A Timer is a person who directs individual scenes under the watchful eye of the episode director. Timers are used on limited animation TV shows that are then animated overseas (that’s most animated TV shows, kids.)

The timer fills out exposure sheets, which are charts that have all the information about the scene on them, like how many minutes, seconds, or frames long the scene is, how many drawings need to be used, camera directions and so forth. The timer uses the layout drawings and then tells the overseas animator, on the exposure sheet, exactly how to animate the scene. It’s a little like “animating without animating.”

 

Here are some exposure sheets from when I was a timer on "Family Guy". This is from the episode called "Thin White Line" where Brian gets addicted to cocaine. It's the cutaway gag where they're making fun of the blind girl on "Little House on the Prairie." 

Below is one of my drawings from "King of the Hill", the episode entitled "Old Glory". I worked as a timer on this show at Film Roman but got to do a little animation on it too. (Exposure sheets to come...)

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