Cel animation

Cel animation is a technique in which figures are drawn or painted on transparent sheets and photographed over backgrounds. Reusing backgrounds while changing the cels creates the illusion of movement.

Animation: The process of creating the illusion of movement through a sequence of images. Cel animation is one frame-by-frame method within this broader art form.
Winsor McCay: An American cartoonist and animator known for pioneering hand-drawn films such as Gertie the Dinosaur. His films helped establish animation before cel production became standard.
Key frame: A drawing that defines a major pose or moment in an animated sequence. Key frames set the principal poses that cel drawings must depict.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Walt Disney Productions' 1937 feature film, the first full-length cel-animated feature produced in the United States. Its layered, hand-painted production demonstrated cel animation at feature-film scale.
Stop motion: Animation made by photographing physical objects in successive positions, moving them slightly between exposures. It creates motion by repositioning objects rather than changing drawings on cels.
Cel: A transparent sheet used to hold painted or drawn elements in traditional animation. The movable figures are painted on these sheets and layered over backgrounds.
John Randolph Bray: An American animator and producer who developed early methods for organizing and mass-producing animated films. His production patents and studio practices helped industrialize cel animation.
Background painting: A painted scene used behind characters and foreground elements in animation or film. A stable painted background can be photographed repeatedly beneath changing cels.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed: Lotte Reiniger's 1926 silhouette-animated feature, made with articulated figures and backlit cutouts. It offers a contemporary alternative to painted cels through layered silhouette animation.
Cutout animation: Animation made by moving flat, separate shapes and photographing them frame by frame. It uses movable pieces instead of newly drawn figures on transparent sheets.

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