#skip and loafer layouts

[yu2ki]

✿ 너와 나 영원히 ♡

[yukizuo]

  ┈  ⊹  random headers i made, f2u w/o credit <3

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[xiaoswrld]

[ventidy]

( 전기소설적인 ) ⎯⎯ ✩ romantic ︖﹖

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[pfpanimes]

⌕ skip and loafer • mitsumi iwakura.

like or reblog if you save/use.

[serexvu]

mika egashira from skip and loafer

[i4tsuki]

🩷♡.･🌟✩°｡⋆🧸

[dazkive]

⬮ ⁾ ✣ ⟡

□⃞ ⏖ ʾ you 𓏸

[sailormooin]

SKIP TO LOAFER スキップとローファー

like/reblog if you save

[wishmelux]

✧ ˚ . 🧋യ 다시 한번

[yu2ki]

(っ˘з(˘⌣˘ )

[evannotoven]

[txt as : my favorite anime]

Soobin : as Skip and Loafer

“When you find something you want to do, no matter how it ends up, we'll go somewhere you want and eat something nice!”

[koushisun]

part of me wants to redo my theme but im like... emotionally attached to it now sjfhdjsh

[animehouse-moe]

The Apothecary Diaries Episode 5: Covert Operations

Sure, this might not be the most visually stunning series of the year, or the most engaging or whatever other metric you might measure by, but I think, much like today's episode of Spy x Family, it does something that a lot of people wouldn't truly appreciate until they understand it, and that would be blocking and layouts.

Yes, blocking. It's a weird thing to talk about in terms of an anime, but it can be incredibly important in the process of "building" a scene, and comes from the heart of the storyboards. I mean, just look at this scene from early on in the episode.

What does it do so well? It makes sure that viewers understand that the space that exists within this series is three dimensional, and it accomplishes that very efficiently with character blocking. They're not orthographic or perfectly aligned with one direction or right in the center of the screen or anything like that. They're placed within the scene in a way that remains very intentional and purposeful, but without "catering" directly to the eyes of the viewer. It forces the viewer to understand the scene in a totally different context because of how things are placed and where.

Let me give another example with Maomao.

This one's incredibly simple but I think in the most deceptive way possible very good. The general idea that they're playing with is "balance" and is very important in scene composition.

Allow me to explain. What we have in this is: the back wall, a desk with a lamp and some fabric on it, Maomao, and then a table in the front left corner of the scene.

And I think that table is the sneakiest part of the whole thing, because it's what really provides the depth and distance of Maomao in this sequence. Even better is that, much like the fabrics and large desk, it's cut off by the frame. I talked about this sort of thing to no end with Skip and Loafer, but to bring it to this episode in particular, cutting objects off, especially in a three dimensional space where they don't just extend in one direction past the frame, but in multiple, is such an incredibly good trick for providing depth and a sense of space to a layout.

Finally, to tie a neat bow on this one, how the placement of objects builds the frame. Maomao is not in the absolute center of the frame, both horizontally and vertically, and that offset requires effort from viewers to correct for. Similarly, placing objects at the edge of the frame forces viewers to become aware of the limitations on the lens that they are viewing the content through. It builds an impressive sense of scope that exists outside what is being shown and is a great trick to use to accentuate things like Maomao's character acting in the sequence.

Armed with that knowledge, the episode really shines in its effort to place character acting and interaction at the forefront while providing a far larger sense of space through its layouts that love juxtaposing proximity with distance. But also, just look at how impressively well the episode adheres to the rule of thirds.

I think my favorite example of the expert blocking and layouts is how they use it to convey the differences between the four concubines and their ladies in waiting.

It's incredibly impressive in how they're able to convey so much from so little. The difference in the angles (both pitch and tilt), the spacing between the concubine and their ladies in waiting, the organization of the ladies in waiting, there's a world of information that appears with them that tells countless stories without saying a word.

That said, the best example of blocking with the concubines is Gyokuyou's later on in the episode, just look at this.

Gyokuyou and Maoamo, the "main attractions", of this grouping comprise the middle of the scene, while the other ladies in waiting are off in the wings. What's so great about it though is the depth that is provided by the layout. None of the characters are sharing the same space in terms of depth, and it builds a really impressive scene where Gyokuyou comprises the front of the group as the "head" and Maomao brings up the rear as the last, but most important in the group. All the while, the main duo separate the pairs of ladies in waiting vertically. Just really incredible stuff that gives life and feeling to the composition of the scenes in the best possible way.

And then there's the stuff between Maomao and Jinshi. I just love how they intentionally preserve the height difference and are aware of that despite the two not sharing a scene often. And then the dark vs light in terms of composition and brightness? Really just expert work that makes for an incredibly satisfying scene in ways that you might not grasp right away.

There's just a hell of a lot of effort in terms of direction and boarding to create an episode that is not just consistently aware of space, but puts focus on character acting and movement so efficiently. Really really great work on the episode as a whole.

[pfpanimes]

⌕ skip and loafer • mitsumi iwakura. 🏳️‍🌈

like or reblog if you save/use.

[serexvu]

sosuke shima from skip and loafer