Are key cels really more valuable/enduring

[Spidercan]

I'm trying to collect just 1 mononoke cel to keep forever. With the high cost just trying to figure out what will be the most lasting.

[zerospace]

If you're asking a question like this, you probably ought to read some more info about what a key cel actually is. A key cel is a production cel that was drawn by one of the key animators of the show -- these are the animators with the better resume, essentially, and their quality of art is generally considered to be better all around. The key cels are the ones that are created first for any sequence -- "in-betweeners" (this term refers to both the cels and the animators who draw them) cel images often have some strange distortions in the characters, as they are in-between frames of animation and are less important overall (if you look at a sequence of a character performing some kind of movement, which frames stick in your mind? probably the first and last frames -- these are often the key frames, while the in-between frames are done by the lower level animators to fill the gaps). Key cels are more sought after because the images are usually of higher quality and generally are the more "key" (no pun intended) moments in any sequence, as well.

As far as a cel being more "lasting" ... all cels from any particular show are created equal, materially. A key cel will physically degrade the same way an in-betweener will, as the acetate, lines, and paint are the same, for the most part.

[sensei]

What zero says is basically true: except that what the key animator draws is not the same as the sketch that comes with the cel. Basically, there is a series of preliminary steps, in which the animation director of that particular episode or scene works out the dynamics of a given cut (i.e., a series of continuous frames that runs between two edits -- a "shot" in US film terminology): how the character is posed at the start and at the finish, and any extreme or important poses in between. The animation director usually does a "rough" of one of these poses, and often adds several others working out the basic outlines of these poses.

This gets sent to the key animator, who works up the key positions into what are called "gengas" (literally, "foundation sketches"), which go back to the animation director, who then does "shuuseis" (revisions) on thin colored paper laid on top of the gengas.

Now this batch of sketches go to a team of junior animators, whose job it is to clean up these key sketches (with the AD's revisions) into bare outlines. This is when the "in-betweeners" get drawn to link together the key images smoothly. These sketches are called "dougas" (literally "moving sketches"), and they are printed on the back of the sheets of acetate using a special photocopy machine. Then they are (typically) farmed out to independent contractors to be painted according to the studio's specifications. The douga goes along with the blank cel, is used by the painter for reference, and comes back to the studio with the finished cel. And then the sketches are layered between the cels before and after they are photographed to keep the painted plastic sheets from sticking to each other, which would be catastrophic.

That's why, when the cels are disposed of to jobbers after the series or film wraps, you usually get the cel and the douga together. Also why they are found stuck together so often. Or have paint splatters on them.

But the tricky point is that the douga is not drawn by the key animator. It's drawn by the same junior animator that does the in-betweeners. But that particular frame is a clean-up of the image drawn by the key animator (and corrected by the animation director). And so it's gotten to be a habit to consider "key cels" as being intrinsically more important than the in-betweeners.

IMHO, that can be nit-picky, and more depends on the overall professionalism of the studio and the talent/experience of the team of animators directly involved on this particular episode/scene. I've seen some butt-ugly gengas done by bonafide key animators with limited talent. And I've seen some lovely inbetweener cels obviously done by a talented junior animator who had been properly trained and supervised.

Bottom line: trust your gut. An ugly key cel is still an ugly cel. A nice inbetweener cel is still a nice cel.

[Spidercan]

Wow thanks for all the answers guys. Yeah I'm just trying to decide between an inbetween cel that I like a lot and a key cel that I like a little less.

[KinoLRB]

Wow thanks for all the answers guys. Yeah I'm just trying to decide between an inbetween cel that I like a lot and a key cel that I like a little less.

As something of a newbie myself, I'll shy away from delivering any technical advice on the subject of key cels and inbetweeners (Sensei and Zerospace already did a brilliant job at this--I learned a lot myself). My advice is this: if you're buying for your own enjoyment with no plans to resell in the future, then always choose the cel you like best. Buy what you love, and you will be a successful collector. That's my philosophy, anyway.

And welcome to Beta!

[cutiebunny]

Yeah I'm just trying to decide between an inbetween cel that I like a lot and a key cel that I like a little less.

Go with what you like. This way, years down the road, you won't kick yourself for not getting the cel you really liked.

[jcaliff]

I'd say that it's true of all artwork - you should buy the art you like best, not what you think is going to be most valuable. Most artwork is a very, very poor investment unless you find a lost Picasso at a yard sale or something like that. You're unlikely to be disappointed in the future if you buy a piece you really love for the sake of the art.

[Spidercan]

Thanks! To be honest it's pretty close between the key and non key for me. Looking at Rinkya, there are some key cels that aren't selling. I'm wondering if the overall quality of all ghibli stuff renders the value of keys less relevant?

[star-phoenix]

Hi everyone! Been lurking here for way too long.

Well, ditto on zerospace and sensei . . . don't need further emphasis on that.

For me, I would go with the best image that I like and best price. If two images are so closely matched, then I go with key cel mainly because of their quality.