Tilmann Vogt - The Art of Animation

Animation is all around us - in films, commercials, video games, TV programs, even phone apps. But few people are really aware of how each of these creations comes to life, how they differ from one another, or who their creators are.

Experienced character animator Tilmann Vogt accepted to talk to “A Curious Culturalist” about the nuts and bolts of animation, the difference between animation in commercials and in apps, and the importance of giving back.

Join us to discover more about the fascinating world of animation and its creators.

Among other successful projects, Tilmann is the mastermind behind “90 to 5" and “Felini”, and the co-creator of the game app “Little Kitten”.

Tilmann’s talent was already evident in his earliest student animations, such as ‘Tobi’ and ‘Snout’, which already exhibited his talent for strong storylines, a sense of humour, realistic depictions, fluid movement, gorgeous lighting and keen eye for detail, defying the technological limitations of their time to create animations that, even today, entertain us.

Video: Tobi - 2001 (1:34" )
https://youtu.be/rcVLGU8D-8s

Animation took Tilmann to work for different companies, such as ‘Ambient Entertainment’, ‘Trixter’, ‘Dr. D Studios’ and ‘Fiftyeigth 3D’, bringing his character animation skills to animated TV series, commercials, feature films and more, in a career that took him as far as Australia. 

In only a few years, Tilmann has originated some of the most original creations in animation, while also supporting generous causes, all which makes him an expert to answer all our questions about animation.

A Curious Culturalist - Tilmann, When and why did you decide to become an animator? What inspired you to become an animator?
Tilmann Vogt - When I was about 12 years old, I got an AMIGA computer. Mostly to play games, obviously. Lots of those games had some sort of intro with flying fonts and moving objects which I found fascinating at that time. Years later, I played with some software to create some simple stuff myself.

However, in Germany ‘Animator’ wasn’t - and still isn`t - a well known term. I still have trouble explaining what I do, sometimes. So, after graduating from school, I sent applications to universities that offered courses in “new media art”, knowing that I was going to do something with art and design, but also with a bit of the technical stuff that I also liked.

I ended up in a 4.5 year program at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz. It offered quite a broad base of education, with classes in typography, psychology, art history, marketing. But even the main courses - like commercials, story telling and 3D animation - didn't really provide any major insight into the field of animation.

However, even the stuff I didn't like very much back then, like photography (standing in a dark room bathing my hands in smelly chemicals), did give me a good basis of design knowledge – for instance, staging and framing animation in the case of photography.

In 2001, I got lucky with a Fulbright scholarship that let me study courses at the Savannah College of Art and Design. There, I got to know about the actual principles of traditional animation and the term “animator” as a profession.

Thanks to Nancy Beiman, my mentor for 2D animation, I dived into the world of animation and enjoyed it more and more. By the time it was time for me to go back home, I was sure I had found my calling, and the profession I was going to grow into for the years to come.

ACC - Who’s your favourite animator and which one is your favourite animation film?
TV - I grew up with Bugs Bunny – those cartoons are still my favourites in terms of animation timing, and one of the major geniuses behind them is Chuck Jones. I do love most movies coming out of Pixar, and very much enjoy “The Incredibles” to name just one.

It's not so easy to pick a single animator in the 3D realm, as it is harder to tell the shots apart with consistent character models and strong supervision. However, I want to mention Victor Navone and Keith Lango, who where some of the first ones to provide resources online to help learn the young and lost animation soul.

ACC - What is the creation process of a character like 'Felini'?
TV - These are the main steps to get a character like 'Felini' onto the screen:

1- Concept & Design
2 - Modelling
3 - Texturing
4 - Adding Fur
5 - Rigging
6 - Animation
7 - Lighting
8 - Rendering
9 - Compositing

Fortunately, a few of the above steps don't need to be redone all the time. From Concept to Rigging most steps can be reused or just need some tweaking for the next episode. But initially, those also took a couple of years to be done. I also got some help where I wasn't satisfied with what I was capable of doing

ACC -  How long does it take you to create an animation from start to finish?
TV - Just looking at the animation part, you can do between 4 to 30 seconds per week, depending on the complexity of the scene and the quality you are aiming for.

Video: Little Kitten Preschool (1:22)
https://youtu.be/YDvXtS96ibE

ACC - Do you follow the same process to create an animation for the app “Little Kitten” than for a commercial? If not, how does it differ?
TV - Games are different mostly because you will have to end up in exactly the same place as you started, so the animation can be looped and connected to other loops.

