The Production Cast
There are lots of different people that participate in the production of an
animation movie or TV show. Below are some of the people and the various types
of jobs and what they entail. Sometimes people will do more than one job, sometimes
due to their own liking, others for budget concerns.
Director
The director is the one in charge of the project. Usually he has to make the
final decisions on anything major, and approve a lot of artwork. Of his many
duties, some of his major ones include: approving the storyboards. If they don't
fit his liking he will change them around to fix story continuity, or reject
them and ask they be redone. He also has to listen to the voice recordings and
determine which ones to use and which ones to reject. He will also have to approve
the character designs if they are not done once the production process has started.
Sometimes the director will take part in other aspects of the production process,
in the storyboards, animation and so on. This will of course be determine by
his background, if he was once an animator he may still want to have certain
or special sequence animated by himself, or take a more active role in them.
Assistant Director
This person has to make sure that any changes that the director wants done actually
happen. Sometimes the director will take care of changes himself or supervise
the changes, other times it is this person's responsibility to see that they
happen. He must also keep track of all the cels and frames, and if any go lost
or missing he must find them or get them replaced. Alongside with the cutter
he will also take the raw soundtrack and splice it together to make the final
one.
Cutter
Must keep track of all the film and its storage. Must make sure that everything
is marked and kept correctly in sync. They must save every cut from every voice
actor/actress in case the director decides to use alternative cuts later in
the production.
Character Designer
The artist that must create the designs for each character in the work. Previously
this was done by an entire department, and no one man would create designs for
all the characters. Now this is happening less and less and one person does
the designs. Once the designs are approved they are Xeroxed and sent to all
the production staff for use as reference. Color model cels will also be made
for the cel painters to use as reference. Just like the director, the character
designer may take an active role in the animation process as well.
Storyboardmen
The group of people that will draw the storyboards. This can sometimes be a
separate group of people, or a combination of others and the production staff
as well as the inclusion of the storyboard artists.Layoutmen
The layout artist will take the storyboards and start creating the sequences
to be animated. They work on the appearance of the film. They will work with
the storyboard artists and director to establish the correct mood and staging
for the show. They will suggest patterns of animation for the genga artists,
as well as camera angles, panning shots, and designs for backgrounds.
Supervising Animator / Animation Director
This person is just like a manager in the typical sense; he is in charge of
all the animators for the project. He will do such things as: make sure that
character designs are kept consistent throughout the show, make corrections
on the genga and douga artists work, redraw a sequence if needed. This is done
to show the animator the way something needs to be. With experienced animators
on the staff he would often do very little in the way of making corrections,
but with less experienced he will often have to redraw key poses for use as
reference for the animators. Just like the director, this supervisor may also
take an interest in certain cuts or sequences and draw the animation himself.
Animator / Genga Artists
In western animation these people are generally referred to as animators, and
while the same holds true for Japanese, these particular animators are the ones
that draw the gengas. It is their responsibility to breath life into the show.
They must take the layouts, the character design, and the storyboards into consideration
to make the animation for the piece frame by frame, and portray the emotions
that are expressed in the layouts and the storyboards. The animators will draw
certain parts of a sequence. If a sequence is going to be 10 frames long, the
animator will draw the first and the last, followed by some key poses in between.
It is up to another person to fill in the gaps and create the illusion that
we call animation.
Assistant Animator / Sakuga Kantoku
These artists work is clean up of the animators work. If their drawings don't
match well enough the character designs, or for some other reason don't pass
they will redraw either the portions that need clean up, or sometimes redraw
the entire image or sequence. Other supervisors from time to time also do this
job, such as the director, character designer or animation director if they
are particularly concerned with the sequence.
Inbetweeners
These artists take the genga's are retrace them as douga's. They will also fill
in any gaps in a sequence left by the animators.
Effects Animators / Special Effects Animators
These people add sublets or other "special" effects into the drawings
or cels. These people will do such items as mists, fog, or fire. Plus any camera
tricks that might be used to create unique effects will be setup by this department.
