cell: The term cell comes from photographic animation. Image elements were create on transparent sheets to allow the composition of images by stacking multiple cells to form a more complex picture for each frame. In TBS the components of elements are called cells. And they are used the same way as their real world ancestors to help compose pictures for frames. The original concept of the cell as a picture element that could be overlayed with other elements was a revolutionary advancement in animation. Prior to its invention the animator had to redraw not only all the characters and props for each frame but also the backgrounds.So with the advent of the cell not only was re-usability possible but it also eliminated a lot of work. The concept of using cells advanced even further when characters were divided up across cells to allow for only some parts to move while other parts were held unchanged. This was the advent of limited animation. The usage of cell layers was restricted in photographic animation due to the impact of optical losses produced by light being refracted by the cell material itself no matter how thin the cell was made. This is totally not a consideration in computer rendered animation so the number of elements used to create a picture is limited only by the desires of the creator of the picture.

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