Unpainted faces

Hello, Vapalla
This is done sometimes for backlighting and so the tone can be changed in the final cut of the scene.
The face is left unpainted so toned light of filters can be shot though the FX filters to show the color or shade of the cel that is needed.
Sometimes a 2nd cel is used as a overlay/underlay also to fill in the cel color and you may have only one of the cels in this scene this is done when the color is not set yet or the color was changed at the time of production and the face color was left out to be added latter.
sometimes things like blushies or light going across the face need a blank canvas to be shot on also.
There are many reasons why these cels could be this way the best way to know is to find this cel on the dvd and look real close and sometimes you can see the way it is done.
These could also be leftovers from the production that did not get used for one reason or the other and did not get painted all the way.
Find the scene and look for color changes on the screen that are not the same as the cel like in the hair or eye brows the lines can sometimes be the same but colors can be different if they are this is a extra copy of this cel that was changed for one reason or the other.
I hope this helps you out some.
If you had the timing sheets we would know for sure what they were used for.
Roy

Thank you so much for all the information! I have DVDs of Boogiepop and PHO so I will have to inspect the scenes with those cels more carefully. I do know that there were no overlay cels, and that these are in fact the ones in the shots.

Interestingly, I did not bring up this cel, but I think it fits with one of the possibilities you mentioned:

http://cat.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=107138

This cel has a second layer with the pink areas on another cel. I have not seen MKR in TV or OAV so I don't know what is happening here, but I suspect some kind of light effect was used. (If anyone can tell me which this cel came from and my Fuu too, I;d appreciate it. I have them listed as TV cels but I suspect that they are really OAV.)

I have one other partly painted cel which is really interesting:

http://cat.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=85339

This cel of D has a fully painted face but his hat and a lot of the black on the cel comes from the paper underneath. I found this cel in the movie and it is authentic (It also has the studio mark). There is a swirly special effect occuring in this scene that partly obscures D. I thought originally that the black was not painted because there is so much of it that it made more sense to use paper. (The cel would be so stiff and heavy and apt to adhere to things.) I wonder if the fact that there was a special effect used in the scene had anything to do with it as well?

I wish all cels came with timing sheets, or some explanation as to why things are as they are, but I must admit, it is kinda fun to search for answers yourself. Some things however, are simply beyond my limited knowledge of animation production, especially regarding special effects.

The first one has a overlay that was added for effect it is most likly from a fight scene and she has scratches on her face, if you look at the overlay most of the time this is done with a airbrush on the top of the overlay cel and not on the back like painted cels and it can be scratched very easy so be careful with how you store it.
The 2nd. one had a black FX cel that was placed behind the cel for the scene.

most cels are shot more that once to add all the FX stuff to the scene, not all the stuff can be shot at the same time so each FX can be shot at diffent times to register the flashes,lights,color changes,shadows.
The face is left open so the Fx shows up first though the cel in the shot you see and is added on top of the next shot and so forth.
This is done by a black page on the bottom of the cel stack that has holes,lines,shadows cutouts made into it and light is shone though it from underneath the tables for the first exposure on the film and this can be done many times to get all the FX into the scene and the last shot cleans up the colors for the cel but it is behind the FX and not blocking it.
Each production company will do things a little diffent but it adds up to the same thing,one good looking show that took a lot of work to make.
I don't know it all so if someone else would like to add something please do.
I hope this helps you out some.
Roy

Wow! I never realized that special effects could take so many shots to build up. Thanks so much for the information.

I've seen as many as 12 exposures of the same cel in a scene and I've heard of up to 22 in some of the more costly shows with alot of FX in them,most are 3-6 exposures.
I'll post some FX stuff on my RS site so you can see them for yourself tonight.
Roy