This crew will do anything requiring an airbrush. Most of their work deals with
the cels rather than drawings, or working with the camera to get the directors
desired results. Sometimes the special effects that are added to the cel will
be reflected onto the cel from a secondary source. When the camera takes the
picture the effects will appear to float on top of the image. Sometimes cel
layers will be photographed at different distances to give the illusion of varying
depths within the shot.
Ink and Paint
The department that is in charge of the color schemes for the production piece. Nowadays this isn't as important as it once was. Due to all "cel" animation produced on the computer (CG). Previously studios would mix their own paints, making this department crucial. Then many companies moved over to off the shelf paints, and custom mix paints only when necessary. Today, the color is done on the computer with no need for cels!
Animation Production Information
The Production Process
Once the cast has been assembled a rough process is followed. While some parts
are absolute, e.g. animation can't start before storyboards and layout are done,
each director will have his way of doing things so the process may differ from
movie to movie and so on. Here is a proposed method going from start to end
in a linear fashion.
Inspirational
Sketches-
These can be made by virtually anyone on the production team, the character
designer, director, animation director and so on. When a concept is proposed
or a written script is at hand, or in the directors head this will be a period
of brainstorming. The people involved will start passing ideas back and forth
until they can start to agree on things. At this point, the character designs
may or may not be finished. Traditionally, this was part of the character design
process where once a general look for a character was agreed upon it was then
up to the character designer to refine the rough ideas. They would add his or
her own touch to it. Now it isn't uncommon to see the character designs done
before production begins. From these inspiration sketches key parts of the movie
will be identified.
Storyboards-
Storyboards are created by the storymen. These are various rough sketches of
scenes drawn and usually pasted onto a wall. The production team (in this case
it would include the supervisors, and directors as well as usually the layout
men) would look at the storyboards and rearrange them for story continuity,
remove ones that didn't fit or just didn't feel right. Often times the storyboards
themselves would be rejected, but the team would agree that the idea was right,
but the execution wrong. The boards would then be redrawn until approved. Once
approved they are passed to the layout men who begin their work.
Layout-
The layoutmen's job is to take the storyboards and start filling in the gaps.
They don't animate sequences, or draw any sequences for that matter. They will
draw a layout for what specific parts of the piece are to look like. They may
draw 1 or 2 layouts per sequence, and then pass them onto the animators to start
filling in the rest of the gaps.
Animation-
This is done in 3 distinct processes. The first is the genga artist's work.
They take the layouts and begin to fill in the gaps and animate the sequence.
As per their job description they won't animate the entire sequence, but the
first and last frame of a sequence, plus key posses in-between. Once that is
done they hand these to the inbetweeners who's job it is to fill in the gaps
left by the genga artists, as well as retrace all the genga artists work as
douga's. Then the clean up artists will inspect all the animation, if corrections
need to be made then they will either correct what they can, or redraw the pencil.
Sometimes redrawing the entire series. This will then be given back to the inbetweener
to copy and redo. Once the douga's are approved, they are sent to be Xeroxed.
Cel
Painting and Xeroxing-
The douga's are now copied onto acetate, where trace lines are copied onto the
acetate via an expensive machine. It is now the job of the cel painters to paint
the cel according to the character designer's models.
Cel
Checking-
Once the cels are finished and dried a separate group of people will inspect
each cel. They are checking to make sure that there is color consistency between
each cel in the sequence, and that the painting quality is up to par. If there
are mistakes found on the cel such as paint going outside the trace lines or
incorrect colors the cels are rejected and have to be repainted. If any paint
is out of the trace lines it will show up on film and become a distraction to
the viewer.
Shooting
/ Special Effects-
The cameraman now takes picture of the cels one by one. If there are any special
effects that are to be added by use of the camera or other means they will be
done at this time. The cameraman will look at the timing sheets, which will
have all the directions for how to shoot each sequence. You will sometimes receive
a large yellow sheet with cels you purchase; TOEI is famous for including these
in their cels. These are explicit directions to the cameraman how to shoot each
sequence and how to position or pan the camera.
