Cel Animation

(This is what I'm working on right now, but i'm not sure how I feel about it. It will most likely change soon.) This week I researched a bit about cel animation. Cel animation was the most common way of animating before the more recent development of computer animation. Cel animation gets it's name because of the celluloid that is used in creating it. In cell animation, the background painting is painted on an opaque surface and all other elements such as characters are painted on individual sheets of celluloid that can subsequently be placed over the opaque background. When creating the portions that appear on the cel the outline is inked on one side. Then the artist is able to flip the cel over in order in order to paint in the color and other details that aren't included in the main outline. To recreate this technique digitally, I first scanned in the hand drawn drawn portion and took at all the background, leaving only the line. I then Painted in the color on a separate layer behind the drawing. In my research for this process, I came across several amazing mid-century modernist animators. One of my favorites was Tom Oreb, who is known for his work at Disney as well as work with a few other studios. I also enjoyed the work by the animators at UPA and Ray Patin Productions.