then animates the cameras to give them nice movement and continuity between shots and scenes. This is a starting point for the animator to work from.
Then as a layout artist, it is also crucial to have a knowledge of photography and be skilled in operating a virtual camera. A layout artist has to have an eye for composition, know how to tell a story through the camera, understand camera and lighting techniques and know how to use them to affect mood. Using the virtual camera, layout artists experiment with different angles and shots to find the best angle and shot for each shot. They have to look at the scale of everything and see if it works in the scene.