Editing-
Just as with any movie, this is the final sequence of events. The editor will
take the raw footage and string it together combining the frames with the soundtrack
into the viewable movie or TV episode. Once viewed the director may ask for
changes, either material to be put in, or sequences removed. The editor then
reworks the film until it meets with the director's approval.
Special Types of Cels
Not
all cels are created equal ^^ There are certain cels that either within a show
are a different class/category of cel. Or just by it's production nature they
are different. Many of these cels include OP, eyecatches, Hanken Mono etc. In
short, cels that you don't see everyday for sale on the Internet or conventions.
If you go on ebay nowadays it seems that just about any cel is "rare",
don't be mislead by that label. While the title rare still means something,
it has been widely misused and unless you really know your cels, or are dealing
with someone you trust be aware of people calling their cels "rare".
Some cels by nature are rare, OP, eyecatches, or just about any type of cel
on this page would be considered rare, or at least uncommon. More so now that
all animation is done on the computer. So let's tackle this whole notion of
rare cels head on first....
Rare
Cels-
To go through every series to discuss what is and isn't a rare cel would be
an epic undertaking. As a general rule of thumb, cels that are considered rare
are ones of characters that don't show up that often in a show, but are either
a main part of the plot or a particularly memorable character. The list is endless!
Just think to yourself, how often have I seen cels of this character previously,
and how often do I see this character in the show? If the answer to either of
those is yes there is a good chance the cel deserves the label rare. But beware,
sometimes just because you don't see many cels of a particular character doesn't
mean it's rare! There could be collectors out there that are always buying cels
of that particular character, so while they may be abundant we aren't looking
at the right place, or keep missing the opportunities. And always, if you are
unsure don't be afraid to ask someone else's opinion or the seller why the cel
is rare. A credible dealer will never risk his reputation and call a common
cel rare just to make a few extra $$. Things like that get around and give people
a bad rep. Same goes for collectors, any good collectors would never misuse
that label for the same reason!
Older
Shows / Hard to find Shows-
While these aren't technically a special type of cel, they do deserve mention
as people are always asking how come I never see cels from Gunbuter or Wing's
of the Homnease? I want a Neo-Tokyo cel, how come my local cel dealer doesn't
have any? There can be many factors that contribute to this, some of which were
discussed above. Others can be that certain production companies don't freely
release their cels, the infamous one for this is Gainax, as very few Eva cels
have filtered out into the public market. Older shows will have less cels available.
Generally show made in the very early 90's and older will have less cels available.
Cels were still considered largely as waste products and many were destroyed
to save space. In the 50's there was a technique called dipping cels. For those
that have seen the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit will know exactly
what I am talking about. The dip was a compound that was created for the express
use of destroying cels quickly. Animators rescued these before they were completely
destroyed.
The few remaining cels from these older series were usually ones that were kept
by animators that worked on the shows; who were very proud of their work and
wanted to keep some memories of the show. At the time no one really knew how
big the hobby would grow and that these things would be worth so much! While
the shows themselves were excellent, at the time cels were just waste. Much
like Baseball cards or toys were to most people 40 years ago, who ever though
such common items would become so valuable?
Book
Cels-
A cel with the words book on the top means that there is a foreground that is
supposed to go in front of the cel. This foreground is usually made of the same
paper as the background, but is cut to the exact shape of the item that is to
be placed in this foreground.
Op
/ End Cels-
These cels are the ones used in the opening or ending credits for a TV / OVA
Show. Since the opening credits are shown each episode these cels are generally
highly sought after by hard core fans of their respective series. On some series
there will be a special marking on the top of the cel which reads OP, this will
indicate that a cel was used for the opening credits. I've seen this on some
Miyazaki and BGC series, but it isn't a rule of thumb for all OP or END cels!
Title
Cards-
Title cards are/were a dying breed of cels. They are a very special type of
OP cel. American animation made (and still does) wide use of these in production.
Title cards are cels that are usually the last (or in some occasions first)
cel in the OP sequence that simply shows the title of the show. Some shows like
Ghost Sweeper Mikami would have a different title card for each show, others
would use the same title card and just add an overlay cel with the weeks episode
title on it.
