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Surprisingly, the last film Disney produced using 100% traditional cel animation was Oliver and Company back in 1988. You can read an in-depth article on Disney’s process of cel storage here. They have a dedicated facility to keep their original cels at the optimal temperature and humidity while trying to halt their degradation. Many cels now display ‘paint lifting’ - an affliction where the paint starts to flake off the plastic and crack.ĭisney has poured an incredible amount of time and money into preserving its original cels. Known by animators as ‘cel paint’, the paint often used was a heavy, opaque acrylic or gauche.Īs the plastic cellulose degraded over time the paint followed suit. Due to its chemical composition it released a pungent vinegar that was commonly known as vinegar syndrome. The acetate lasted much longer than its predecessor but eventually degraded. The industry tried to improve the lifetime of the cels by switching to cellulose acetate. The earliest type of plastic used was called cellulose nitrate.įlammable and prone to degradation with age, it would yellow, crinkle, and expel hazardous gasses in a short period of time. Without thin sheets of flexible, transparent, and colorless plastic, cel animation would have never been possible. Materials Used In Cel AnimationĬel animation and the evolution of plastic are closely linked. These frames are played in sequence and create the final animation. The team layers the drawings according to the dope sheet and takes a picture of each layered frame. Once all the cels and backgrounds are complete they are handed to a photography team. If a character is moving through a scene, the background drawing will be big enough to allow for that movement. Photo by J-E Nyström, Helsinki, Finlandīecause these stay on screen for longer than an individual drawing, they are typically more detailed and delicately shaded. While each cel is being inked and colored, more artists are hard at work creating the backgrounds for each scene. They apply the color on the opposite side to the ink giving each cel a crisp look with clean, consistent linework. The inker transfers the linework to a transparent film of thin plastic(a cel) using black ink.Īs soon as the ink is dry the film gets passed off to a ‘colorist’ who colors in the linework using cel paint. Once all movement in the shot is approved the pencil sketches are passed onto an inker. After the key poses are sketched out and the dope sheet completed, junior animators draw the in-betweens to smooth the movement between poses. It dictates the length of time a movement takes and standardizes the sequence of the cels. The dope sheet is an essential tool for everyone from director to colorist. Once the timing of each shot is locked down, a lead animator will draw rough sketches of each key pose and note the timing on a dope sheet. The magic starts with a script and is handed over to a storyboard artist. The Cel Animation ProcessĬel animation is a lengthy, expensive process that demands the involvement of a large team.

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Most 2D animations are still drawn by an animator but digital software is used to speed up the process. It’s rare for traditional cel animation to be used in modern productions since everything is digital now.Īlthough today’s 2D animation borrows many techniques from cel animation, the work is almost exclusively done on computers.

When played back at a speed of 12 or 24 frames they create the illusion of movement. These ‘cels’ are then placed over a background and photographed in sequence. Each cel features one drawing with an outline on one side of the plastic and the color is filled in on the other. That means if you buy something we get a small commission at no extra cost to you( learn more)Ĭel animation is the art of creating 2D animation by hand on sheets of transparent plastic called “cels”.įollowing a planning process, animators transfer draft drawings onto transparent sheets of plastic called cels. Tips Animation Written by Claire Heginbotham Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.

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