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I sometimes see this glow in the old stuff. Curious if this technique has a
name, and how this was made.

Here is an example from _Golden Boy_.

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/k3AoNm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/k3AoN.png)

A few extra examples, all from _Rurouni Kenshin_ 's second opening.

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MYIMpm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MYIMp.jpg)
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/flYAwm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/flYAw.jpg)
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ztjVQm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ztjVQ.jpg)
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aeIRpm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aeIRp.jpg)

And from _Words Worth_.

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1a7aCm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1a7aC.png)

Is there a documentary about the technology and business aspects for using
this glow effect?


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anime-production
How was this glow effect created in cel-shaded anime?


All your screenshots look like conventional cel animation but are done with
various different techniques.

The first image the "glow" looks like it was painted with an
[airbrush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbrush), probably on its own cel
sheet overlaying the rest of the image.

The lens flare effects in your second and fourth screenshots look they were
painted on separate cel sheets and then optically faded in and out to animate
them and then combined with the background using multiple exposures.

The glow of the candles in the third image was probably airbrushed on the same
cel as the candle flames.

I'm not sure how the animated sunlight falling on the water in the fifth image
was done, but my guess is it was simply hand-painted.

The last image with the glowing bar was probably done with an airbrush similar
to the previous examples, though it could be that a
[diffuser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuser_\(optics\)) was placed in
front of the camera lens.


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These are all very different effects and I don't think that most were done
with airbrushing.

The first one, maybe, but it's hard to be sure without seeing a higher
resolution of that image.

The second one is often "animated" and appears to be a real lens flare, that
could be achieved by using a certain type of lens and shining in a light
source from a side angle.

With the others, it's hard to say, again, because of image resolution issues.
I've seen the water effect you're referencing a lot, too, but I'm under the
impression that it's something else entirely.

As for the last effect, that's the one I'm most interested in because I see it
used all the time in 80s anime and I love the effect. I'm like 90% sure it's
not done with airbrushing, however. If I had to guess, they leave part of the
background cel unpainted and then shoot it over a light table with the light
shining through to achieve this effect.


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answer


The short answer is "lighting."

Remember that traditional animation is constructed from multiple elements,
layered and photographed together. Static elements such as backgrounds are
painted on sheets of glass (plates) and moving elements such as characters are
painted on multiple sheets of acetate (cels). Each frame of animation is built
by layering the various elements in a photography studio, lit, photographed,
and then re-built and shot again for the next frame.

Creating glow effects can be done by painting them by hand, but those super
bright psychic auras, laser blasts, and the like take advantage of the fact
that glass and acetate are transparent. By shining a light up from underneath
the background, through translucent or unpainted portions of the various
elements, or by directly cutting out parts of the cel with a razor, you can
create anything from a soft, diffuse glow to intense, bright light. Color gels
placed between the cel and the light source will give you those brilliant reds
or blues (or oranges or purples or greens or whatever).

Lens flare and sundog effects are done in-camera by using studio lighting to
create the desired glare on the lens itself.

Things get a little more complicated when you want to, say, add that intense
glow to a fully painted object (like the glowing brick at the bottom there).
For that, they would likely use an optical printer, a device that allows you
to combine previously photographed elements with new optical effects or with
other existing photographed elements. You combine the photographed sequence of
the characters holding the brick, with a matte blacking out everything except
the brick, and blue light shining through the brick-shaped hole in the matte,
and the optical printer allows you to re-photograph those elements together,
essentially.

The shot of the rippling water on the shore is also an optical composite,
combining background elements (grass, tree), foreground elements (the
character) a matte that blocks out the grass, tree, and character, and footage
of the water effect, which may be filmed with actual liquid (heavily watered
down shampoo was popular) or a stand-in medium (crinkled, reflective foil with
a moving light source was also popular).

It's all effectively the same method ILM used to assemble all of the
individually shot miniature X-Wings and TIE Fighters and Death Star trench
footage in _Star Wars_.


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answer


Thanks to Kyle S. for the explanation!

I was looking for the answer, too. Looks like it's an analogue compositing
technique called "Underlighting"

> Underlighting (aka "Bipack Glow") is an animation technique that caught on
> in the 1980's, although it dates back much further.
>
> Some parts of an animated scene may need to glow. Traditionally, a glow was
> painstakingly drawn by an animator, who had to pay careful attention to get
> the fringe colors just right to make it convincing. Even in the best cases,
> a hand-drawn glow still didn't look very "glowy."
>
> The solution was to cut a hole in the background in the shape you wanted the
> glowing object to have, and then project a bright colored light from
> underneath the scene. The result was a rather awesome-looking glowing
> object, with tapering fringes that looked exactly as you'd expect a brightly
> glowing object to look.
>
> There were, however, two big drawbacks to this technique. First of all, it
> was somewhat labor-intensive, as the hole in the animation background would
> have to move to track where the glow was supposed to be frame by frame; as a
> result, underlighting would typically be relegated to static background
> elements if needed for a prolonged portion of the animation, with underlit
> moving objects typically being on the smaller side to reduce the workload
> for the animators. And second, adding texture to glowing objects was much
> more difficult compared to hand-painted glow effects, though not outright
> impossible; **typically texture was added by placing a translucent foil or a
> glass tube filled with a mix of soap/shampoo, water, and glitter between the
> background and the backlight**. This second drawback meant the technique was
> used primarily for amorphous objects such as "energy beams" or lightning.

Source: <https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Underlighting>

I gather gifs of underlit shots from the old anime here:  
<https://www.are.na/ra-1528049834/underlighting>

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzWea.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzWea.gif)


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