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This page contains original art, available for your viewing enjoyment.
Not to be downloaded nor reposted elsewhere online.
What is an animation cel?
An animation cel (celluloid) is a paper-thin transparent plastic sheet,
regularly about 10.5 x 12.5” (27 x 32 cm) in size. Before the 40's, celluloid
nitrate was commonly used, which was then replaced with acetate sheets, and more commonly used for
animation until around the 2000's when computer animation became more common.
Animation cels are the actual images we see in cartoons, where each and every
little movement consist of a unique cel, which togheter create the illusion of movement.
The backgrounds, on the other hand, are drawn on a thick paper and stays for a longer
moment on screen than the animation cels, which means less of them are made.
Off-site link for more about animation cels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel
What does the process look like?
Like alot of American cartoons, Jem was animated in Japanese animation studios (aswell
as probably in some other countries).
First when creating cels, the animators follow a storyboard which is the rough
plan of sketches and notes of how the scene goes. To draw
the characters appearances correctly, the animators look at model cels.
Since the voice recording is often done before the episodes are animated, the
animators have to make sure to follow the same pace with everything in the scenes, including lip-movements.
Then pencil sketches, "dougas", are then created, which are used as patterns to transfer
the drawings onto the cel sheets. The coloring paint is painted on the back of the sheet.
The colors are usually applied one by one on each of the cels in a sequence, and when the
previous color has dried, the next color is applied to them all.
Off-site link for more about animation cels:
http://www.animanga.com/cels/info/cels.html
What should I know when buying a cel?
Some things that determine the value are:
- What cartoon it is from. All studios didn't save alot of their work, which makes any findings extra rare.
- What character is pictured. Main characters are often most popular.
- Is it from a famous scene, is it a close-up, how well drawn is it, is the character seen from the
front and with eyes open?
- Size. There are panoramic scenes which can be larger than the average cel.
- What condition it's in, has paint started falling off?
- Does it come with it's original matching background?
You can't take for granted that the background included is the
one from the same scene as the cel. Backgrounds used in the cartoon in the same scene
are usually called "original matching background". If it says "original production background" it
isn't necessarily from the same cartoon. If it
says "hand-painted background" it might not even be from any actual production but
fan made. "Color copy background" is usually a laser print of an original background,
from the cartoon or anywhere else.
Worthless cels, as far as I'm concerned, are cels that go by any of the following:
"Sericels", "publicity cels", "limited edition cels", "lithographs". Many times you can't
tell any difference looking at them in pictures online, but these are not original
cels used anywhere in the production of a cartoon, nor unique. These are printed copies,
or created for publicity reasons, and produced in a certain amount.
What can you tell me about Jem cels?
Jem used to be considered a rare cartoon to find cels from. But Jem was made in as much as 65 episodes, aswell
as commercials,
and by now several hundreds of animation cels has shown up, from many different episodes, and alot of art
from other soruces like Jem books. But the amount of current
serious collectors are raising the prices, aswell as sellers on ebay with completely unreasonably high prices.
Except for pre-production model cels, animation cels are the most sought after when
it comes to Jem, and the least rare are the regular model cels.
Here is a look at some of the Jem cels that have shown up. Some from the story of the episodes,
some from music videos, and some even not included in the cartoon since they are from cut out
scenes.
Here is a comparison of what it
looked like once they were included on the show. One thing you will notice is that alot of
the time, each character was drawn on a separate cel, so in several of these cels
the characters standing around the main character aren't included. Another difference, is that
whenever there's a light/glow effect, it was usually not drawn, but applied afterwards.
Episodes:
Barely any animation cels have ever appeared from the first five episodes. But here is a list
of other episodes cels have shown up from:
Starbright Part 1, Starbright Part 3, The World Hunger Shindig, Adventure In China, Last Resorts, In Stitches,
Island Of Deception, Hot Time In Hawaii,
The Princess And The Singer, The Talent Search Part 1, Scandal, The Bands Break Up, Father's Day, Danse Time,
KJEM, Alone Again, Rock N' Roll Express, Hollywood Jem Part 2, Beauty And The Rock Promoter, Midsummer Night's Madness.
