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Book cels usually refer to a full setup of multiple layers including backgrounds.  The setup will include the main background, the characters or character involved in the scene, and then another layer that is actually part of the background. The example below ...

A backlit cel is a type of special effects cel.  The typical way to figure out if your cel is backlit, is, when you look at the back of your cel the paint on the back has been covered with another layer of black acrylic paint.  This was done so that when they ...

Kabuse cels (also known as correction layers) are layers added to fix mistakes in the original cel painting. These mistakes can be anything from using the wrong color to messing up the painted cel itself. Depending on the scene, budget, and animation procedure...

Special Effects cels refers any cels made to create special effects. This includes airbrushing and other methods like backlighting/masking.

Pan or oversized cels are larger-than-normal cels which are used for a panning effect. "Pan" is short for "panoramic" and refers to how the camera has to pan/travel across the frame to reveal more of the image.  Pan cels can be horizontally, vertically, and so...

Harmonies are traditionally highly sought after cels, as they area made differently from the traditional cel.  In the case of a harmony there is little to no paint on the cel and only lines on the acetate, and the colors are traditionally only painted on the b...

Hanken cels are super rare one of kind cels made for use in for in promotional items like magazines, cards, merchandise, posters, calendars, etc. They are usually made by an animation director, character designer, or senior animator. Hanken cels are usually ha...

Like settei/character models, model cels are references that help a film/series remain consistent. While character models define how a character should look, model cels define what color(s) they should be. These cels are often simple and may feature one or sev...

This type of art is created and used during the pre-production phase of a project; often when the production committee is deciding whether to give it the green light.  This may include: proposals, cels, sketches, and painted art.  Disney has been known to use ...

Douga (動画) roughly translates to moving image and is sometimes translated into "video". Douga are the cleaned up/polished versions of genga sketches.  During the animation process genga ( key frame drawings) are made and then in the next step are sent to the d...

The genga (原画) step takes the rough movements and polishes them into more detailed sketches these are drawn and redrawn again and again as needed, at this step the Key animator will work closely with the animation director to get the exact key points in the mo...

The cleaned dougas are then sent to the in-betweeners to animate the weird in between pieces that are between key cels/sketches.  Some are great looking others can just be awkward because they were never meant to be seen!  The way to identify an in-between is ...

Layout  drawings (レイアウト) are sketches of a scene. They will be more detailed than a storyboard, but still rougher than the final animation. Where a final animation drawing will be dedicated to a particular cel layer, a layout drawings will generally contain el...

Rough gengas are usually a precursor to the next step they can be detailed bet generally they are VERY rough and in some cases almost stick figures to help plan out the movement of the character (s)  in the sequence.  Most times these sketches are not numbered...

Settei/Models (設定) are drawn by a character designer and define what a character should look like. Everyone involved in production (primary animators, "in-betweeners", directors, etc.) will reference settei/models to ensure that the characters look uniform. Wh...

A Shuusei is another word for a correction, a shuusei is drawn by the Animation Director of the episode and sometimes if you are lucky you will find one done by the Chief Animation Director...  It depends on how hands on both directors are and how important th...

Like live action TV, animation production involves storyboards. In both cases, storyboards are used to show the flow of a scene, character positions, movement, camera angles, tone, etc. A storyboard may include notes about or lines from a scene. Additionally, ...

Timing sheets contain instructions on how each part of a sequence/cut are to be animated for a scene.  Please see "How to Read a Timing Sheet" for even more detail.  Front of timing sheet from Episode 23 Cut 225 of anime Darker Than Black. Back of timin...