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What is an animation cel?
An animation cel (celluloid) is a paper-thin transparent plastic sheet, regularly about 10.5 x 12.5” (27 x 32 cm) in size. Before the 40's, celluloid nitrate was commonly used, which was then replaced with acetate sheets, and used until around the 2000's when computers took over animation. Animation cels are the actual images we see in the cartoons, where each and every little movement consist of a unique cel, which togheter create the illusion of movement. The backgrounds on the other hand are drawn on a thick paper and stays for a longer moment on screen than the animation cels, which means less of them are made.
Off-site link for more about animation cels:
What does the process look like? Like alot of american cartoons, Jem was animated in Japanese animation studios (aswell as probably in some other countries). First when creating cels, the animators follow a storyboard. To draw the characters appearances correctly the animators look at model cels. Since the voice recording is often done before the episodes are animated, the animators have to make sure to follow the same pace in scenes, movements and even lip-movements. Then pencil sketches, "dougas", are then created, which are used as patterns to transfer the drawings onto the cel sheets. The coloring paint is painted on the back of the sheet. The colors are usually applied one by one on each of the cels in a sequence, and when the previous color has dried, the next color is applied to them all.
Off-site link for more about animation cels:
What should I know when buying a cel?
Some things that determine the value are:
Worthless cels, as far as I'm concerned, are cels that go by any of the following: "Sericels", "publicity cels", "limited edition cels", "lithographs". Many times you can't tell any difference looking at them in pictures online, but these are not original cels used anywhere in the production of a cartoon, nor unique. These are printed copies, or created for publicity reasons, and produced in a certain amount. What can you tell me about Jem cels? Jem is considered to be a rare cartoon to find cels from. But at the same time Jem was made in as much as 65 episodes, hundreds of cels from Jem have shown up, from many different episodes, but the amount of current serious collectors are raising the prices. Except for pre-production model cels, animation cels are the most sought after when it comes to Jem, and the least rare are the model cels. Here is a look at some of the Jem cels that have shown up. Some from the story of the episodes, some from music videos, and some even not included in the cartoon since they are from cut out scenes. Here is a comparison of what it looked like once they were included on the show. One thing you will notice is that alot of the time, each character was drawn on a separate cel, so in several of these cels the characters standing around the main character aren't included. Another difference, is that whenever there's a light/glow effect, it was usually not drawn, but applied afterwards. Episodes:
No actual animation cels have ever appeared from the first five episodes. But here is a list of other
episodes cels have shown up from:
In Search Of The Stolen Album:
This episode is probably one of the episodes where most cels were saved.
This is another episode where alot of the cels were taken care of.
Hollywood Jem Part One: For Your Consideration...:
The Stingers Hit Town Part One:
The Stingers Hit Town Part Two:
Unidentified:
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