Eyecatches-
Eyecatches are the cels that show up between commercial breaks during a TV show.
Eyecatches will play right after the first half of the show is finished, and
usually play the same sequence after the commercial break - but not always.
Just like the OP cels, they are played every show, but are slightly more sought
after by collectors. On opening sequence to a show maybe 1 or 2 minutes long,
eyecatches at best last 5 - 10 seconds, sometimes less. The Eyecatch sequence
often times may only last a dozen or so frames, compared to the OP which will
usually at least number in the 100's.
Transformation
/ Bank / Attack / Henshin Cels-
All those terms describe the same cel. They are similar in respect to OP cels
that they are used over and over again, but maybe not EVERY episode. The classic
example would be the cels from Sailor Moon of any of the scouts transforming
from their everyday clothes into their respective sailor scout fuku. Simply
put, they are cels that get reused many times throughout a series as part of
a transformation of a character or a special attack that they might use.
Special
Effects Cels-
Dragon Ball is famous for using these cels a lot. Special effects are cels that
have some kind of "special effect" added to it, usually airbrushing
to the cel. Airbrushing is an expensive item to add to any production process,
the airbrushing must be added to the cel first (generally) and then the cel
painted over it. If the cel painter messes up the entire cel usually has to
be redone and mistakes get costly. The actual special effect can be anything,
from a fireball, blushing, or a character doing a power up.
Cels
From Movie Trailers, Promo Shorts-
When a show is being proposed to a production company to help sponsors it's
production sometimes the chief people involved will create a special trailer,
or little short to showcase the animation they want to utilize in the series,
or to generate interest with investors so that they will help fund the project.
Sometimes special animation will be created for movie trailers or teasers which
is not used in the production of the particular piece in question. They can
be as treasured or more treasured than OP, Eyecatch or just about any other
cels. The quality level on these kinds of cels is a step above OVA, and generally
only superseded by Hanken Mono cels. When something of this nature is made,
it is done with the intention to sell the idea to a prospective company investor,
or consumer so naturally great care will be taken in the production.
Commercial
Cels-
Sometimes cels will be made especially for use in TV commercials. Often times
companies will use clips from existing footage, other times they will create
new footage for use especially for a commercial. In general these cels are quite
rare, but not as highly sough after as OP cels or eyecatches from the same series.
Tomei
Cels-
These are a special kind of pan cel, although there are instances were tomei
cels don't have any pan. Tomei mean "held", so the frame will generally
be a still shot that the camera stays on for a few seconds. Either as a still
shot, or pan in/out. Sometimes there will be some animation, but if it is it'll
be very simple such as mouths moving. Tomei cels are almost exclusively A1 END
cels, which means they are the only cels in the sequence.
Hanken
Mono Cels-
To many collectors Hanken Mono are the "Holy Grail" of cels. They
are a very special type of cel made for various purposes. One important point
is that these cels will not be used in the production or see in course of a
TV/OVA/Movie. Hanken Mono means make only one. These are the cels that are used
for merchandise in general. They will be the cels used to make LD & DVD
covers, ad's in magazines, posters, special trading cards, and just about any
other merchandise item that a company might need or sell. These cels are very
carefully made and expensive. The lines on them will be hand inked, meaning
the trace lines are painted on the top of the cel rather than Xeroxed. The artwork
will be commissioned by famous or very talented artists, which means the image
will be of high quality, but that also will drive their costs up. The paint
work on them will be exceptional, clearly a cut above production cels. Hanken
cels will often include extensive airbrushing, which is an expensive effect
to do for production cels.
Cels in a CG World
Rilezu cels or Post Production cels-
Rilezu cels are cels made after a CG anime show has been produced. In todays cel world, they are one of two ways of owning a cel from a show (other than a fancel). Some rilezu cels come with the original douga or a clean up douga and most come with a printed copy of the original background or if you're lucky, it may have the original background. In this way they are as close to an original cel from todays CG shows. Even though technically they have never been used in the production of the show. There are two methods for making the trace lines on the cel. One, the original douga/pencil is used to make the lines by a tracing machine. The tracing machine used for the rilezu cel is of far better quality than what a standard production cel was made with. Or two, the Xerox method, A special copy machine is used to xerox the lines to the celluloid. The original production douga cannot be used because the xerox machine picks up every little speck, so a clean up douga is made. This douga is 100% the same as the original douga. This original xerox machine was used for anime cels before companies switched over to computer animation, only a couple of these expensive machines are/were left in Tokyo (So probably Japan). Rilezu cels like Hanken cels are generally more expensive because the companies have to pay more per cel to get them xeroxed and hand painted.
