The Slow-Going, But Still Rolling Cartoon Biz

The Los Angeles animation industry, unlike its live-action counterpart, is still on its feet and employing people:

As Hollywood production has ground to a halt over the escalating COVID-19 pandemic, there is one area that been able to keep the lights on for the most part — animation.

As new episodes of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers and more just this past weekend made it to air, many animated series are still in production, with their creative teams working in sync from home. And voiceover jobs are among the very few opportunities for actors right now, as many in that field have recording facilities in their own homes.

“Disney Television Animation is fully functioning with the team successfully working on a remote basis,” the company said in a statement to Deadline. “It took a few days to smooth some wrinkles but with strong studio leadership, the team of animation pros and support from IT and HR, the animation and editing is on schedule.” ...

For decades, television animation has had crews "working remotely". Once upon a time, all L.S. animation, start to finish, was reated under one roof. Hanna-Barbera employed writers, board artists, animators, layout artists, painters, editors, sound technicians. As far back as the late 1950s, some of them worked from home, but the bulk of the staf went to the studio each day.

Those things slowly changed. In the 70s, ink-and-paint departed to overseas studios; animation eventually followed.

As for the artists who remained in L.A.-based jobs, working situations varied widely. Some drew storyboards or character designs or wrote scripts from home when they free-lanced, others worked from home (sometimes) when they held staff jobs. (One rule of the biz: when you work in-house and when you work out of your house varies widely job to job and studio to studio.)

Now, of course, the draw-at-home regimen is coming in handy, as it side-steps layoffs, an option that on-set crews on back lots and sound stages don't have. As former Animation Guild President Tom Sito quips: "A job that forces you to stay indoors and do nothing but work at your desk. For animators, it's a cinch!"