Cel

A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation.

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.

The outline of the images are drawn on the front of the cel while colors are painted on the back to eliminate brushstrokes.

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.

For example, a large "pan" cel depicting numerous characters from the finale of Who Framed Roger Rabbit sold for $50,600 at Sotheby's in 1989, including its original background.