What is Cel Animation and How does it Work

Creating a series of hand-drawn paintings on a transparent plastic sheet which is also known as celluloid, cel for short, and making traditional animation is known as cel animation.

To start the process of cel animation, the artist or animator transfers the draft drawing onto the plastic sheet also known as a cell. When working with the cel, the outline is drawn on one side of the cel, and the color is filled on the other side of the cel.

After coloring them, they are placed in the background, and photographs are taken according to the need and sequence.

On playing 12 or 24 frames, they tend to create a visual illusion as if they are moving.

Today we don’t see much of the traditional art form cel animation as most of the work of animation is done digitally.

Even though we can see many cel animation techniques are used in digital animation. Most of the 2D animations are still hand-drawn, but the only difference is they are done digitally.

How does Cel Animation Work?

Process of Cel Animation

It is a lengthy and expensive process that requires a team to accomplish the process.

It starts with the script and storyboarding of the story. After finalizing the shot and timing, the lead animator creates rough key poses and the timing on a dope sheet.

The dope sheet tells you about the time allotted to a scene and tells you about the sequences of cel.

After key poses and dope sheet completion, junior animators draw in between poses to make the animation smoother.

After all the sketches are completed and approved, it goes into the hands of an inker.

The inker inks the cel with the help of black ink.

After completing inking, and once it gets dried, the cel is passed to the colorist. He colors the cel on the opposite side of the inked side.

As they stay for more time onscreen, they are delicately shaded and detailed. If a character moment is there, it has been made big enough to allow movement.

After completing this process, they are handed over to the photography team. They layer them according to the dope sheet.

And final animation is created by putting them in sequence. 

Materials of Cel Animation

We can see a link between cel animation and plastic sheet.

It would be really difficult or maybe impossible to do cel animation without transparent, flexible, and colorless sheets of plastic.

Cellulose nitrate was one of the earliest sheets of plastic used for cel animation.

It was not even close to the perfect plastic required

It uses to give out harmful gas in a short period, it used to degrade over time and it was flammable too. It used to crinkle and would turn yellow.

Because of this, the industry moved towards cellulose acetate for the better lifespan of cels.

Cellulose acetate did last longer than the previous one, but eventually, it also degraded after some time and the composition released a smell that used to smell like vinegar, because of which it was also known as vinegar syndrome.

They use heavy paints like acrylics or gauche paint which are also known as cel paint.

There are studios like Disney and Studio Ghibli who have contributed a lot to this industry. Try to watch their movies and know more about their process to learn and improve your skill and knowledge.

Kshitij Vivan Institute encourages students to make creative animation. The students from  Khambhalia, Khambhat, Kheralu, Lathi, Limbdi, and Lunawada enroll institute to learn professional-level animation techniques at Ahmedabad