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History
Celluloid was introduced in 1869. It was comprised of nitrocellulose and camphor. When mixed, the two components made a tough plasticized material. The material was clear and could not be broken down by the application of paints, water and diluted acids. In 1914, Earl Hurd experimented with cellulose. He developed a process to ink characters onto the sheets of transparent celluloid. That same year the John Bray studio, where Hurd worked, created the first successful cartoon show, "Col. Heeza Liar." The studio "borrowed" Hurd's patent on celluloid animation. The head of the studio, John Bray, charged other studios royalties for the use of the process in their projects. This process started the incredible animation industry, but Earl Hurd never profited from it other than to continue on in his job at the Bray studio.
CEL Characters
Characters are drawn first by the lead animator on a story board. The large board will depict the entire project. The story board project is roughed out to give reference to an entire team for the work ahead. Assistant animators will draw the characters on the cellulose sheets. The characters are drawn in ink on one side of the celluloid. Clean-up artists and "in betweeners" will draw in secondary characters. The sheets will then be turned over to a painter, who will paint the colors of the character on the reverse side. The paintings are actually painted in reverse or backward. This keeps the colors framed within the inked lines and gives a more finished appearance. From an artistic point of view, this is an incredible process. The highlights are painted in first. The artist will then paint the background colors of the character or his clothing. Take Bugs Bunny, for example. He is holding a carrot near his mouth. The horizontal, dashed lines of the carrot peeling will be painted in first. Next, the artist will lay in the lighter orange shades. The last layer of paint will be the deep orange background of the carrot. Simply stated, this is hard, meticulous work.
Film
To complete the process, an artist prepares the cel art for film. The celluloid sheets are placed over a painted background and photographed by a special animation camera. The painted background will be used over and over as cel sheets are replaced, one after another. An eight-minute animation film can take 7,000 pieces of celluloid with completed cel characters on it. Frame by frame, photos will depict movement from thousands of paintings, which bring the characters "to life." Once all of the cels have been photographed, the film is sent out for processing at the studio lab.
Cel Characters as Collectible Art
If eight minutes of film can use 7,000 pieces of celluloid sheets, can you imagine how many cels are created for an entire show or animated film? The earliest cels had nitrate in them. This would cause the cels to degrade quickly and become highly flammable. Those cels have been destroyed. Artists and developers produced a celluloid that used acetate and polymers, which are nonflammable. These cels have been sold for many years. In 1955, when Disneyland opened, a shop named "Art Corner" was set up in "Tomorrowland." Bins of the best cel art pieces were selected by studio artists to be sold in the store. The cels were matted and had gold labels that read "Art Corner" placed on them. These cels are valuable today. They are the only official art pieces from the Disney Art Program. They sold from 1955 to the mid 1970s, when the store was shut down.
Vintage Cel Characters
A cel character collector has a wide variety of sources from which to purchase cartoon and animated film cels. Characters on celluloid film may be matted and framed with backgrounds. A rare find would be a painted cel with an original painted background that has been signed. Signatures of value are from lead animators, a person who is the "voice" of a favorite character or the studio heads.
The signatures of Walt Disney, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera boost the value of a cel. Collectors search and buy from auctions, galleries, collectors, eBay, animation studios and Internet sites. A beginner collector can find cels for under $500 to start a nice collection with a favorite character or film. Certificates of authenticity are important to a serious collector. Vintage cels will have the complete art process all done by hand. The vintage collector will recognize the value of hand-inked and painted cels, even if the paint is chipped a bit. Age can cause chipping but does not decrease the value of the cel. These works of art are collectors items to be passed down through the generations.
Rare and Valuable Cels
In 1923, Roy and Walt Disney produced a series of live action combined with animation films named "The Alice Comedies." This started their amazing film industry. In 1937, the animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was released worldwide. In October 2004, more than 65 years later, a painted cel of the Wicked Queen went up for bid at a Heritage Signature Auction in Dallas, Texas. It was reported in the Diamond Galleries Scoop Internet newsletter that the single cel sold for $13,000. Rare, mint-condition cels can be worth a lot of money.