The Music Awards Part 1
The Music Awards Part 2
Rock Fashion Book
[Picture by Jem Animation]
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Jem mermaid and Rio kissing underwater. A very special music video that was put alot of work into.
Appears in the music video of "Come On In, The Water's Fine" by Jem and the Holograms.
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[Picture by Jem Animation]
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Here you can see Jem is a mermaid, togheter with Rio underwater.
Appears in the music video of "Come On In, The Water's Fine" by Jem and the Holograms. This was years before
Disney's the Little Mermaid was released.
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Jem at the end of the music video of "Come On In, The Water's Fine" by Jem and the Holograms, where she is
sitting next to the pool with seals.
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[Picture by Jem Animation]
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Appears in the music video of "We Can Change It" by Jem and the Holograms. The cel is red in the cartoon
because of lighting in the music video. The background included with the animation cel
however, is not matched with the cel in the cartoon, but appears soon after in the same music video.
This is interesting because I noticed that the same motive for the background, was re-drawn for the cartoon
atleast four times, from slightly different angles. This is a good example of how much work the
background designers do!
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Broadway Magic
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From the classic scene from Eric's office, where he called media for a special announcement,
that he wants you to tell him, "who is Jem?". This cel even comes with a frame around it as seen
in the picture, which is supposed to be the TV.
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In Search Of The Stolen Album
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This is Pizzazz relaxing out of town and coming up with the idea of sending Jem and the Holograms on a treasure
hunt for their master tape.
This is one of the early cels that appeared for sale online already in the 90's.
As you can see it has a matching background, but much of Pizzazz' body is cut off in the cartoon.
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Old Meets New
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Jem performing on stage. Right after the music video of "Rock And Roll Is Forever" by Jem and
the Holograms. Jem only ever wore this outfit in this episode, and part of the music video
actually appears in the second Jem Theme intro song, which makes it very recognizable.
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Intrigue At The Indy 500
[Picture by Jem Animation]
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From the music video of "I'm Coming From Behind" by Jem and the Holograms.
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Should be from the music video of "I'm Coming From Behind" by Jem and the Holograms, but doesn't
appear to be anywhere in there. Anyone have a clue?
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[Picture by Jem Animation]
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From the music video of "Ahead Of The Game" by The Misfits.
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From the music video of "Ahead Of The Game" by The Misfits.
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[Picture by Jem Animation]
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There is
supposed to be a frame around it because this is what the racecar driver Martino sees on TV
from his hospital bed.
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From the same scene as the above.
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From the same scene as the above. Interesting to see a cel from the same sequence, almost look identical.
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The Jem Jam Part 1
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Ashley gets her moment to be a star in her own music video "I Can See Me".
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The Jem Jam Part 2
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From the end of Krissie's own music video "You May Be A Star", where Dominic is surprised when the pictures of him
turn into pictures of Krissie.
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From the same music video as the above, soon after. You can see the cel is slightly covered with other cels which
appeared above as the picture of Krissie on the wall comes alive.
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At the zoo, Ashley tries to explain nicely to Ba Nee that Randy isn't her father.
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From the music video of "Jam All Night Long" by Jem and the Holograms.
The characters in the background are missing from the cel because they were part of other cels/layers.
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From the very last clip of the episode, a very nice close-up where Jem looks back at us and her earrings blink.
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Culture Clash
This episode is probably one of the episodes where most cels were
saved.
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This is one of the first clips we see in the episode.
In the first picture, is the background only of the airport. In the picture to the right,
from the cartoon, are Jem and the Holograms and a whole lot of people moving. Must have
taken time to animate that crowd. And lastly is the sketch of the above background with some notes.
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Jem, Anthony Julian, and Aja, at Fitzgerald party, right after one of Fitz' robots kicks Aja.
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This cel is from a music video, "Surprise! Surprise!" by the Misfits, apparently signed by Christy Marx.
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[Picture by Kett's Cel Gallery]
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Another background. This is a stage Jem and the Holograms perform on along with Fitz' robots.
The original is a bit brighter, and doesn't have those robots on stage.
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The Misfits spy on Eric and find these robots filled with jewelries. This was a cel that appeared already in
the 90's for sale online.