In games with a 3D engine you also have to make sure that it looks good from all angles (which is not the case with Little Kitten, where everything is pre-rendered to a fixed camera). So, with feature films and commercials you are way more flexible and you can work towards one camera, making things easier in general. In terms of creativity, features and games are better than commercials, as usually in commercials there are only smiling characters holding up a product, doing a wink at the end, whereas in features and games all sorts of emotions might have to be conveyed.

Having said all this, the process is generally quite similar, going from storyboard or animatic to animation:
1. blocking
2. animation
3. final pass/clean up.

ACC - What tools and programs do you use in your work?
TV - Mostly Maya nowadays. I had used quite a bit of SoftimageXSI and very little 3D Studio MAX. These are for animation only. I do use lots of Photoshop, After Effects and other software when creating something like a short film by myself.

ACC - Where do you draw your inspiration from?
TV - I like watching people and animals - how they move, how they deal with emotions. If you are really animating a lot, you go out of the office and see those motion trails and animation curves when watching everything move.

In terms of short films or ‘Felini’ clips, sometimes I get inspired by pictures or videos I watch, or by simple situations and objects that spark an idea. I do have drawers full of ideas for ‘Felini’ and other mini series. If in my lifetime I get to realize 1/10th of those (time and money always being the limiting factors) I would be super happy!

Of course it's always good to travel and keep your eyes and mind open. Also, just being curious will provide you with plenty of insights that can spark ideas. The best way to choose a topic when getting creative is probably to look inside yourself: whatever moves you emotionally will give you the strength to see the project through to completion – this can be something that cracks you up, makes you sad or angry.

Also it's important for me to get a little bit of time by myself – not travelling or surfing the web, but basically without any sort of input or distraction. When you have kids, those moments are rare and mostly happen when you’re under the shower.

ACC - Now, going into the technicalities and for all of those who aren’t familiar with animation terms, could you explain to us what is ‘Rigging’, ‘Clean-up’ and ‘In-between’?
TV - Rigging: When a 3D or 2D flash character is being created, it can really just stand there like a lifeless statue. In order for it to be moved, it needs a skeleton and (usually) a sophisticated facial setup. Those are the handles and controls that an animator can use to create movement and emotion. If the production you are working on is big enough, you usually get a proper rigger to do the rig, which makes animation even more fun.

Clean-up: In 3D/CG animation, there is no traditional “clean-up” to be done, as it’s needed in traditional 2D animation, to get rid of the excess of lines and drawings, creating one clean line that can be colour-filled. However, some studios have a tech-fix pass, where intersections and other little animation errors that could possibly introduce problems down the production-line will be “cleaned up”.

In-between: An ‘In-between’ is simply a pose between major poses of the character. It is still very important, as it helps to define the manner in which the major poses and expressions change, in terms of timing; how quickly the character gets from one to the other major pose – for instance, starting slowly and speeding up - and spacial movement (usually preferably done in arcs, not straight).

ACC -  Are there any differences between cell animation (also known as 2D or traditional animation) and digital (3D) animation?
TV - Obviously, the main difference is the medium. For cell animation you need to be able to use a pen. Sounds easy, but drawing is a skill that needs to be developed and practised a lot.

For digital animation you need to control a complex software (nowadays most cell animation is being done on the computer too, but you do use a pen or stylus for it). It`s a more abstract way of animating, as the computer also tries to fill in some in-betweens for you – which sounds convenient, but those are not usable in most cases and need fixing.

Cell and digital animation have in common that you need to develop some sort of feeling for emotion and timing. At some point you should be able to forget about the pen or computer and just “feel” what needs to be done, added, removed so that the character feels genuine, believable, lovable.

ACC - What is the difference between motion graphics and animation?
TV - When I hear “animation” I usually think of characters jumping about. Motion graphics is usually typography, shapes or images moving. They have quite a few things in common also. For instance, you have to have a good sense of motion to create them.

ACC - One of the most interesting projects you’ve originated is the ‘90 to 5' Editing challenge, in which original films are edited from their original length to only 5 minutes or less, without losing the overall sense of its storyline. How did you come up with this challenge?
TV - My wife and I used to watch movies at home every now and then, and she kept falling asleep halfway through. When the movie was over and she woke up, I had to rewind the tape, CD or stream to show her the most important scenes, so she would understand how the movie ended. That's when I thought it would be awesome to have a library of movies edited down to 5 minutes.

