Cell Animation

Cel Animation

History

Gertie the Dinosaur was the first Cel animated cartoon it took American animator Windsor McCay 3 years to create the 12 minute film back in 1914. It took so long in production because he redrew every single scene which is clearly visible in the cartoon, the background looks like it has parkinson's disease.

Scene from Gertie the Dinosaur

How it works

Once all the cels have been inked and painted, they are given to the camera person who photographs the backgrounds, along with their matching cels, according to the instructions on the dope sheet. The processed film, vocal tracks, music and sound tracks are then synchronized and edited together. The final film is sent to the lab to make a film project print or to be put on video. If the studio is employing digital equipment, all these stages happen in the computer before the finished film is output.

Advantages - it is very fluent and can look amazing if it is done professionally, it has endless amounts of variety (given you have the artistic ability)

Disadvantages - it still takes alot of time to animate and finalize, you need a camera (which would be expensive back in the early 1900's), you need to be a good artist.

Cartoons that used Cel animation

• Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, 1928)
• Snow white (Walt Disney, 1937)
• Dumbo (Walt Disney, 1941)
• Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942)
• Alice in wonderland (Walt Disney, 1951)

Below is the first Cel animated cartoon along with some history and background about the creators, skip to about 7 minutes in for the cartoon itself.