Definition: A background painting is a piece of detailed artwork rendered as the backdrop to a 2D animated scene. The single image is placed below animation cels as they are filmed in progression, so that the images on the cels appear to move against the backdrop. More than one layer of cel animation may be placed on top of the painting, to create a more detailed animation.
Background paintings go through several stages. They initially start off as Key Backgrounds, which are concept art sketches to establish the color scheme and mood of an animated scene. The Key Backgrounds are used by detailed background artists as a reference for creating the final artwork for scene backdrops.
