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When ever I watch a cartoon or other animation, it's almost like I can tell apart which ones used traditional ink and paint cels, and which are using 2D computer animation.
The differences are very suddle, but are there. Shadows from the cels, small breaks in ink lines, objects flashing different colors real quick, and the cel animations look more flat then their digital counterparts.
Many tell me there is no difference in the looks between cels and digital, but I don't really belive it, because I can tell very easy.
Anyone else here like this?
Well for some I can, and for some I cant really tell the type. So for me it's not really easy nor difficult.
=~My Animation Blog~=
You have got nothing here. The only way to tell if the work is hand drawn is to look for the dirt on the screen.
That's another one I noticed a good bit too. Small stray spots of ink or dirt on the cel. Sometimes defects in the cel itself kind of show up.
Well, I really thought I could tell the difference, until I realized that I had been mostly comparing 15-year old cel animation with present-day computer stuff. With more recent cel-animated cartoons, it was almost impossible to tell because there weren't any film artifacts, dust, or signs of age.
If someone produced a cel cartoon now, and showed you a pristine print of it, it would be alot harder to tell if it was done on computer or not. The imperfections on the film in older cartoons trick us into believing that we can identify cel animation, but they really only represent OLD animation.
However, I've found that there are a few differences, and in some cases it IS possible to differentiate, such as the things you pointed out. Also, cel cartoons often use thinner lines (except for when drawings are xeroxed onto the cels) and the line colour is almost always seen as dark grey/brown as opposed to pure black. There are some other differences, too. It is fairly easy to replicate these cel trademarks in computer animation, but most companies see no reason to.
Personally, I much prefer vintage cel animation to modern digital animation though, and in some ways I agree with the point being made here.
The original poster is correct. There were anomalies associated with camera/ cel animation and not just dirt under the camera or on film.
remember there could only be a limited number of cel levels unlike today.
Color pops were common, not becasue painters made a mistake but becasue depending on where a sperated element was in the levels, it could appear darker or lighter.
The shadow under the cel happens too when the platen wasn't down or the piant job was bumpy or buckled.