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Art Terms & Definitions

One of One: This is a premium production drawing, usually framed side by side with a matching hand-painted, one-of-a-kind cel created from the that drawing. Many one of one presentations feature characters and qualities virtually impossible to find in any form other than limited editions. Although studios routinely destroyed and discarded cels, they may have retained some of the production drawings. Using these drawings, studio artists ink and hand-paint a matching cel identical to the original production cel...a limited edition recreation of it in an edition size of just one. The drawing and cel may be signed by the director or directing animator. The one of one cel is usually numbered '1/1'.


Pencil Model Sheet: A group of original pencil drawings on one sheet that illustrate an animated character in a variety of poses and expressions. The model sheet may consist of several final drawings cut from other paper and mounted together on a new sheet. The production or final Model sheets are then lithographed and distributed to the animation team to ensure a uniform look and feel to a character throughout a production.


Production Background: An original background painting used in the final version of an animated film or short. The background establishes the location and overall mood of the scene. Typically, a background layout artist creates a drawing to establish the content of the scene, placement of characters, perspective and camera angle. Based on this drawing, the background artist creates a preliminary painting to confirm all of the scenes details, then the final production background which is used in the filming of the scene. Backgrounds which contain specific subject matter or content that identifies a particular scene or the film or cartoon are referred to as Master Backgrounds.


Production Cel & Background Setup: An original production cel combined with a production background used in the final version of an animated film or short. Typically, cels and backgrounds may be matched after the filmmaking process for aesthetic reasons. A Keyed Setup is the production cel and the production background matched together as used in the filming of the scene. This is extremely rare, since there may be hundreds of production cels used to film a scene which uses only one production background.


Studio Background: A non-production background prepared by the studio for publicity or presentation purposes.


Hand-prepared Background: A non-production background prepared by a studio artist to enhance or complete a cel setup.


Cel Setup: A cel or cels usually combined with a background. A cel setup may have one or more levels of cels overlaid on the background.


Storyboard Drawing: Any drawing or sequence of drawings used to describe the plot of a film visually. Typically, these rough drawings depict the overall theme or scenario of a brief moment in the film. When viewed together, the directors and lead animators can edit the story before animation is started. Storyboard drawings are typically smaller than standard 12 field animation drawings, depending on the studio, year and production.


Background Drawing or Layout: A sketch used as the basis for a background painting with the placement and action of the characters in that scene, occasionally with color highlights. Drawings or layouts may show proposed action of animated characters with characters roughly drawn in blue or red pencil.


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