What is a background?
A background (haikei, 背景) is the painted setting a shot takes place in. Unlike cels, which are drawn in flat animation colors, backgrounds are fully rendered paintings — historically in poster paint, gouache, or acrylic on paper or board — with light, texture, and atmosphere.
Matching backgrounds
A background photographed with the exact cel that appeared over it is called a matching background. Because a single background may serve many frames while cels change on top of it, an original cel reunited with its original background is comparatively rare and highly prized.
What to look for
- A single, fully painted image rather than flat animation color.
- Registration marks aligning it with the cel layers.
- Signs of the camera field it was painted to fill (a pan background will be unusually wide).