The Energon Pub

Sid Burn wrote:

Evil FurryCon wrote:60 fps? Heh! TFs were animated more like 8 fps... =)

Cel painting died after Little Mermaid... and hand animation
at Lilo and Stitch! =(

RIP

Ah, I think you have been misinformed. Although Flash and CG animation are very popular today, a streamlined version of cel animation is still widely used. Cartoons like teen titans arent flash cartoons or cg, how exactly did you think they were being produced? I can think of half a dozen cartoons that are on right now that are cel animated, albeit the technique is more streamlined but cel animated nonetheless.

If you mean the difference between traditional pen and ink animation and digital pen and ink animation, the difference isnt as dramatic as you think. the difference is drawing on a tablet as opposed to a cel, the images are still being hand drawn and animated.

Absolutely correct. Traditional cel animation is deceased in the terms of the use of cels, but the images used in digimation still originate with the handmade drawings. These drawings exist both domestically and internationally and can still be collected but for newer series you will not find any production cels anymore. One of the last Japanese animation films to actually use complete production cels was Millenium Actress by Satoshi Kon. Even Spirted Away by the famed Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli no longer used pure production cels.

Fortress_Maximus wrote:Good cel of Megs. How much did it put you back?

About your question how to store, temporarily remove it from the existing cel back and/or matting if it included one. Replace them and put the cel into a archival quality cel bag. Think larger comic or magazine bags if you need a visual reference. You will need to cut some of the corners to allow the fumes to be released and to allow the cel bag to release the excess air. Also since you are in the limbo process of framing your cel, you will need to know some facts about production cels:

5) Do a lot more research on the TF cel market b/c it is not for the faint of heart, poor credit or low of funds. Know and understand that most high end cels RARELY IF EVER leave collections. Having said that do not be surprised not to find anything for choice popular characters and if they do appear expect to spend upwards of 7k easily.

Looks like I got QUITE a deal. Someone told me under $700 is very good. And I got it for less than that!

So this is not something you can basically display at all hours of the day on a wall, because it will deteriorate? I have to keep it under wraps most of the time? That is too bad, but something I figured might happen.

THANK YOU for such thorough info!!!!

It is from S.O.S. Dinobots. It's funny, because the frame is just from a split second of Megatron turning around although it looks much more menacing!

Cels have been in use in cartoons since 1915. Prior to that, everything in the scene was redrawn for every frame.

They were originally called 'cels' because of the mistaken assumption that they were made of celluloid(back then they were actually made of highly flammable nitrous acetate).

I made some cels a few years ago. You draw the ink lines on the front of the acetate and paint the colour on the reverse. There is no danger of painting over the lines! Transformer cels weren't hand-inked though, just hand coloured. They would've used the xerox process thats been in use since the sixties where they photocopied the paper drawings directly onto the cel.

Of course with computers, cels aren't really in use anymore. Nowadays you'd scan in the drawing or draw in directly with a wacom tablet. So you won't find cels from any recently animated show.

Evil FurryCon wrote:60 fps? Heh! TFs were animated more like 8 fps... =)

Cel painting died after Little Mermaid... and hand animation
at Lilo and Stitch! =(

RIP

Reports of the death of hand-drawn animation have been greatly exaggerated. The Japanese haven't stopped doing anime, and many tv cartoons are still 2d, including obviously the upcoming Transformers series.

The big American studios were quick to abandon the technique for theatrical films. Dreamworks quit after their Sinbad flopped, Warner Bros after Looney Tunes, and Fox after Titan AE. Disney shuttered their 2d department after Home on the Range. But they've since come under new management and have new films in development.

Starscream wrote:

Fortress_Maximus wrote:Good cel of Megs. How much did it put you back?

About your question how to store, temporarily remove it from the existing cel back and/or matting if it included one. Replace them and put the cel into a archival quality cel bag. Think larger comic or magazine bags if you need a visual reference. You will need to cut some of the corners to allow the fumes to be released and to allow the cel bag to release the excess air. Also since you are in the limbo process of framing your cel, you will need to know some facts about production cels:

5) Do a lot more research on the TF cel market b/c it is not for the faint of heart, poor credit or low of funds. Know and understand that most high end cels RARELY IF EVER leave collections. Having said that do not be surprised not to find anything for choice popular characters and if they do appear expect to spend upwards of 7k easily.

Looks like I got QUITE a deal. Someone told me under $700 is very good. And I got it for less than that!

So this is not something you can basically display at all hours of the day on a wall, because it will deteriorate? I have to keep it under wraps most of the time? That is too bad, but something I figured might happen.

THANK YOU for such thorough info!!!!

Yeah you got a good deal. But for the price I was quoted earlier that's for matching backgrounds too AND it has to be an excellently positioned character in excellent condition.

Yes you cannot display it at all hours of the day. Sorry you can try but while it will take longer for the tracelines to fade if you have it protected with UV resistent glass and archival quality matting, the cel WILL STILL eventually fade. Either the paint will lose it's vibrance and/or the tracelines will fade. Odds are the tracelines will go first.

Most cel collectors sparingly frame their cels b/c getting it done professionally costs $200-$500+. Sure you can do it yourself but only if you really have LOTS of practice assembling the doublemats, frame, UV resistant glass, etc.

Again if you need more information, feel free to PM. Good luck.

It looks like I won't be buying a cel. I didn't think it could deteriate that much :O

To bad, would be cool to have your own piece of Transformer history, 1 of a kind !

Depends on the trace.. 60s Hanna-barbera cels were inked with
markers... and markers on cels usually fade super fast!

Not sure what they used before xerox but Indian ink sticks
nicely to cel surfaces and washes away with water again...
leaving only pen scratches and that's what every studio did
during the war years!

I dunno if xerox fades at all.. but I've had 15 normally
framed bluth cels up for 10 years which were, before I
bought them, stored up in messy piles for another 10 and I
see no problem with them nor the
Back-from-korea-and-straight-under-glass-Studio-store-framed WB cels...

Bluths looked really filthy and sorry-ass at first but everything
washed away nicely with lil patience.... I also got rid of
small unwanted xerox specs but left all sketchy lines in,
turpentine-toothpicking them a bit! =)

Net's full of animation art dealers... TF cels aren't
irreplacebly expensive like ...say Snow White...
Study techniques used over the decades and compare prices...

Even the crappiest cels can be restored professionally
... tho i think it'd lose a lot of it's authencity when all
paint is repainted and lines redrawn! =)

Just have yer Meg framed, and enjoy it daily on the shadiest wall! It'll last your expected lifetime fer sure. =)



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just put it in a picture frame i have an offical animation cell but it is not of transofrmers its one of the the characters for the new batman and robin series volume four character bane other animation cells i have are transformers reproductions probaly got them with a couple season box sets i have of the transformers series generation 1 sets size of postcards but still nice to look at.

where did you get it and how much you got it for.?