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I couldn't find this cel anywhere in the episode, although the cartoon version to the right
comes pretty close. And the background the cel is attached to is not the original. That
background belonged to the background seen below here, behind Kimber and all the people,
which you can tell is the same by looking at the painting hanging on the wall.
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From the music video of "I Believe In Happy Endings" by Jem and the Holograms.
Only Jem is in this cel. Apparently Kimber and the characters below the stage were
separate cels.
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Glitter And Gold
[Picture by Van Eaton Galleries]
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Aja who says "a whole new look" right before the music video "Glitter and Gold".
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Rio finds Jerrica working hard late at Starlight Music to deliver albums for the Glitter and Gold contest.
Rio's hair looks pmore purple than ever in the cel, nice to see the original colors like this.
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[Picture by Van Eaton Galleries]
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The Misfits from the music video "We're Up/You're Down" which is a duet between Jem and the Holograms and The Misfits.
This is a brief scene with the Misfits holding the Glitter and Gold award.
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[Picture by Van Eaton Galleries]
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Close to the end of the episode, as both groups are one record from winning the contest, Jem and Pizzazz are shown
in a close-up as they watch the score board.
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Renaissance Woman
[Picture by Jem Animation]
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The Holograms are entering the archery tournament for fun, and Kimber is just about to miss even shooting the
arrow, and the other Holograms burst into laughter.
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Mardi Gras:
[Picture by Jem Animation]
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A beautiful cel, and it appears to be twice the size of a regular cel.
In the cartoon, it is shown from the bottom, moving up to the top. The circle you see
in the cartoon image is a light effect around a lantern.
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Out Of The Past
This is another episode where alot of the cels were taken care of, and pretty much any cels from this episode
are sought after because it shows the past of the characters.
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Jacqui Benton officiated over sacret female friendship pact among Jerrica, Shana and Aja in the Starlight treehouse.
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Young Jerrica and Kimber, just as Aja arrives to Starlight house for the first time and Kimber wonders why she
is coming to live there.
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Eric found the mastertape of Jacqui Benton's recordings and demands a million dollars or Starlight Music
from Jerrica in trade.
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Britrock
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From the very end of the music video of the song "Between Me And You" by Jem and the Holograms.
It's barely visible since it fades over from another scene.
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Journey Through Time
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Jem and The Holograms go back in time to 1944, and here are some dancers included in their music video
with the The Ben Tiller Band for the song "We're Makin' It Happen".
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Hollywood Jem Part One: For Your Consideration...
[Picture by Jem Animation]
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Geraldine Pathos and Jem on the Harriet Horn show, where Geraldine questions Jem's lack of acting studies and
nomination for an academy award.
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Kimber meets Sean again, on the set of a new movie he's acting in, and in which Jem is about to get a role.
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Kimber also meets Jeff again in the same episode for the first time since they had a big fight several episodes
ago, and finds out he is the stuntman in the movie.
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Soon after the above scene, Sean finds out that Kimber is dating Sean and he criticize her for leading on
half the male population.
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The Stingers Hit Town Part One
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A dressed up Shana at Starlight Music, reminds Jerrica that the group is being honored at the Rock Hard cafe
tonight.
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Close-up of Riot, where you can see his green eyes.
From the music video of "Perfect Match" by The Stingers.
Not the exact same cel, I know, but I'm not sure this exact cel was actually included in the
cartoon. Anyone?
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Riot as an angel.
This is from the music video "Perfect Match" by the Stingers.
The background doesn't appear to be the correct one.
The reason the halo isn't in
the cel is because it must have been applied later using light effects.
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This is from the music video "Perfect Match" by the Stingers. You can't tell if the background
image is the right one or not, since this scene has light effects.
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The Stingers Hit Town Part Two
Unidentified
Mystery cels that no one has been able to place in an episode, probably from cut scenes or even
animated commercials.
[Picture by Pershing Gallery]
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This looks like it would be from the episode "The World Hunger Shindig". But as far as I
can tell it doesn't show up there. Anyone have any idea?
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[Picture by theMitigating]
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A beautiful close-up of Jem in her Glitter and Gold outfit.
This could be a cut out scene from the episode "Glitter And Gold", but on the other hand this outfit also
appears in other episodes.
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