A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from Nitrocellulose and Camphor, plus dyes and other agents Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular Celluloid was used for animation and film production up until the late 20th century, however, it burned easily and suffered from spontaneous decomposition, and was largely replaced by cellulose acetate plastics. Cellulose acetate, first prepared in 1865 is the Acetate Ester of Cellulose.
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Technique
Generally, the characters are drawn on cels and laid over a static background drawing. This reduces the number of times an image has to be redrawn and enables studios to split up the production process to different specialised teams. A studio is a Artist 's or worker's workroom or an artist and his or her Employees who work within that studio A team comprises a group of people or Animals linked in a common purpose Using this assembly line way to animate has made it possible to produce films much more cost-effectively. An assembly line is a Manufacturing process in which parts (usually Interchangeable parts) are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned The invention of the technique is generally attributed to Earl Hurd, who patented the process in 1914. Earl Hurd ( September 14 1880 &ndash September 28 1940) was a pioneering American Animator and Film director Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The outline of the images are drawn on the back of the cel. The colors are also painted on the back to eliminate brushstrokes. Traditionally, the outlines were hand-inked but now they are almost exclusively xerographed on. Xerography (or electrophotography) is a Photocopying technique developed by Chester Carlson in 1938 and Patented on October 6 Another important breakthrough in cel animation was the development of the Animation Photo Transfer (APT) process, first seen in The Black Cauldron, released in 1985. The Black Cauldron (also known as Taran and the Magic Cauldron in some countries is the twenty-fifth Animated feature in the Disney animated
With the advent of computer assisted animation production, the use of cels has been practically abandoned in major productions. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Disney stopped using cels in 1990 when Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) replaced this element in the animation process. The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS is a proprietary collection of Software programs scanning camera systems servers networked computer workstations and custom
Collector's item
Production cels were sometimes sold after the animation process was completed. More popular shows and movies demanded higher prices for the cels, with some selling for thousands of dollars.
Some cels are not used for actual production work, but may be a "special" or "limited edition" version of the artwork, sometimes even printed ("lithographed") instead of hand-painted. The term special edition ( deluxe edition and collector's edition are also used is a term generally used as a Marketing incentive for various kinds of products Lithography is a method for Printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface These normally do not fetch as high a price as original "under-the-camera" cels, which are true collector's items. For the record label see Collectables Records For the Ashanti album see Collectables by Ashanti A collectable Some unique cels have fetched record prices at art auctions. For example, a large "pan" cel depicting numerous characters from the finale of Who Framed Roger Rabbit sold for $50,600 at Sotheby's in 1989, including its original background. In its most general sense a panorama is any wide view of a physical space Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 Live-action/animated film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released Sotheby's ( is the world's second oldest Auction house in continuous operation (the oldest being Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674 [1]
Disney Stores sold production cels from The Little Mermaid (their last film to use cels) at prices from $2,500 to $3,500, without the original backgrounds. Disney Store is an international chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items many of them exclusive The Little Mermaid is a 1989 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation with a pencil test beginning on September 23, 1988 and Lithographed "sericels" from the same film were $250, with edition sizes of 2,500–5,000 pieces. [2]
See also
- Cel-shaded animation, a non-photorealistic rendering method of computer graphics to give it a feeling that it is drawn on a cel. Cel-shaded animation (also called cel-shading or toon shading) is a type of Non-photorealistic rendering designed to make Computer graphics appear Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR is an area of Computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive styles for digital art
- Traditional animation, contains info about the process of using cels to produce animation and has a section about cels and xerography, APT, etc. Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular
References
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