sounds like layout and previs would be good things to research...
previs is a way of working out either how things work on set, ie how far away things have to be from camera, lines of sight etc. It is also a way to quickly layout anim of what will happen when it comes to doing the shot for real.
this might explain. but this is more of an animatic tbh.
‪Pixar - Pre Vis‬‏ - YouTube