Reproduction cels-
They are the second of the two ways of owning a cel from a current anime show. Reproduction cels, like rilezu cels are cels made after a CG anime show has been produced. Studios seeing a market for cels, use this method for promotion and as an additional product item. They are far less expensive than rilezu cels though not of the same quality as a rilezu. The production companies license and produce multiple hand painted cels of the same image (usually in a limited edition) with or without a printed copy background. They also generally don't come with a douga. Studio Pierrot is one of the animation studios who sells reproduction cels of some of their shows.
Q & A
What are these pencils that sometimes come with or stuck to my cels?
Sometimes when you purchase a cel you'll notice that there is a pencil that
matches the cel packaged with it, or in worse cases stuck to the back of the
cel. These are usually what are referred to as Douga's. They are the pencils
that were used in the process to Xerox trace lines onto the cel. These pencils
are fed into a mega expensive machine that will Xerox the pencil lines onto
the cel leaving only a piece of acetate with black lines one them. There are
special pencils used on the douga's that are made by a company 'Col-erase' (or
at least that's what they use here in North America and Canada) of which their
colors do not show up on copies or film. But their lines resemble colored pencils,
these colors provide a guide to the cel painters but are not needed on the cel
itself like the trace lines are. There are several other kinds of pencil sketches
that are involved in the production process, the most common that we see are
douga's.
How
to Identify a Genga From a Douga-
To tell a Douga from a Genga is actually quite easy. ALL the douga, even the
key ones are copied by the inbetweeners in the creation of the douga. A genga
will look completely different and have different aspects to differentiate them
from douga. The douga will always have the timing numbers on the top of the
pencil sheet, usually to the right, but sometimes left of the far right registration
hole. This is because the douga's are the pencils that are put through the Xerox
process that puts the trace lines onto the cels.
The term genga has recently been an umbrella term for any pencils that are non-douga.
Which would include rough pencil sketches, inspirational art, layouts, etc.
Genga's in the truest sense are the sketches done by the animators or key animators
that are then handed over to the inbetweeners for finishing. Since more talented
artists do rough sketches, layouts and other types of artwork done in the production
process, they have been labeled as gengas.
Genga's come in many different forms; I will go into more detail later if you
care to confuse yourself even more! Quite simply to tell a genga from a douga
there are a few things to look for. First, look at the where the timing number
is. If it's right next to the image, then you know you have a genga. A douga
will never have the timing numbers in these locations. Second look at the type
of paper the drawing is on, if it has the studio name on it somewhere you know
it's a genga. Genga's of these types will have number on the top for cut and
scene numbers as well as a time index. Finally, the color of the paper will
let you know whether it's a genga or not. Genga's are usually done on white
paper, but it is not uncommon to see them done on yellow or pink. There is more
to the color variations of genga's in the different types of genga section,
things can get confusing; but the fact still remains that the pencil is a genga.
And finally there is the rough quality aspect that is differentiates a douga
from a genga. As a friend likes to call them "sketchy things" genga's
will be rougher than a douga. While genga's will have some fine lines in them,
they can be visibly rougher in pencil work than douga's. Douga's will have precise
pencil work; genga's won't necessarily follow that path. Genga's in the scheme
of the production process are like a rough draft for a cel, they are one of
the first parts of the chain in the creation of the cel. So the animators that
are making them will have much more freedom to express their ideas in the genga's.
It is often said that genga's have more "life" in them than a douga.
