We have a decent collection that I started when I was still in college, ranging from the 90’s era “collectible” setups to stuff that we got through work connections that’s all legitimate but isn’t “certified” since it was handed to us as thank yous or salvaged from the trash at studios. I’m actually interested in getting rid of a few pieces because I have too much, but since the market slowed down so much, the dealers (who still sell for the same prices) won’t even give me half of what they’re worth/currently sell for. So if anyone wants to set up a trade of a pin for some artwork, I’m more than willing!

I’ll post some of the interesting stuff separately.

I have a Disney Production cel from 101 Dalmatians that I’d be willing to trade for a working pin or sell outright. I’ve tried to speak to dealers over the past few years and they want to lowball me way more than the market slowdown justifies.C044BE98-A539-46E9-86B1-C86685CA66EF (resized).jpeg

I also have a Chuck Jones collectible cel from the early 90’s. The laminate on the frame is pulling off, so it needs to be reframed, but the cel is pristine. Somewhere I also have a signed postcard of what the background was initially going to be, but that says “To Nancy” so unless you’re also named Nancy that’s probably not of much interest.
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In the early 90’s I also worked for a company that had ended up with some boxes of artwork from the old Fleischer animation studio in NYC. (Popeye, Betty Boop). Of course by the time I started, all the good stuff was long gone, but my boss let me pull a few of the cooler backgrounds from some of the “Sing Along” movies. The artwork on most of these would be at the bottom of the screen and they’d put the lyrics across the top with a bouncing ball.6FF6567B-6798-4109-9AEB-7920006CD5BD (resized).jpegF2250809-2025-4ACC-9F32-78821967BF26 (resized).jpeg67A310DB-7011-4A64-93B3-08C3148B4AA9 (resized).jpeg

From 1990-2001 I worked in animation, and was often gifted artwork from other animators. Some of these are from well known illustrators, others are just beautiful work from independent animators.

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My husband, who is still a professional animator, worked for a while at the company that did all the effects for this little Disney film called Tron. One day he called me up, knowing that I was a huge fan of the film and asked me “Hey, they are tossing all the original storyboards from the movie. Do you want anything in particular?” Uh LIGHT CYCLE CHASE!!!13FB7870-FA31-40AE-BE80-9F0D0513F8AD (resized).jpeg

Speaking of my husband, he’s been crafting an amazing hand-drawn film for over 30 years now. I just have to brag about him for a moment bc he’s a WAAAAAY more talented draftsman than I’ll ever be. (I’m better at movement and timing so we’re a good pair lollll)

Here’s a cel setup he made me for my 30th birthday showing me and our two cats as Miyazaki charactersB9F09895-B0F8-4270-B42F-3846B09A6394 (resized).jpeg

And here are a couple images from his film that he’s still working on:
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More about his film here: http://www.dearannaolson.com/gallery.html

One of the biggest problems is that starting around Beauty and the Beast, traditional cel painting quickly was abandoned in favor of digital options. I was one of the last 2-3 who worked full time as a cel painter in NYC, and I was no longer getting that type of work by around 1995 or so. So anything for sale more recent than that is pretty much all “collectible” setups vs actual production art.

And it’s not just that it was hand drawn. There was a 90’s era show that was fairly popular, and the painting (and camera work) was all done overseas. Over 50% of the artwork tends to be useless for collectors to begin with—think a hand or eye blink alone on a separate level. The camera operators weren’t paid much, so while they were super careful of the artwork before filming, afterwards they tended to just shove it all back in boxes quickly, and a lot of the desirable artwork got damaged in shipping. My friend had a job pulling the artwork for a gallery to certify, and they said that there wasn’t all that much that was able to be salvaged.

Heh, this is one of the cels I’m thinking of getting rid of—it’s from a 1992 commercial that I worked on. The cel is production, background is just a color copy.54090491-1044-439B-AA65-BCDDE07CA677 (resized).jpeg

It’s from the same sequence but the mouth position is more likely an “L” while mine is more likely an “ah”. There’s also probably some minute shifts in positioning that you only can see if you flip between the two.

I’m a little surprised the seller isn’t addressing the background, which almost certainly a color xerox if they aren’t calling it out (as well as based on the price). Also, the cracking on mine is quite common for artwork from this time frame due to the effects of age on the materials, so the lack of any cracking on this cel would make me check it out carefully before purchasing. It may have been restored, or it could be one of the other categories of collectible art and the seller just doesn’t fully understand what the differences are. (The colors are “brighter” than mine as well)

I’ve had my cel since around 1998 or so. I paid way more for it then, but the EBay price is about what I’d expect for it now, based on the current market. Certainly wasn’t as good an investment as it would have been if I bought the TZ I was also eyeing at the time!

Even having been immersed in the field for a good chunk of time, there isn’t exactly consensus. Just looking at the actual production art, is it more valuable to have a piece like mine with clearly the original paint though it’s cracking? Or is it more valuable to restore it (ie repaint it) and put it over a xeroxed color background? I have my own opinions, but I’ve seen collectors fall on both sides of the fence. (Obviously uncracked original paired with original background is still the gold standard).

I started collecting bc I saw the values rising and the amount of stock dwindling, but then the market got flooded with a lot of cheaper options. So now, I’d just say go for the characters or films/shows you like and just do a bit of googling before you buy to see if what you’re buying is priced fairly.

That’s awesome! I love the Mr DNA cel!!

Well, in general, you start with an average of 6-12 images per second of film, and visually you need around 3 seconds of image for most viewers to process what they’re seeing. Accounting for “passing frames” (frames where the character is halfway between two different poses and the image looks weird) you’re probably looking at generally 40-odd good poses per background. Then you consider that it’s a cost efficiency to reuse the same background across scenes, so now you’re saying 120+ cels per background, minimum. Finally, backgrounds often were handed off first because they were the most detailed. Outside of the independent animators I know and the productions I directly worked on, I can count the times I’ve seen actual production backgrounds in person on one hand. The overwhelming majority of cel setups with backgrounds use high end reproduction backgrounds or color xeroxes.