Anime Art Terms & Animation Process
- souloftokyo
- Apr 27
- 4 min read
We frequently receive questions from our customers about the meanings of anime art terms we use in our product descriptions - douga, genga, layout, and others. This post is our attempt to explain the various elements that go into making anime, both pre-production and production art. This post is not meant to be an exhaustive explanation of the traditional cel animation process; there are better resources available online for that already.
This is a cut bag from A.P.P.P. Studio for Episode #6 (Dio's World: Farewell My Friend), Cut#12 of the 1993 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure anime. As you can see, the cut bag notes the anime title, episode number, cut number, the genga person (in this case the talented key animator Hisashi Ezura), background number, and the studio logo. A cut is a single scene in the anime taken from the storyboard. A typical television anime episode will be made up of approximately 300 cuts. Finding a cut bag/full cut is rare unless you are working directly with the studio.
Above is what you might find in an anime cut bag. This bag actually has a lot more goodies than is typical, and that's why we chose it for this illustration. You can see cels, layouts, a timing sheet, a model sheet, and a production background. Let's look at these elements in more detail.
The animation process starts with a storyboard. The director usually creates the storyboards, but in the case of the original 1993-94 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA, it was a team effort shared by Satoshi Kon, Junichi Hayama, Hiroshi Sasaki and others. The Episode 6 storyboard was created by Hiroyuki Kitakubo. Each frame in the storyboard becomes a cut (notice the "C" at the top left) starting with a rough picture of the layout. The storyboard also has columns to describe camera action, some dialogue and timing info.
This beautiful piece of art is the layout or genzu in Japanese. It's a more detailed, larger depiction of the cut shown in the storyboard and uses the same paper with registration holes used for the genga and douga. Some genzu can be extremely detailed, and since they're generally done by the animation director (sakuga kantoku) or one of the key animators, they are prized by collectors. Studio Ghibli layouts done by Hayao Miyazaki sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The key animators will draw one or more genga for the cut, depending on the amount of movement. They are done on white paper, but if the episode director feels something is off, they will do a correction (aka shuusei genga, another important anime term to know), usually on yellow paper. Episode 6 of the Jojo OVA was directed by the ultra talented Hiroyuki Kitabubo.
Rarely the animation director or character designer will do a correction, and that is on blue paper, as shown in the top right and sometimes a note explaining the desired changes. Above, the note says, "Dio, something like this (pose). Junichi Hayama was the animation director for Episode 6.
As you may know, there is a separate team working on the backgrounds. Like the cel, each background starts with a layout or genzu. It's typically copied, and the copy is taped to the background, and the original goes with the cels. These background artists are casually referred to as a haikei man.
In traditional anime production, a hand-painted background is a meticulously crafted piece of artwork that serves as the setting or environment for the animated scene. Unlike the moving characters, which are painted on transparent cels, the background is a standalone painting—usually rendered on heavy paper or illustration board. Often painted using gouache, watercolors, acrylics, or a combination—chosen for their vibrancy and layering capabilities. While the characters move frame by frame, the background remains static, anchoring the scene and providing spatial context. There is usually only one background per cut, which is why a key master set-up is one of the most prized and complete pieces in traditional cel animation collecting.
Next we have the timing sheet (aka an exposure sheet) which is used in traditional cel animation to precisely coordinate the movement, timing, and synchronization of animation frames with sound. At the top, there is a box for the Episode # (6) and the Cut # (12). The timing sheet breaks down each frame of the animation into timed units (typically 24 frames per second) and instructs the animators and camera operators which drawings appear on which frames and how long each one should be held. It guides action, dialog, cel sequencing and camera. The grid under the seru column shows the different cel layers (e.g., A, B, C, D, E) and is useful when creating cel set-ups for sale. In short, the timing sheet is the blueprint that brings the animation to life with rhythm and precision. Without it, animators would be flying blind!
A model sheet is a reference guide used in animation production to ensure consistency in how characters, props, or settings are drawn throughout a project. The letter-number combinations are color codes (for example Y-91).
It usually features various perspectives of a character (front, side, back) and highlights key expressions, poses, and crucial details such as costume elements. By standardizing proportions and design characteristics, model sheets ensure that different artists and animators adhere to the original vision, regardless of who is working on a scene. As any fan of the 1993-94 Jojo OVA series has noticed, this standardization for Jotaro and Dio was not always consistent.
This cut included a one-off color guide for the car that is part of the scene.
The culmination of the animators' collaborative efforts is this delightful key-set up. Owning art like this from a beloved show is truly something extraordinary! We hope that you enjoyed this anime art terms and animation process discussion.
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