Cels Forum

Hi all!

I've read the threads regarding computer plot versus pencil sketch (sparked
by my auction, no doubt). I believe too many people here are confusing the 
terminology around completely and that's misleading (unitentionally).
Having 
been in this industry for a long time, and collected cels for a while 
(including some Disney, Warner Bros. etc.), as well as having taken cel 
classes and actually WATCHED production work being done on an animated 
series, I believe I am knowledgable enough to differentiate. 

A pencil sketch is done BY HAND. It is a rough that the animator/designer 
does. It is NEVER perfect lines. It may be colored, although usually it is 
simply in lead pencil. These are worth more in a cel package because of the
time put into them. A computer plot - which everyone around here is 
incorrectly calling a pencil sketch - is a computer's PRINT OUT of what the
pencil sketch is. Basically, it takes the pencil sketch, runs it through a 
computer and plots out the points. The animator then goes and fixes the 
"ruffage" so that the image will be clean. He prints it out. The cel
painter 
uses this computer plot, as do many others in the production sequence. 
Sometimes a computer plot is written on by an animator to make some note.
It 
is very much like a CAD file, in this way. Computer plots are worth LESS
than 
pencil sketches because they are not done by hand. However, to get one with
your cel increases its value than if the cel had not come with one.

The Ferio cel I currently have up for auction on EBAY IS a computer plot
with 
a cel - NOT a pencil stetch.

Please read part two