Once the genga's are approved they are passed to the inbetweeners and copied,
and then the image is made into a douga. At this point the inbetweener doesn't
really have much room for creativity as he is copying the animators work. If
you place a douga over the matching genga you'll notice that the douga matches
the genga nearly perfectly, with the main changes being that it looks more "cleaned
up" and the lines very precise.
Genga's in general are more sought after by pencil collectors as they are the
work of the actual animators, key animators, animation directors, supervisors,
character designers and sometimes director. The douga's are done by inbetweeners
who basically retrace the work done by the genga artists, and fill in the portions
of the sequence that the genga artists didn't do. Genga artists will only do
the first, last, and a few key shots in of a sequence. If there are 12 shots
in a sequence, a genga artist might do 5 of the drawings, it's up to the inbetweeners
to fill in the rest. That is not to say though that douga's are bad! I collect
both myself, and there are some shows where the douga's are absolutely beautifully
done!
Different
Types of Genga's-
To be honest, this is where things can get real confusing. If you are happy
to know that you have a genga, then read no more. If you are curious than please
read on.
I see the term genga used as an umbrella for a wide variety of different types
of sketches done by artists of varying levels. Genga are done by more talented
artists who were born with the gift, or through time have improved their skills
and worked up the ladder. Some different types of genga's are more recognizable
than others, namely layouts and settei. Others can be tough to figure out if
you are only holding 1 sketch from the set. Genga's normally are bought in packs,
where there can be any from 2 to several dozen in a package. Often they will
include several genga's from each scene so you can really see the production
process in front of you. Here are some of the different types of genga's that
you can encounter:
Layouts
Layouts are usually easier to spot than other types of genga. One of their trademarks
is that they are almost exclusively done on studio paper (with the studio name
on it), but I have seen some done on colored paper so don't take that as a rule
of thumb! The big thing to look for in a layout is the presence of the Background.
As you'll notice in this one the background is drawn in as part of the sketch.
This is a rather time consuming task, and these sketches are done early in the
production time line. Layouts are the least plentiful of the different genga
types (If you don't count storyboards).
Concept
Art
These will be preliminary sketches for a scene. They are used to inspire the
mood for a scene or sequence. It is not uncommon for a multilayer setup to have
a concept sketch with all the characters on a single layer. In the accompanying
genga's each layer will be split up so that there is one genga per layer. With
a package of Genga's there is a separate genga's for each character as they
were to be on 2 different cel layers.
Field
Guides
Field guides tell the cameraman how to shoot the particular sequence. Sometimes
you will see a cross hair in the middle of the cel, this denotes the middle
of the camera lens. The outer box tells the painters what size the cel is going
to be, and the middle-curved box is what will actually appear on the TV screen.
These items are crucial for production as they let the production teams know
what portion of the cel Are going to be on the TV and how much needs to be painted
on the cel. You'll notice that when you match a cel up with the corresponding
frame in it's respective anime that the image you are holding is larger than
what is on the screen. If you have the accompanying field guide you can see
how it matches up.
The effect is similar to "pan and scan" as opposed to "widescreen"
movies. Where in pan and scan the ends of the picture are cut off so you don't
get the bars on the top and bottom of your TV, but you are also missing part
of the picture.
Settei
/ Character Design Sheets
These sheets are done by the character designers, and are the basic designs
for each Character. They will have different poses of each character, the character
in different styles of dress, or different moods of the character that the character
designer wants to make use of. There is no rule as to the layout of these sheets,
but they are easily recognizable. Some will have the whole cast, others one
character, some with the same character in a set of different poses or styles
of dress. These sheets are photocopied and sent to all the animators as these
become the basis of the the "look" for all the character designs in
the show. They are used as reference material for the animators, although the
character designer or studio will almost always keep the originals. If/when
these are found for sale they are never cheap!
Sakuga
Kantoku / Clean-Ups
This is where things can get confusing when you don't have all the portions
of the drawings! Different color paper generally denotes a different part of
the animation process, usually it's either clean up, or sometimes the original
genga. Sakuga kantoku, or clean up drawings are drawings done by a special group
of animators named Sakuga kantoku. When the gengas are done sometimes these
people will redraw the image to clean it up for one reason or another. Sometimes
this is for the better, sometimes for the worse. These drawings are normally
done on different colors of paper, normally green, pink and sometimes yellow.
