Cutout cels?

I recently got a Galaxy Express 999 cel that has the images on the cel cut out and taped onto the cel. There is then a second blank (except for the numbering which is not present on the taped to cel, and some secondary paint schmutzing) cel on top of that, presumably to soften the look of the cutting out under the camera.

My working theory is that paint was spilled on the back of the cel, and rather than redo the cel, they cut out the images and taped them onto a new cel. You can see paint on the back of the cel on Maetel's hand (especially if you go look at sketch 2 in the only entry under Galaxy Express 999 in my gallery, where you can also see the tape). The positions of the taped image are close to identical to the drawing, so it wasn't a last minute position change.

Has anyone else seen this in their cels? It seems counterintuitive to me; I would assume it would be easier to just do it again with the skilled cel professionals rather than exactly sliciing out the curves on the acetate, which they must be significantly less practiced in...

I also have a cel in my gallery that was cut around it and then placed on top of a pan cel:

http://juniorscels.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=144377

It's not taped and I didn't see any spilled ink or paint on mine, so I don't know why the animators did that. I'd like to know why they do that too.

Hiya Ted,Jmk,

I think I can help you out some.
Sometimes the scene is changed a small amount and the toons are to be in a new place on the background when shot under camera.
It's way faster to just cut the toon out and move them than to make new cels and wait for them to dry.
The extra paint on the back is used to act like a shield to protect the paint edges when they cut them. Sometimes the paint will chip and fall off if cut right around the edges and having the fresh paint on them holds the paint inplace because fresh paint is still a little bit soft and does not flake or crumble like dry stuff does.
The paint that is put on the back is sometimes dried using a blow dryer so they can dry them faster and control the amount they are dried to keep them soft for cutting.
The paint is also used sometimes to keep reflections from shining onto the background if it's a light colored background or to keep light from coming under the cut cel,it will act like a shadow or pen light when they put them under the high powered lights they use,it's like putting black makeup under a football player eyes,it keeps the shine down.
As far as using tape this is done when they don't have alot of extra time to wait for glue to dry and it is also used to make some types of setups for framing as some of the cels are way smaller than the background and they want the cel to cover the background so they tape them to a larger cel stock,cel stock comes in rolls like plastic wrap does to make pan cels.
I hope some of this helps you out some.


Roy

That does not explain my cel, Roy. There is only a small amount of extra paint on the back of my example; look at the image in my gallery to see what I mean. And as I said, there is virtually no difference in the image placement from the drawing (the sketch image and the cel image are both cropped from the actual cel and drawing size, so any difference there is due to the cropping tool); you can see a little bit of pencil line peeking from under the cel when you line up registration holes, but it's only enough to imply a very slight error in trimming or placement.

I had a cel that was was a closeup facial shot and the unpainted area underneath the arm and top of the chest were cut out as well.

The lines of the character were intact though; and, it was only that small space.

I couldn't figure out why it was cut either^^. I figured it was to make room for a second layer or a background.

Unfortunately, I no longer have this one in my posession so I can't give you a link.