Understanding the art of animation:
RESEARCH DESIGN
Also called a "rough", this is the artist's first step. Made with a blue or black pencil, it expresses the initial energy of a scene or character.
These sketches often show pentimenti, multiple lines, and deliberate hesitations. This is what gives them a spontaneity that is not found in any other stage of production.
Roughs are particularly sought after by collectors who appreciate the creative process, as they show the animation in its raw state, before any cleanup.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
More refined than the rough, the production drawing is used directly in the making of the film. Each movement, each expression goes through several of these drawings, numbered and placed in the exact order of animation.
Pencil annotations are often found on them: sequence number, camera marks, timing indications. These traces are an integral part of the work; they bear witness to the industrial and artisanal process that brought the characters to life.
It is an actual fragment of the original film.
PAINTED CELLULOID
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which the character is hand-painted, frame by frame. Each cel was then layered over a painted background, and then photographed to create a fraction of a second of animation.
A 90-minute film could require over 100,000 cels. Most were destroyed, recycled, or lost after filming, making the survivors all the more valuable.
Cels are the most iconic pieces of classic animation: they show the character as they appeared on screen.
THE ORIGINAL SET
Painted in gouache or watercolour on cardboard, the original background sets the visual framework for each scene: landscape, interior, lighting atmosphere.
These pieces are often works of art in their own right: masterfully composed, with a carefully chosen palette and remarkable attention to detail. They were created by specialized artists, separate from the animators, whose work remained in the shadows for a long time.
A single background could serve as the backdrop for dozens of different cels within the same sequence. It sometimes bears traces of handling, such as slight creases or marks from positioning tape, which bear witness to its actual use in the studio.
MASTER SET UP
A master set-up brings together an original cel and a background, presented together to recreate an image from the film as it appeared on screen.
When the cel and background come from the same scene and were used together during filming, it is called a key master set-up. This is the rarest piece of classic animation, a true frame from the film.
There are also master set-ups where the cel is paired with a production background from the same film, but not necessarily from the same scene. These pairings remain highly valuable pieces, as they place the character back in their original visual world.
In both cases, the majority of cels and backgrounds were separated after production, scattered, or destroyed. Finding these elements together has become exceptional.