Animation Cels , Production Art and Character Items

About Animation Cels

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 specialised 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, sometimes even printed ("lithographed") instead of hand-painted. These normally do not fetch as high a price as original "under-the-camera" cels, which are true collector's items. Some cels have fetched record prices at art auctions, e.g. a cel depicting numerous characters from the finale of Who Framed Roger Rabbit sold for $50,600 at Sotheby's in 1989.

With the advent of computer assisted animation production, the use of cels has been practically abandoned in major productions, however, studios still produce animation cels for the collectible market.

Some of the most collectible cels are the original Snow White cels, since that was the first full length animated film.

	Beatles Cartoons CEL "Color Model Proof" Signed RARE Buy It Now Price: $26,995.50 Sale Ends: 21d 9h 9m
	1937 Dopey Production cel W Production Background Buy It Now Price: $23,999.00 Sale Ends: 4d 3h 36m
	Production Cel Signed by Hanna And Barbera Buy It Now Price: $19,500.00 Sale Ends: 22d 7h 8m
	1953 JOHANN MOUSE TOM & JERRY ORIGINAL CEL & BG FRAMED Buy It Now Price: $8,250.00 Sale Ends: 3d 4h 34m
	Pinocchio production Cel 1940, "I've Got No Strings" Buy It Now Price: $7,499.99 Sale Ends: 15d 5h 52m
	Disney Aladdin Cel of the Genie "One-of-One" Price: $7,495.00 (0 Bids) Sale Ends: 4d 4h 26m
	1942 Warner Brothers Original Animation Production Cel Buy It Now Price: $6,500.00 Sale Ends: 13d 15h 30m
	Courvoisier "Doc" production cel from "Snow White" Price: $5,500.00 (0 Bids) Sale Ends: 4d 5h 51m
	Anime Hanken Cel Kimagure Orange Road Buy It Now Price: $4,999.99 Sale Ends: 18d 7h 21m
	Peanuts CEL "Quiet on the Set" Charlie Brown VERY RARE Buy It Now Price: $4,939.35 Sale Ends: 21d 10h 55m