I am working on bringing Traditional Hand Painted Cel Animation back.

Hey guys, how are you all doing?

     All summer long I've been working on bringing cel animation back. If you don't know, animation cels are simply transparencies that you ink with a dip pen on one side and paint with acrylic paint on the other side. These animation cels would then be overlayed over a gouache background and photographed with a 35mm film camera. This was how it was done before the advent of digital ink and paint. The last show to use this technique was Sazae-San and they actually stopped using it only 4 years ago.

     Last year, I was watching this video by Brandon Kouri where he recreated a scene from Snow White using animation cels. It got me interested in using this technique and I wanted to give it a go. I decided that I would actually do it not by scanning, but by actually using 35mm Fuji Provia 100f film. Needless to say, it was scary experience as I was worried how would my first ever animation would turn out. Last month my film scans got back and the good news is that I am pleased with the results.

    I decided that my animation should be called "The Animated Spangled Banner." It uses 12 different paint colors and 50 animation cels. The reason why I wanted to do the American flag as my first animation is because I want to display my appreciation for living in this country and to address a pet peeve. I have always noticed and am personally annoyed that the American flag is usually drawn incorrectly in animation. To resolve this, I animated my American flag with all 13 stripes and 50 stars in the correct orientation. The date that The Animated Spangled Banner will come out is on October 20, 2018. I will come back to this page with the link to video on that date. Looking forward to seeing you all to celebrate the return of cel animation.

:)

By the way, do any of you guys know how to upload photos here on AWN? This way I can show you guys a frame of my animation that proves that I working with animation cels.