Cel

Make your animation. Not your spreadsheet.

Cel is an all-in-one animation production hub for solo creators, fan-artists, and indie animators. Storyboards, animatics, scripts, palettes, audio, and commissions - in one quiet place.

Live Demo - Report a Bug - Request a Feature

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What Cel does

Cel replaces the patchwork of Notion docs, Google Sheets, Trello boards, and Drive folders that indie animators normally juggle. One project. One workspace. Every stage from concept to delivery.

Stage	What you get
Script	Live-preview Markdown editor for scenes, beats, and dialogue. Upload existing scripts as PDF, DOCX, or Markdown and view them inline - no retyping.
Storyboards	Per-shot boards with reference uploads, version snapshots, and review threads.
Animatic	Timeline-based shot sequencing with audio sync and rough timing.
Audio	Per-scene audio bins, waveform previews, and dialogue/music/sfx tracks.
Palette tools	Build, lock, and export palettes per character or scene.
Collaboration	Invite members, role-based access (owner / editor / reviewer), in-app review rooms with approval flows.
Commissions	A queue for paid work: client briefs, milestone tracking, deliverable approval, and revision history.
Pipeline	Bird's-eye dashboard of where every shot in every project actually is.
Discord integration	Push status updates and review-ready pings to your team's Discord.

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Quick start

Try it hosted

Open cel-source.onrender.com and click Start Creating - Free. (The free instance sleeps after 15 min of inactivity; first request may take ~50 seconds to wake.)

Run it locally

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm 9+
• Bun (used for tests + some scripts)
• A Postgres database (local or Neon)
• (Optional) Cloudflare R2 bucket for asset storage

Setup

git clone https://github.com/matthewro7263-hub/cel-source.git
cd cel-source
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env.local
# fill in DATABASE_URL, R2 keys, ENCRYPTION_KEY, etc.
pnpm drizzle-kit push      # apply schema
pnpm dev                   # starts client + server on :5173

Then open http://localhost:5173.

Run the tests

bun test
pnpm check                 # typecheck

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Tech stack

• Frontend: React 18 + Vite + TypeScript, TanStack Query, wouter (routing), Radix UI + Tailwind, Lucide icons
• Backend: Node.js + Express, Drizzle ORM
• Database: PostgreSQL (Neon in production)
• Storage: Cloudflare R2 (S3-compatible) for uploads
• Auth: Cookie/JWT sessions
• Notifications: Discord webhooks
• Hosting: Render (web service) + Neon (Postgres) + R2 (assets)
• Tests: Bun's built-in test runner

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Project structure

cel-source/
  client/              # React app
    src/
      pages/           # Route-level views (ProjectWorkspace, Dashboard, etc.)
      components/      # UI components (Radix-based design system)
      hooks/           # React hooks (useToast, useAuth)
      lib/             # API client + utilities
  server/              # Express API
    routes.ts          # All HTTP routes
    storage.ts         # DB access layer (Drizzle queries)
    discord.ts         # Discord webhook integration
  shared/              # Code shared between client and server
    schema.ts          # Drizzle schema + Zod validators
  docs/                # In-repo documentation
  drizzle.config.ts    # Migration config

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Environment variables

See .env.example. The critical ones:

Variable	What it does
DATABASE_URL	Postgres connection string
ENCRYPTION_KEY	64-char hex (32 bytes) for AES-256 at-rest encryption. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32
R2_ACCOUNT_ID, R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID, R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, R2_BUCKET	Cloudflare R2 credentials
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL	(optional) default Discord channel for notifications
SESSION_SECRET	Cookie signing key

Never commit .env.local. .env.example is the safe template.

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Contributing

Cel is built in public. PRs welcome.

1. Fork, then create a feature branch (feat/<thing> or fix/<thing>)
2. pnpm install && pnpm check && bun test should all pass
3. Open a PR against main
4. Render will spin up a preview deploy for review

For larger features, open an issue first so we can align on scope.

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Roadmap

• Script upload (PDF / DOCX / Markdown) with in-app viewer
• Discord notifications for review-ready shots
• Snapshot-based version history
• iPad-friendly storyboard view
• Real-time multi-cursor collaboration on scripts
• HDR-aware palette tools
• Public portfolio pages for finished work

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License

MIT (c) matthewro7263-hub

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Made for animators who'd rather be drawing.