Art of Animation Finds a Home at Shinbone Alley

Behind every good film, there’s a provocative story line, a logical structure, astute dialogue and an engaging set of characters. But for an animated film, th-th-th-that’s not all, folks.

There are at least 200,000 separate paintings that come together to bring the show to life. That’s 24 paintings--or “cels”--for each second of footage, and it takes about a year to make a feature-length film. As Elmer Fudd might say, that’s a wot a wuk .

“It’s like building the Egyptian pyramids,” said animator John Wilson. “You don’t start out thinking about how many you have to make. And you have to have a lot of patience.”

Wilson’s wife, Celeste, believes that such patience and talent deserve more recognition, so she has opened Shinbone Alley, a gallery in Studio City that specializes in animation art.

The gallery, which opened in July, bears the name of a 1971 film that John Wilson directed, based on the 1927 short stories “Archy and Mehitabel” about a self-righteous but lovable cockroach and a happy feline hooker. Shinbone Alley is the sleazy New York City neighborhood where they live.

For sale at the gallery are hundreds of cels that have been used in feature films or on television, each bearing a certificate of authenticity. Shinbone Alley also exhibits and sells prints and oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings.

“There is great artistry and skill involved in animation,” said Celeste, who saw Cinderella 19 times as a child and has been taken by ‘toons ever since. “Collectors realize it is a fine art form, but I don’t think the average person has thought of it that way.”

To spread the word, Shinbone Alley is offering free animation seminars to local schools. Grant High and several other east San Fernando Valley junior high and high schools have expressed interest in visiting the gallery in the next few months, Celeste said. The students will view an animated film, see a film on the art of animation and see how cels are made.

The name “cel” comes from celluloid, a grayish substance on which early animators painted their cartoons. Now, cartoons are painted on acetate--a clear plastic. Cels can be made with several techniques, but the basic idea is the same.

An outline of a character or scenery is drawn on a piece of paper and then either photocopied or traced with ink onto acetate. The figures are then filled in with watercolors. Every motion--each movement of a character, prop or piece of scenery--has to be painted separately.

A single cel can have as many as six overlays of acetate to add more characters or scenery in a layered, three-dimensional effect. (Any more then six and the cel would be too thick for the camera.) The layers of acetate are then placed over a painted background, either cardboard or cutout paper.

It takes about 20 minutes to paint a single character. These days, Celeste said, most inking and painting is done in Asian countries because the labor there is cheaper.

For filming, the cels are placed beneath a camera that shoots straight down at them. In some animated films, however, the characters don’t move. Instead, only the camera does. The camera scans the paintings, and a two-dimensional, rather than three-dimensional, effect is created.

“Animation isn’t restricted to one art form,” Celeste said. “It’s really any film where you don’t have live characters but you have movement.”

John, a former Disney animator, directs, produces and draws for his own Studio City-based animation company, Fine Arts Productions. He produced the ABC special “Stanley the Ugly Duckling,” directed several episodes of NBC’s cartoon “Muppet Babies” and even created an animated music video for Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” that aired on MTV. His company also makes films that are shown at animation festivals across the country.

As a director, he said, he prefers painted actors to live ones. He doesn’t have to deal with egos. He doesn’t have to rely on actors’ interpretations to develop the characters he envisions.

“You can have the character exactly the way you want it,” he said. “Plus the fact that you can move around” to any location you want.

Developing the personality of a cartoon character requires a lot of imagination and experimentation. To explore the depth of a character’s personality, artists first draw model sheets, sketching each character in dozens of different positions and with different facial expressions.

“It takes incredible creativity to take a thought and put it on a screen in a way that it’s going to be thought-provoking and enjoyable,” Celeste said. “It’s not easy to make a character seem despicable or likable.”

Even though thousands of cels are used for just minutes of animated film, quality cels, especially old ones, are hard to come by, according to Celeste. Many have been damaged, thrown away or erased and reused.

“No one realized there was going to be an interest someday in animation” as a fine art form, she says.

Cels at Shinbone Alley cost from $10 to $5,000, with most in the $25-to-$30 range. Cels are generally 9 by 12 inches, although they can be up to three times larger.

The value is determined by several factors, including how big, how rare and how complete the painting is. “There are an awful lot of cels that are just a mouth moving,” Celeste said. “No one wants just a hand or a mouth.”

Celeste said there’s a great interest in animation these days. “It’s coming back because of the success of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ and ‘An American Tail,’ ” she said.

Shinbone Alley, at 4350 Tujunga Ave. in Studio City, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (818) 506-0095.