I started my career in L.A. TV animation doing character layout for $600 per week at Warner Bros. on Tazmania. All these scenes were done as key animation and were then added to the exposure sheets to incorporate good timing. For a while I even put timing bars on the scenes but eventually I had no time as we were supposed to do 6 scenes per day for a total of 30 scenes per week. Doing character layout was essentially animating with out doing lip synching because you were required to flesh out the storyboard, add all necessary poses to make the gag work, the acting believable and the staging work to maximize the jokes. Character Layout artists were also required to put the characters ‘on model’ and make sure the size relationships stayed consistent from scene to scene. Finally you had to work out the pans and make sure that the characters took enough steps to get them from point A to point B and act while they were doing it. It was a tricky job but I loved it.

Animaniacs, Tazmania, Tiny Toons, Around the World with Timon and Pumbba, The Critic, King of the Hill and The Simpsons were all done with Character Layout because it gave the director a chance to work and sometimes rework the poses to get the feeling he wanted; something that was hard to get from an overseas studio that did not get our American jokes and sense of timing. Eventually it became a more or less defunct process and was rolled into the storyboard artist’s job ( so it was cheaper for the studios). Currently the only studio that uses Character Layout is Starz which produces The Simpsons.

The things I learned while doing Character Layout I still call upon today.