Storyline crashing when inserting characters?

I am also having issues with Storyline 360 crashing when working with the characters. It typically happens when I have multiple characters on one slide (I like to have a bit of animation to engage the learners - so I use the same character different poses and expressions across the timeline).It freezes and I have to use the task manager to close the program. I am good about backing up fairly often (I learned the hard way with this) but there is always a little work lost. :-( 

I dread having to uninstall and reinstall, but if that is what it takes to get rid of the problem I will. I always do the updates... are those not enough to fix whatever glitch is going on?