Film vs. Cel — What's the Difference?

A film, also called a movie, motion picture or moving picture, is a work of visual art used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.

A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate.

A thin skin or membrane.

A transparent sheet of celluloid or plastic, used to layer elements of an animated image on top of a background in order to reduce the number of elements that need to be re-created for each frame.

A thin, opaque, abnormal coating on the cornea of the eye.

A piece of celluloid on which has been drawn a frame of an animated film.

A thin covering or coating

Clipping of celibacy

A thin, flexible, transparent sheet, as of plastic, used in wrapping or packaging.

A thin sheet or strip of flexible material, such as a cellulose derivative or a thermoplastic resin, coated with a photosensitive emulsion and used to make photographic negatives or transparencies.

A thin sheet or strip of developed photographic negatives or transparencies.

A movie, especially one recorded on film.

The presentation of such a work.

A long, narrative movie.

Movies collectively, especially when considered as an art form.

To cover with or as if with a film.

To record on film or video using a movie camera

To become coated or obscured with or as if with a film

To make or shoot scenes for a movie.

A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.

(photography) A medium used to capture images in a camera.

A movie.

Cinema; movies as a group.

A slender thread, such as that of a cobweb.

(ambitransitive) To record (activity, or a motion picture) on photographic film.

(ambitransitive) To visually record (activity, or a motion picture) in general, with or without sound.

(transitive) To cover or become covered with a thin skin or pellicle.

A thin skin; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.

Hence, any thin layer covering a surface.

A slender thread, as that of a cobweb.

The layer, usually of gelatin or collodion, containing the sensitive salts of photographic plates.

A flexible sheet of celluloid or other plastic material to which a light-sensitive layer has been applied, used for recording images by the processes of photography. It is commonly used in rolls mounted within light-proof canisters suitable for simple insertion into cameras designed for such canisters. On such rolls, varying numbers of photographs may be taken before the canister needs to be replaced.

A motion picture.

The art of making motion pictures; - used mostly in the phrase the film.

A thin transparent sheet of plastic, used for wrapping objects; as, polyethylene film.

To cover with a thin skin or pellicle.

To make a motion picture of (any event or literary work); to record with a movie camera; as, to film the inauguration ceremony; to film Dostoevsky's War and Peace.

A form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement;

A medium that disseminates moving pictures;

A thin coating or layer;

A thin sheet of (usually plastic and usually transparent) material used to wrap or cover things

Photographic material consisting of a base of celluloid covered with a photographic emulsion; used to make negatives or transparencies

Make a film or photograph of something;

Record in film;