Pocket wrote:I thought this was called "layout" in animation.
At a lot of studios, particularly in television and for studios that produce gaming cut scenes, layout is in charge of the camera. But in feature animation, the director of photography position originated at Pixar with
A Bug’s Life. So it’s been around for 19 years. It’s now starting to show up on films from other studios, like MLP, and on films made at Blue Sky and under the WB Feature Animation umbrella.
Basically, the role of layout has been evolving as CG and digital production techniques continue to evolve. Whatever the style of a production (hand drawn, CH, or a hybrid), camera moves are usually decided at the storyboard and previs/animatic stage. There are exceptions where layout artists have more control over the camera, but this is generally how it works. With CG, layout artists are the camera operators, “shooting” from the specified angle and with the specified camera moves, and setting the scene’s lighting, before the finished animation is even done. On productions that are less constrained by time and budget, they will be asked to prepare takes from multiple angles and perspectives, so the editors and director have some flexibility in how the scene is cut together.
The DP role originated st Pixar basically because one woman, Sharon Calahan, realized that their production pipeline resembled live action more than it did cel animation. The basic argument is that a scene’s lighting affects everything from the obvious basics (colors, shading) to the technical aspects (camera placement, perspective) to story elements such as the mood and emotion of the scene. There is an overlap between what story, layout, set design, and animation all do. At Pixar, the DP is heavily involved in consulting with all of these departments and helps set the camera movements. (More info here:
Evolving Role of the CG Director of Photography). Other studios have the DP concentrate more on setting the look of the scene via the lighting, but the DP still has some say in how the camera is used.
So you weren’t wrong, it’s just that the DP role is a direct evolution of layout’s role in modern animation.