Which makes it really confusing as original genga drawings can be done on those
same colors! Some of the genga's that I've seen done by Nobuteru Yuuki himself
when he as working as character designer for various projects have been on pink
paper, others on white. So...if you are holding a genga on colored paper that
is an entire image and you don't have the rest of the pencils, I am unsure if
there is any way of telling of whether you are holding a genga or Sakuga kantoku.
Albeit both are considered to be genga's and are equally as valuable or desirable.
As long as you are happy with the image that is really the important part!
Storyboards
Storyboards are done at the start of the production process. These are where
all the planning and thinking go into (for more info be sure to read the section
in the Production Process to get a full explanation of how this fit into the
process and how important they are). In short they are a picture book or road
map if you will of how the animation will proceed. You could think of them as
cliff notes for the layout men :) Once the storyboards are done production can
proceed and the rest is history. They will show how the movie, TV episode is
supposed to progress noting key moments, action or whatever the director and
supervisors want. Storyboards are generally done by a separate cast of animators
that may or may not work as genga artists on the rest of the project. For several
shows I know directors, animation directors, or character designers will contribute
to the storyboards as well as work on as genga artists for the show. To date
the only storyboards I've ever seen for sale come from American Animation movies,
the only Japanese ones I've seen were in books.
Different Cel Sizes
Vertical
Pan Cels
Vertical pan cels will be taller than they are wide. The camera will pan upwards
or downwards to show the entire length of the cel. Often time vertical or horizontal
pan cels will be the only, or 1st cel in the sequence. They will always be rectangular
in appearance. Their close relative the horizontal pan cel is the exact opposite.
It is wider than it is tall, and even more of a pain to try to scan! If you
are lucky enough to get the genga or timing sheet with pan cels it will indicate
the direction and duration for the camera to pan across, or in/out from the
cel.
12
Field Cels
These are the industry standard for cel size. Roughly 12 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches,
most cels, backgrounds and pencils will be of this size.16 Field Cels
Cels of this size are often used in movies. Due to their wide nature (16 1/2
inches wide) they lend themselves to the letterbox format. Movies such as X,
Ghost in the Shell and Miyazaki films have made use of this size. Cels of this
size are often used for short pan shots involving large backgrounds or shots
that require more detail (but where the medium isn't letterboxed).
Oversized
Cels
These cels are usually just plain large. Their square size will often distinguished
from their horizontal and vertical pan cel brothers. Cels of this size are normally
made to show details and will often zoom in or out. They may also be made to
show a particularly large scene where doing so on a 12 field cel would make
the characters too small to ink. Good example is from one of the last frames
of the Vision of Escaflowne opening credits, where Allen and Van and fighting.
That particular cel is several feet large! Yet the images appear quite small
on the final product.
During production sometimes a shot will call for special cel sizes. While they
may not fit into any category (12 field, 16 field, etc.) they are cut down from
a larger piece of acetate. I've noticed this is more prevalent on older cels.
Usually these are referred to as nonstandard or oversized. Keep in mind though
when most people mention oversized cels they are referring to large cels, e.g.
ones that don't fit nicely in most cels books!
What are multi layers cels? And what do all these different letters mean?
A multilayer cels is a cel that will have multiple characters or items in the
setup. They are sometime referred to as multi cel setups. In short there are
several cels that are placed on top of each other to create the scene and photographed.
Just because a cel is a multicel setup doesn't increase the value, just there
will be more characters in the shot, and usually smaller in size as well. Each
layer is labeled separately; the top is A, the second B and so on. The most
I've ever seen is 6 layers, which would make the lowest layer F.
Generally as the cels are placed lower in the stack (the B, C's etc.) will use
slightly brighter paint to compensate for the slight opaqueness of the acetate
medium. If the same colors were used for each layer the lower layers tend to
look a little duller. Using the brighter paint compensates for this so that
the color constancy is maintained. Looking at the top right corner of the cel
you can see the layers identified by letters and their timing number for the
camera man.
