How To Make Digital Animation Look Like Traditional Cels

Getting Started with DIY Cel Animation

Equally I've finally settled on a workflow I like, I thought it'd be a good time to share some tools and processes for making animation on cels. This postal service owes a heavy debt to Ingo Raschka'south instant archetype zine offering, Making Cel Cartoons (become it!), and helpful advice from animators Josh Cloud, Georgia Reid, and Anna Firth, forth with some of my own learn-by-doing experiments over the terminal year. Let's brainstorm.

Source Some "Cels"
Cels made specifically for traditional animation are thick, durable, and lay flat. They are also scarce and expensive, and the current pricepoint puts them out of reach for near animators (including myself). After some experiments, I've settled on using light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation transparencies instead of cels. Laser transparencies are very thin and floppy, but you can print linework onto them directly in whatsoever laser printer. I buy them in generic packs of 100 off of ebay (never buy them from an office supply shop — those prices are wild!).

Put On A Pair Of Cotton Gloves
Similar any thin plastic film, laser transparencies volition attract grit and animal hair. (Later on on, during shooting, a can of compressed air will be your friend). That said, the dustiness, the grittiness, the visual anomalies and microfilth fluctuating from frame to frame is really part of what I love almost the DIY approach to cel. If you're looking to make a cel-based gif, post, or short, you must take its presence to a certain extent (hell, I cover it!).

In add-on to airborne particulate, laser transparencies also seem to slurp up the trace amounts of oil present on human being fingertips and/or canine footpads (depending on who you live with). You're probably not going to exist inking and painting in a NASA cleanroom, but oil causes way more problems than dust, and I would strongly advise yous to invest in a pair of $2 cotton gloves, especially if you're inking past hand. Oil on the surface of your cel will prevent Republic of india ink from adhering exactly where you lot intend it to; ink applied on top of oil will pool into microbeads and dry with lil' bald spots amidst your lines. Perhaps this is my comic volume inking bias coming into play, only I prefer my ink linework to be clean af, or at least for the ink to dry exactly every bit I laid information technology down, sans interference from oily fingerprints or palm grease smudges (this probably makes it sound like I have exceptionally dirty hands. On a microscopic level, we all practise! I never paid attending to how much oil is on the surface of human skin until trying to ink and paint cels).

Punch Those Cels
Now that we're wearing our gloves, our commencement step is to dial our cels with a standard 3 pigsty punch (later on on during shooting we'll use a peg bar with circular pegs to keep our cels aligned). If you have access to an Pinnacle dial and corresponding peg bar, of course that works as well. Whichever y'all utilise, y'all must make a paper guide (e.g. with a small slice of record that marks where the border of each cel should sit during punching) to ensure that all of your dial holes align with each other. My dial tin handle nearly three cels at one time without jamming. This is a time-consuming step but of import to get correct if you want your frames to align.

"Sandwich Theory"

I similar to retrieve of a unmarried finished cel as a tasty media sandwich! Two slices of bread (the ink on top, the paint on the lesser) holding onto a thin slice of savory tofurky (the cel). Now, you wouldn't put two slices of bread on the aforementioned side of a sandwich, would you? Peradventure you run with an experimental crowd, merely to me that wouldn't even be a sandwich, information technology'd be a cold cutting relaxing on a stack of bread. I'm a few sentences in and you lot look really skeptical of this metaphor. The big takeaway is: the ink and the pigment keep OPPOSITE sides of the cel. Nosotros ink the fronts, then paint the backs. Equally a result of working this way, the camera (or scanner) sees the flat side of the paint, which is smooth-jazz smooth when viewed through the cel (dissimilar the bumpy side of the pigment, which is bumpy and casts shadows all over the place). Also, we tin can be a bit more carefree with our painting; since the ink lines will effectively be overlaid when viewed from the other side, nosotros don't have to worry nigh accidently painting over them.

Inking The Fronts

Recommended Inks

Black Ink for Transmission Application (cel front)

For inking with a brush or dip pen, I use Blackness Star Bharat ink, which was recommended to me by animator/director/generous DIY info sharer Anna Firth. It's very opaque, and sticks to plastic surfaces beautifully. For inking with a technical pen, I use Rapidograph Universal for Paper and Film. Try to get it in as large a canteen equally you tin afford. The 8oz version is an investment but ends up being low-cal years cheaper than the standard 3/4oz bottles.

Blackness Ink for Printed Application (cel front)

Typically I draw in black ink on paper, then scan my drawings, align the scans (stay tuned for a whole mail near this), and so print paradigm sequences direct onto light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation transparencies. I've got an entry level black and white Blood brother laser printer (cost = ~$100), and use the toner cartridges fabricated for it. I but accept to replace the cartridge almost once every 12 to xviii months. Yous could also animate linework in Photoshop, TVPaint, AE, Flash/Animate or your software of choice, and so export and print a png image sequence. Merely brand sure you're only exporting the linework – no colour! We'll be painting that on in the next pace.

