Bugs
Bunny,
Tom
&
Jerry
and
Mickey
Mouse
are
all
examples
of
reflective
flat
art
animation.
"Reflective"
refers
to
the
art
work
being
lit
from
the
front
(as
opposed
to
being
lit
from
behind,
like
a
transparency)
and
reflected
into
the
lens
of
the
camera.
The
many
animated
drawings
that
overlap
each
other
are
generally
done
on
a
transparent
sheet
of
material
called
an
animation
"cel"
(cellulose
-
then
acetate
was
used,
and
then
Mylar,
but
they're
still
called
cels).
Cels
are
piled
on
top
of
each
other,
each
cel
adding
an
element
to
the
entire
scene.
Shooting
a
sequence
of
a
character
standing
still
and
waving
their
arm
would
work
something
like
this:
The
cel
on
the
bottom
is
a
painted
background.
The
cel
in
the
middle
is
the
character's
entire
body,
less
an
appendage
(the
waving
arm).
The
top
cel
has
just
the
waving
arm.
The
stacked
and
registered
cels
form
an
entire
scene.
To
save
the
time
and
labor
of
animating
this
sequence,
only
the
top
cel
of
the
arm
would
be
animated.
A
cycle
of
12
different
arm
positions
could
be
painted,
the
last
cel
terminating
in
the
identical
position
as
the
first
cel,
creating
a
seamless,
looping
effect,
or
a
cycle
that
can
go
on
indefinitely.
To
prevent
the
stacked
layers
of
cels
from
floating
around,
registration
holes
are
punched
on
the
bottom
edge
of
every
cel.
The
cels
are
fitted
over
a
set
of
registration
pegs
on
the
animation
"compound"
(the
lit
work
area
which
the
lens
is
aimed
at)
to
keep
the
cels
in
the
stack
properly
positioned.
This
is
known
as
"registration"
-
just
like
the
registration
pins
in
a
camera
keep
the
film
from
floating
around
and
getting
jittery,
the
registration
pegs
keep
the
art
work
from
floating
around
and
getting
jittery.
Registration
has
to
do
with
image
steadiness
-
in
front
or
behind
the
lens.
Traditional
animation
is
tedious
work
at
best.
If
you
find
it
intriguing,
check
out
some
animation
books
out
of
the
library
for
a
more
in-depth
explanation
or
consider
the
miracle
of
computer
animation
where
you
never
run
out
of
expensive
cells
or
ten
dollar
paint
tubes
and
several
thousand
square
feet
of
clean
storage
for
your
forklift,
pallets
and
stacks
of
animation
cels
that
would
otherwise
fit
on
a
single
CD-ROM
if
you
had
done
it
on
a
computer
instead.
