inkandpaint

Ink and paint refers to a traditional stage in cel animation in which the line drawings created by animators are transferred to transparent cels, inked, and then painted with color. The process sits between the animation drawing and the photographing of the final frames against background paintings. A typical workflow begins with clean-up and tracing of rough animation onto clear cel sheets. Inking applies the final black or colored outlines onto the cel, using brushes or pens, sometimes aided by mechanical methods or xerography. Painting fills in the color on the opposite side of the cel from the ink lines to prevent smudging, using gouache or tempera paints and a layer-prioritized order of colors. The completed cels are then stacked and photographed frame by frame over painted backgrounds.

The ink and paint department was a core element of production in many traditional animation studios, notably in Hollywood’s Golden Age. The work demanded precision and consistency, as small variations could compound across hundreds or thousands of frames. In some studios, the process evolved with technology; for example, xerography in the mid-20th century allowed outline drawings to be transferred directly to cels, changing the look and reducing some labor.

With the rise of digital techniques in the late 20th century, digital ink and paint and other computer-assisted workflows largely supplanted the manual method. Software-based ink and paint, along with digital compositing, now dominates most contemporary animation, though the term remains used to describe the historical method or to discuss its artistic effects.