When I was writing a recent article called “A Look At Early Japanese Animation“, I briefly mentioned animation cels and it occurred to me that there may be people who might be unfamiliar with what animation cels are since I’ve yet to write an article covering the topic. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what animation cels are, how they were used in the animation process and their surprising value to collectors.
First, it’s important to note that the term “Cel” is shorthand for celluloid and refers to the material that animation was drawn onto before the advent of digital animation. This material is made from cellulose, nitrogen-based chemical compounds and other additives to form a sheet of thin and flexible plastic. Drawings would be drawn on various cels and then these would be laid atop each other over a background to create the complete image. A light is placed behind these cels and a picture is then taken. By running these images together at a framerate, for instance 24 frames per second, you create the illusion of movement.
