Although art was a best subject during days at Saltus Grammar School, when Gregory Lovell left to attend the Rhode Island School of Design it was with the intention of becoming an architect. Little did he imagine that he would wind up, instead, working in Los Angeles as an animator, let alone becoming assistant director of Fox TV?s popular adult cartoon show, ?Family Guy?.

The career change came about initially because, at the time of his graduation in the early 1990s, a recession had begun to hit the east coast of America. By heading to Los Angeles on the west coast, Mr. Lovell thought he could beat it. Instead, he found a whole new world with seemingly unlimited job opportunities and huge challenges in the entertainment industry.

?An opportunity came up so I went for it? is how Mr. Lovell describes joining the team working on the enduring and popular TV cartoon, ?The Simpsons?.

?I was very lucky,? he says of the career move, although he admits that ?It took having to put aside the dreams I had as a young architect. That was the biggest thing, but once I got past that it was pretty easy.?

In fact the decision has seen him climb steadily towards the top of his profession ? a direction he is entirely comfortable with.

Los Angeles is apparently place to be for animators, with big studios and sub-contractors all involved in the same industry, as well as a top school for students of the craft. This, of course, makes for excellent networking and the sense of being part of a large family with a common interest.

During the four years he spent working on ?The Simpsons?, Mr. Lovell was involved in character layout, which is rough animation. The final animation, believe it or not, was, and is, done in Korea for economic reasons.

?It wasn?t a perfect relationship, but cheaper than doing everything in the US, which means that the show keeps going,? he says.

As always, when working with two different cultures and languages, things sometimes went awry in the back-and-forth. Thus it was possible that the Korean illustrators didn?t get a US joke, and attached a laughing face to the character saying something sad.

Mr. Lovell then advanced to storyboarding ? the next step in the assembly line of animation.

?That is when you take a script and break it down into different shots, as if you are a director (dealing with) camera angles, story telling, basic acting,? he says. ?It was really stressful, isolated and lonely because you are not part of a team any more, but it was also a lot of fun.?

In 2000 the talented Bermudian made what he calls ?a lateral move? to ?King of the Hill?, a show produced by Film Roman, the same company which produces ?The Simpsons? because he wanted ?a change of scenery and to work with different people?.

Unfortunately, the show was canned two years later.

When actors who did the voiceovers went on strike during a long hiatus between TV seasons, Mr. Lovell joined the animation team of the adult cartoon, ?Family Guy? until it, too, was cancelled due to management changes at Fox, whereupon he returned to ?The Simpsons?.

Finally, in February of this year, ?Family Guy? was picked up again by Fox, thanks to a combination of new management at the network and strong DVD sales of the cartoon, so Mr. Lovell rejoined the show and was promoted.

?Since I had worked on it before as a storyboard artist, I was able to get the job as assistant director, which is the next level up from storyboarding,? he says. ?I still do storyboarding, but this time it is fixing other people?s storyboards, and seeing the whole process through from the animators? eyes rather than the artist?s eyes.?

It is an exciting challenge, and Mr. Lovell makes no bones about what the show is, and why he likes it.

? ?Family Guy? is a cartoon similar to ?The Simpsons?. It is an adult cartoon, and definitely not for children. It is a coarse, rude show which appeals to a certain demographic. In some ways it is sophisticated, but then it will throw in body humour ? the obligatory f**t joke sandwiched between more sophisticated humour. It likes to alienate people, and I think to the demographic which enjoys that, it has value. The jokes are fast and furious, and almost like a long stand-up comedy routine loosely tied together by a story. It is a self-aware show, and I think it?s the greatest thing on TV ? aside from the news or occasional football game, of course.?

In fact, the assistant director hopes it will be a big success for Fox, particularly since it will be playing in prime time, and suggests that ?The Simpsons? may well wane in popularity after so many years of existence.

Certainly, he is excited at the prospect of ?Family Guy? airing right after next month?s Superbowl and ?The Simpsons? on Fox, and says the script will tie in with the big sports night on television .

?It should be a really good show,? he says. ?Without giving too much away, the main character, Peter Griffin, joins the New England Patriots, which is the Superbowl connection, and Stewie, the little child, becomes a sports bookie.?

Even so, Mr. Lovell admits to being ?a little nervous? in the run-up to the January screening because, since there are only two adult TV cartoon shows left now in the US ? ?The Simpsons? and ?Family Guy? ? there is always pressure to succeed. It has, however, been on TV since last May, and on several occasions beat ?The Simpsons? in the ratings.

?The DVDs have sold over 3three million when Fox thought they would only sell 100,000, so it loves the show,? Mr. Lovell says. ?As a network, Fox isn?t doing so great, so to have a hit show means they will do all they can to make everyone happy. We?re actually in our fifth season, and every 100 episodes qualifies ?Family Guy? for a syndicate deal, which equates to a lot of money, so that?s another goal that our show shoots for.?

Should the show ever fail, however, its assistant director knows that the wealth of cartoon productions in other countries, such as Canada, Australia and Europe, will always present employment opportunities for him.

?It is about having a working relationship with people,? he says. ?When they start up a new show they want to hit the ground running, so they want to go with people with whom they are familiar, and who they know can produce.?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes Mr. Lovell reveals that, whereas the normal routine is for Fox is to retain the writers at its lot and sub-contract the animation out to specialist studios, in the case of ?Family Guy?, the network has set up its own animation department which includes the writers.

?This is really great because a lot of the jokes are very visual, so it is important for the writers to have feed-back as to how the jokes are playing in their early stages,? Mr. Lovell says. ?In any script, there are jokes which seem so funny on paper, but when you see them play out with dialogue it becomes a very different thing, so it is good to have the writers there, and also to see our pain when they write screen directions like: ?the characters all dance around a maypole? or ?the crowds riot more than usual?. A few words of screen direction can mean weeks and weeks of pain for the animators!?

In terms of voice-overs, again the set-up is unique.

?The creator of the show does half the voices, and a number of the writers actually do voices as well, which is different to ?The Simpsons?, which has special voice actors who are more inclined to strike.?

Looking back on his initial decision to put aside his dreams as an architect, Mr. Lovell says he has no regrets.

?I am definitely happy with my move into the industry, and I can definitely see spending the rest of my life in it. Animation is a very small community in LA, specifically TV animation, and even more specifically prime time TV animation.?

Yet, like all transplanted Bermudians, he hopes that some day technology will make it possible to work alone anywhere in the world, even here, and only meet up with others in the animation chain on an occasional basis.

Meanwhile, for young people contemplating a career in the animation field, Mr. Lovell says that, because it is shrinking, his advice is to pursue computer animation, where there is ?tons and tons of work?.

?If you are a purist, however, go the professional route, move to LA and work your way up. A lot of studios have internships. I would recommend CalArts, which is the best animation school in the US, and more importantly, all of its instructors are in the business, so they have contacts.?