One last note on printing: This probably depends on the printer model, only I've had better results running the cels through the transmission feed tray 1 at a fourth dimension, rather than using the regular paper tray. With my printer, dropping a stack of transparencies into the regular newspaper tray leads to jams and misfeeds every time.

If you printed, you're gear up to flip and paint the backs of your cels.

Drying The Inked Cels

If yous inked manually, I would wait anywhere from 6 to 18 hours for your ink to dry completely. Drying time depends on the ink used, how liberally it was applied, and the temperature, humidity, and ventilation in the room where you lot've set your cels to dry out.

I've used a blowdryer to dry some cels in a hurry, but I don't really recommend this! If y'all insist on trying information technology, apply the cool/no heat setting as hot air from a blowdryer can warp light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation transparencies pretty easily. Hold the dryer at least 12″ from the cel surface to prevent the air pressure from moving the ink. Also! If you utilise a blowdryer, cull a relatively make clean room, and dust/swiff/sweep that room outset, earlier bringing your cels into it. Yous don't desire to be bravado a bunch of dust straight onto your wet ink, inviting it to be baked in and stuck to your cels permanently.

In the by I've laid my cels out to air dry on every surface available, including the dinner table, my desk, kitchen counter, and floor. My housemates did not love this. I got a great tip from Maija Burnett recently that yous tin stack a bunch of sparse mailing boxes and put one cel into each — a inexpensive solution with a much smaller footprint! If there'south a printmaker in your life (or you are one yourself) you could use a screenprinting-blazon drying rack. Luxurious!

Painting The Backs

In undergrad I would buy cel paint in lilliputian 2oz clasp bottles at Cartoon Colour — they sold a great range of colors and it stale fast. Simply at this bespeak cel paint is nigh incommunicable to find. I've tried several potential alternatives in the by year, including watercolor gouache (love the opacity and wide range of off-the-shelf color options, only for me information technology dried a fleck stiff and flaked off eventually), tempera (beaded and flaked even worse), oils (never stale!), and acrylic (slow to dry out but worked pret-ty well), and screenprinting ink (my favorite — never would've though to try information technology and was very grateful for this tip from Ingo). Here are some recommendations:

White Paint for Manual Application (cel back)

I love this screenprinting ink. It'south gloopy and opaque and affordable:

Color Paint for Manual Application (cel back)

I look for screenprinting inks in any colors I need. Unfortunately almost art stores merely stock basic colors (some merely stock black and white). Then I supplement with cheap acrylics! Generic art store brands work fine for this. Some people swear by gouache simply in my experience, at least when paired with laser transparencies, inexpensive gouache will start to flake in a few months. Non sure nigh expensive gouache, because I was scared off by the price. I will say that one friend who actually knows paint, and who I asked for advice afterward the fact, told me to avert the specific brand of generic art store gouache I used, so my bad results are likely specific to that brand, and not gouache more generally. Also wow, I'm halfway through the article and I however can't spell gouache from retentiveness!

Painting: Beginning Laissez passer

Ok and then your cels are dry out and now it'south fourth dimension to pigment. I must acknowledge, as careful I am about inking, I'thousand much messier when I flip my dried inked cels for painting! Maybe this is considering I have no formal training in painting (outside of uncomplicated schoolhouse fingerpainting, which technically does count every bit "formal grooming"), and have no clue how to "properly" apply pigment. Only that'south proficient! Considering cel painting technique has little to do with painting on paper or canvass (or so I am told).

When painting cels, you lot're going to want to apply in "globs" or "blobs", besides known as "dabs" or "smooshes" depending on the region of the world in which you alive. Never apply with "strokes". As in the potentially future archetype DIY cel mnemonic I simply made up, "strokes atomic number 82 to streaks". And we don't want streaks; when applying pigment to a transparent medium, streaks = seethrough areas where the background shows through. Maybe yous're going for that. You exercise you. Really. But I do think that there's something very lovely to the eyeballs about cel paint that is thick enough to exist opaque, and for that level of opaqueness to exist vaguely consequent from frame to frame.

Painting: 2nd Pass (or "Spot Laissez passer")

Let your first pass dry partially (never reapply over areas that are still wet! you may pick up more than paint so you put downwards). And so go dorsum and do a spot pass — just a niggling impact upward on the bare spots or thinner areas, using smaller "splorches" (aka "dots" or "stipples"). I go through all of my cels sequentially doing the first pass, and past the time I get to the stop, my beginning cel is normally dry out enough to take a second application. In my experience 45 mins to an hour is usually enough dry fourth dimension between coats. You needn't wait for a complete dry out earlier starting your second pass — the advent of a robust puddin' skin on your first coat of paint should exist enough!

