Animation Art Terminology
A mini dictionary to explain common terms you will hear on the road of your cel/animation art collecting journey.
Background (背景)
Backgrounds are usually drawn and painted with watercolor or gouache paint. Acrylic is not normal...
Cel (セル画)
Cels (celga/セル画) are the finished product of the animation process. A cel is made from transferr...
Production Cel Types
A further breakdown of the types of cels you will run into and what people are generally talking ...
Opening (OP) Cel, Ending Cel (ED)
These are the cels that make up the opening of the show. Most shows have 1 opening that is animat...
END cels / "A1 END" cels / Tome (止) Cels
An END cel (marked with either END/ E/ or the kanji 止) is the last cel in an animation sequence. ...
Key Cel
Bank Cel
A bank cel refers to a cel that is used/filmed repeatedly rather than remade for every instance t...
Eyecatch Cel
In many anime series', there is a commercial break about halfway through the episode (depending o...
Book Cel
Book cels usually refer to a full setup of multiple layers including backgrounds. The setup will...
Backlit Cel
A backlit cel is a type of special effects cel. The typical way to figure out if your cel is bac...
Kabuse Cel (Correction Layer)
Kabuse cels (also known as correction layers) are layers added to fix mistakes in the original ce...
SFX Cel (Special Effects Cel)
Special Effects cels refers any cels made to create special effects. This includes airbrushing an...
Pan / Oversized Cel (大判 セル画)
Pan or oversized cels are larger-than-normal cels which are used for a panning effect. "Pan" is s...
Harmony
Harmonies are traditionally highly sought after cels, as they area made differently from the trad...
Hanken Cel (版権セル) / Hanken sketch (版権原動画)
Hanken cels are super rare one of kind cels made for use in for in promotional items like magazin...
Color Test/Model Cels
Like settei/character models, model cels are references that help a film/series remain consistent...
Concept Art
This type of art is created and used during the pre-production phase of a project; often when the...
Douga (動画)
Douga (動画) roughly translates to moving image and is sometimes translated into "video". Douga are...
Genga (原画)
The genga (原画) step takes the rough movements and polishes them into more detailed sketches these...
In-Betweens
The cleaned dougas are then sent to the in-betweeners to animate the weird in between pieces that...
Layout (レイアウト)
Layout drawings (レイアウト) are sketches of a scene. They will be more detailed than a storyboard, b...
Rough Genga
Rough gengas are usually a precursor to the next step they can be detailed bet generally they are...
Settei Sets/Model Sheets (設定)
Settei/Models (設定) are drawn by a character designer and define what a character should look like...
Shuusei/Correction
A Shuusei is another word for a correction, a shuusei is drawn by the Animation Director of the e...
Storyboard (絵コンテ)
Like live action TV, animation production involves storyboards. In both cases, storyboards are us...
Timing Sheet (タイムシート)
Timing sheets contain instructions on how each part of a sequence/cut are to be animated for a...
Non-Production Cels
Cels that were not created in the regular production of Anime creation
Fan Cel (同人セル)
Fan cels are unofficial fan made works. They are typically made by hand inking, printing, or phot...
Rilezu
A Rilezu is a newish sort of reproduction, they are not Production pieces persay, however, a true...
Reproduction Cel (Repro)
DIY Cel
In the 80's/90's, Do it Yourself/DIY cel kits were released for fans to paints themselves. The li...