CEL
(sell)
A
transparent sheet of celluloid that is drawn on to produce a
single frame of an animated cartoon Common
clues: Disney
collectible; Animation frame; Cartoon frame; “Fantasia”
frame; Toon frame; Piece of animation; Roger Rabbit frame; Dopey
picture?; Toon unit Crossword
puzzle frequency:
5 times a year Frequency
in English language:
62032 / 86800 Video: Steamboat
Willie
Animation
is different from other parts. Its language is the language of
caricature. Our most difficult job was to develop the cartoon's
unnatural but seemingly natural anatomy for humans and animals. ~
Walt
Disney
A
cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects
are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation.
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.
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 specialized teams. Using this assembly line
way to animate has made it possible to produce films much more
cost-effectively. The invention of the technique is generally
attributed to Earl Hurd, who patented the process in 1914.
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. Another important breakthrough
in cel animation was the development of the APT (Animation Photo
Transfer) process, first seen in The Black Cauldron. Disney later
stopped using cels in 1990 when CAPS replaced this element in the
animation process.
Actual
production cels are sometimes sold after the animation process is
complete. More popular shows and movies may demand 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. These normally fetch a high price as collector's items.
With
the advent of computer assisted animation production, the use of
cels has been practically abandoned in major productions.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Cel".
|