The job of an Animation Checker is the last step on the list before actual animation commences. It’s a very difficult job and only a veteran from the animation industry with many years experience can do the job.

It’s the Checker’s job to take all the elements generated in the preproduction process and make sure all the elements are there so when the package is sent overseas the studio can do it’s job correctly with all the materials they need. In the case of local animation it is still used to make sure all elements are correct and final. Anything that is suspect or missing will be noted and sent to the director so that he can have the need art work created. They also add up each scene’s film footage totals and list them on what is called a Lead Sheet.

An animation checker ‘checks’ to make sure that all the backgrounds are numbered correctly, all the characters and props that are in the storyboard are called for and colored, and numbered for the right scenes as well as looking over the exposure sheets to make sure that all the pans in the film are called for and timed as well as all the pages numbered and anything else that might be missing such as rain effects or some extraneous motion.

The Animation Checker is one of the most frequently yet valuable position in television animation. Naive and foolish studios sometimes try to cut costs by not employing an Animation Checker and it always comes back to haunt them.

Here's an example of a Lead Sheet which the checker uses to tally up to totals of each scene which is read in feet of film not by seconds.