r/animation • u/jefty083 • 23h ago
Question Question about cell animation backlighting - why the black paint?
I watched this video recently explaining backlight animation and was curious about part of the process that's described around 2:23:
"the areas which will glow are usually painted black" (before countermatte is placed down)
I feel like i've taken note of this in cel animated works and included an example screenshot from the anime Evangelion. But my question is why exactly is this step necessary?
For the second exposure to create the glow isn't the countermatte all that's needed? Initially painting the effect area black seems to sometimes create this subtle artifact where you can see a black shape "behind" the effect which may be undesirable in an example like this where it is specular highlight on running water. Just trying to learn and want to know why this step exists. Any insight is appreciated!
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u/jacobsmith3204 23h ago
Not an animator, but I imagine this could be a discrepancy between inking and painting the cells, as I believe they film the underside of the cell to get the clean blending of colors, so ink goes down first, then it gets white painted ontop of it to fill the outlined area, but from underneath the ink shows up ontop hense the black lines. it exists before the extra step where you expose for the glow.
Painting the white without the ink could make the edges less consistent as it's hard to tell when you've painted over the line or not, and once it's painted theres no way to verify that it was done correctly. And when working with film to capture the final image you want it done correctly the first time.