Simply Wait! An Alternate Approach: One-Coat "Ketchup" Method

I've always practical pigment in 2 passes, with one exception. In this i exam, I applied paint in ketchup-way stacked squiggles with a tiny clasp bottle (squeeze bottle came from the dollar section of an art store). The painting process was fun and like shooting fish in a barrel, specially for someone similar me who is a chip impuissant with a brush. At first blush this approach may sound faster and more efficient. It does shorten the "agile fourth dimension", but overall it'southward much slower; squeeze bottle application increased the average paint thickness, which pb to a drying time of over 3 days in mild Fall weather! That said, if you've got a drying rack and fourth dimension to await, the ketchup method TM may exist right for you.

Drying The Painted Cels

As with drying after inking, you're going to accept to exist patient. Waiting for the paint to dry takes much longer than the ink. Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. After 24 hours, you lot tin can start pressing on the bumpiest, most raised parts of the paint to test for dryness. If pressing on the bumps smushes them, they're not ready to shoot! If the bumps have dried hard, you're good to go.

A stack of dried animation cels depicting a dog on a scooter. — The video at the top of the commodity uses this 4-cel cycle, slid beyond the scene.

Shooting Your Cels

I'm going to rush through this pace — there are a lot of ideas out there for DIY downshooter setups, merely that's kind of beyond the telescopic of this article. The gist of it is: light downshooter-style with two lights shining downward from reverse 45-ish caste angles. Tape your peg bar to your work surface (downshooter base / desk / table). Tape or blue-tak downward your background, then lay downwards your cels on top of that, and shoot them 1 at a time using a smartphone, or digital camera + Dragonframe. Hit each cel front and dorsum with compressed air before shooting a frame. If you lot're really worried about flickery reflections due to the floppiness of these transparencies and uneven pigment thickness, yous could put a pocket-size sail of tempered glass (or regular glass borrowed from whatsoever picture frame) on top of your cel and bg, to hold them flat. This would achieve something like to the swing-away pressure plate establish on an Oxberry animation camera stand up. To exist honest I don't bother with this. Since my cels are in an IKEA hacked multiplane, there are some minor reflections already so I'm embracing it as a role of the visual style. (UPDATE: alternately, yous could scan your cels. I've never tried this, only run across Anna Firth's recent tutorial on how she approaches animating on cels for the full details.)

Storing Your Cels

You don't desire to store your cels so the paint from one comes into directly contact with the ink of another. Instead, I'd recommend putting i sheet of tracing newspaper between each cel, so temperature fluctuations don't liquify your paint and cause adjacent cels to stick together. If you can, identify cels into manila folders and store them on edge. The pressure from stacking them can lead to additional sticking. I've also tried putting a canvas of regular copy newspaper betwixt each cel. Information technology worked pretty well, but information technology lead to more than sticking than tracing newspaper. I'k curious about parchment newspaper, which is used for nonstick baking. I'll update the commodity once I've tried that.

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, going through this very hard process myself left me in awe of the incredible skill, draftsmanship, and technical expertise present in ink and paint departments in the studio system equally information technology existed in the mid 20th century United states. Ink and Paint was staffed largely past highly skilled women artists, who were given very few opportunities in an manufacture which absolutely could not function without them (until layoffs driven by the development of xerography and digital paint tools, in that order, rendered them "obsolete"). The loss of institutional noesis driven by these layoffs is staggering. Yeah, very few people working today accept any interest in the traditional cel process, but for anyone who is excited at its possibilities, its a chilling thing to retrieve about. For an in-depth, eye-opening look at this story, check out Mindy Johnson'south amazing book, Ink & Paint, The Women of Walt Disney's Animation.

What does it mean to repossess ink and paint every bit an blitheness filmmaker? When traditionally directors couldn't have been further from the procedure, whether that exist due to overseas outsourcing or the unfair labeling of ink and paint as a "pink neckband" job. (I approximate the peachy exception here is the secret animation of the ~'60s-`80s). There's something deliciously punk rock well-nigh working on cels and doing ink and pigment yourself! And non caring virtually cleanliness in the process. Leaving in the mess-ups, the pigment splatters, the accidents, the lightening flash of a blonde canis familiaris hair — of owning and uplifting analog ink and paint every bit something personal and important — an essential and wrongfully maligned office of the blitheness process.

Perhaps at some point I'll update this article with some explanatory pics. In the mean time, accept fun with process and experience free to reach out with whatsoever questions or findings!

New Information!

Anna Firth has written upwards her cel animation process, using real-deal animation cels (non light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation transparencies), for the tutorials section of her website!
Phoebe Parsons has written upwardly her cel blitheness process (using overhead transparency moving picture), and shared a studio tour, correct here on DIY Animation Society.
I recently purchased a very large lot of scene folders containing cels from a few different 1980s Saturday Morning time Cartoons. These came from a generous Ebay seller who gave me a deal based on information technology beingness for educational purposes. In examining them advisedly, I noticed that a lot of these cels had the ink on the *backs* of the cels (on same side as the paint). This was very surprising to me. Could this be due to a quirk of the particular studio? Could it accept been an accident? Or did things change with the switch to photostat/photocopy (ie. copy linework onto cel back, then pigment on top of that)? If you take any inside info, I'd love to hear it…