Unfortunately for us it is not uncommon for multi layer cels to get separated.
So as you go through your collection you might notice that you have a cel marked
B6 or C7. This would indicate it was part of a multi cel setup. While this can
be frustrating, it doesn't necessarily devalue the cel! If the image is a quality
image it will be on its merits alone.
Normally when there are multiple characters in a cel each character will be
put on their own layer. In the past this was traditionally how it was done.
With one of the exceptions being if the characters were in very close contact
with each other, like hugging, dancing with each other - something where making
2 cels would make it more difficult than doing one. The only reason I can see
this starting to happen more often is that it's cheaper to produce, as only
1 piece of acetate needs be used and color accommodation for lower layers doesn't
need to be done.
How
to Identify Key Cels-
To identify if a cel is a 'key cel' is quite easy if you have the matching pencil.
If all you have is the cel there's only a few ways to make the determination.
For pencils you need to look at the timing marks in the top right corner. They
will have a letter followed by a number. If the sequence is circled then you
have a key cel.
If you have the cel but no pencil it is very tough to determine if you have
a key cel. There are a few sure ways though. If your cel is labeled A1 then
it will be a key cel. The first cel in any sequence is always done by a key
animator, as is the last one, or end cel. END isn't always marked on the cels
though, even if it is the last one in the sequence.
In general key cels are more sought after by collectors. They will be more valuable
than one from the exact same sequence, even if only one frame away that is not
a key cel. Reasoning behind this is the key animators did the genga's and design
for that particular cel (although they would not have been the ones to paint
them) and the quality of image is generally higher than a non-key counterpart.
That isn't to say though that all other cels are garbage! You should always
buy a cel based on how much YOU like the image, not based on whether it's a
key cel or not.
The 200,000,000yen Question. What is a Cel?
A cel is a clear piece of acetate of which the images of the characters are
painted on to. Cels come in many different shapes and sizes. They are photographed
in succession to give the illusion of movement and create the process we call
animation. The image itself is painted onto the back of the acetate in varying
layers of paint. Nowadays the trace lines are Xeroxed onto the back of the cel.
Before this process was invented the cels were all hank inked - the lines were
all painted by hand onto the front of the cel. In comparison, Xeroxed lines
are on the backs of the cels; which is the way cels were currently produced
up to about the year 2000.
Cels weren't always made of acetate. Up until the 1950's the primary stock for
cels was cellulose nitrate. It was later discovered that this medium was unstable,
prone to wrinkling, shrinking, yellowing and flammable. Over long periods of
time if uncared for these cels would decompose rapidly and ruin the images.
Thank you for taking the time to read this page. Hope this helps you in your cel collecting and understanding of the production of an anime show.
How to Store Cels
When most of us starting collecting we would start to accumulate cels and have
no idea what to do with them. Sometimes they'd end up in a manila folder, box,
or pocket protectors. This would work find till you started to accumulate more
than a few, or started getting large cels.
Cel storage is an important issue and if not taken seriously can cause major
damage to your cels in the long run. I've heard too many stories of people finding
boxes of cels in their attics that their father or grandfather used to own as
they were old timers at the various production studios, only to find that the
cel were permanently fused together, or water had saturated the cels and effectively
destroyed the lot. One of the biggest things you want to avoid is stacking cels
more than a few high. And if you do stack them, make sure to put some kind of
paper in between to keep the cels from sticking to each other. Cels can get
very heavy and a large number pilled on top of each other will compress the
ones on the bottom of the pile nicely. Cels being stuck to paper is not as big
a problem as two cels being stuck together!
The best or an easy solution is to put your cels in to handy dandy art portfolios.
Itoya makes a great product and for $12 you get a great folder that holds 48
cels! The pages are polypropylene and perfect for storing cels. They fit well
on a wire hanger placed in the middle of the portfolio. If you have a dark dry
closet, hang your cels up in it. This will help keep the book in a vertical
position without stress to it or the cels inside. Itoya also make larger portfolios
for oversized articles that work equally well. Check out your local art store
or itoya dealer on line, I found that my school's bookstore could order them!