10 Essential Art Supplies for the Traditional Animator

Once you get past the drawing stage, you'll need to transfer your artwork from plain paper onto cels, so that they can be painted and then placed against a separately drawn background. It's hard to find anything packaged as actual "cels"--what you really need is copy-safe transparency films. These are the same kind of transparencies used on overhead projectors, but you have to make sure to get the kind that are heat-safe, copy-safe; the easiest way to transfer from paper to transparency is using a copier (you can get them done at Kinko's or another copy place if you need to), but you have to make sure to get the right kind or they'll melt in the copier and completely ruin it.