Then, the business idea was to create an equivalent to book summaries: “Short Books”, “Quick Reads” and so on for movies. Not only for people who fall asleep during the movie, but also for time-conscious people who want to catch up on those 10 movie recommendations they get from their friends every day, or film students who need to study films or get a feel for a genre quickly.

Anyhow, here are the two main problems with this business idea: 1. Copyright. 2. Create good edits (for zero to little money). To solve #2, the ‘90to5 editing challenge’ was born. To avoid #1, only public domain movies where allowed to enter the challenge.

Even though the ‘90to5 editing challenge’ started as a means to another end, it turned out to be a fun project to work on. And I got to know many great folks who helped out, and I almost forgot about the original goal. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun to organize. I hope some friends can keep it running, as I have fewer and fewer time to spend on it, unfortunately.

ACC - We hope so! Now, you’re very committed to several charities, with ‘Felini’ donating 20% of its profits to the wild cats conservation organization “Panthera” (www.panthera.org) and the charity organization “Giving What We Can” (www.givingwhatwecan.org ). What inspired you to do this?
TV - We are so blessed with abundance in our lives, while other people in this same world still starve to death or die from easily preventable illness like diarrhea, or animals suffer severely or go extinct... and so many more issues. So what to do about it? Working 9 to 5 and donating some of the income is great, but eventually, I do hope to be able to get more cash donated by establishing a company with the goal of entertaining and donating.

The term "Charitainment" comes to mind, but it seems to be linked to celebrities mostly. There are projects like “Red Nose Day” already, where humour is bound with charity – making people laugh, give, and help others. So it's a win-win-win situation. Right now it's still all wishful thinking, but I figured 20% is the minimum to call something a social or charitable project. Eventually, the percentage donated should go up further, if a sustainable model can be established.

The even bigger idea is that, not only ‘Felini’ but a bunch of other web-series I have in mind, may be all linked to different charities.

But for many of those idealistic thoughts I need a monetary foundation, specially since animation is usually a very time consuming thing to create. Still thinking about ways to fund this other than YouTube ads, T-shirts and merchandise.

Anyone reading this with an idea, let me know.

Video: Felini - Poem: Ode to Dot (0:20")
https://youtu.be/FCEJU5-y_Lw

ACC - Do you have any future projects?
TV - Tons! As mentioned before, eventually there should be quite a few web series all contributing to different charities. But I think Felini has the potential to get things started, that's why I will be concentrating on him first.

Other projects that are not so far in the future at til5.org would be “Heidi & Hans”, German-accented “chinfaces”, playing on national stereotypes, helping to raise money for international projects, such as bringing people from different countries together, promoting mutual understanding, fostering peace, etc. And there’s also “Wolf Ralf”, which is trying to trying to raise money for World Toilet.org. Very likely, I will also continue creating kitten apps with Pete [Colebatch] for a while.

ACC - You welcomed your first daughter a couple of years ago, while still working on time-consuming projects such as ‘Little Kitten’. As an animator, how did you cope with becoming a dad?
TV - It's a completely different life, especially since I'm a work-from-home dad that didn't get to work a lot between changing diapers, trying to get the girl to sleep and cooking food. If I’d gone to work every day for 9-10 hours and had slept in a separate room, not bothering with the nightly struggles, my mind probably would not have changed very much. But coping with severe sleep deprivation makes you really learn about the importance of sleep, and truly value it once it becomes possible again (after 2 years).

Working on professional projects was more like a tight-timed coup that you had to pull off when no one was watching. Just 15-20 minutest here and there, spread out over the day to get something done. So besides my being very grateful for every hour of sleep, the experience totally shifted my sense of time. I do value time a lot more, wasting way less time with the internet or other distractions.

Also perfectionism is a term of the past. And, of course, there are so many joyful moments, that weigh up every bit of pain. The time together in nature, re-discovering the tiniest of ants and watching them for hours; laughing about the fresh, unsullied imagination, making sense of this world; diving into long forgotten emotions, intense feelings of ups and downs – all of this and much more besides. The wonder of another human being being created with nothing but trust in you to make her survive.

ACC - What would you advise young animators or someone who’d like to start in animation?
TV - Most importantly, don't give up! Especially if you start playing with a character, it's very likely going to look super-ugly at first. But guess what - it does look very wrong when I start off on an animation, too. Only improving little by little, changing the timing of this and that, it will start to suck less. Define your major poses (you always need less than you think), make their timing to feel right, then go from the main/center control (for instance, the hips) and work your way outwards.

Starting off in any profession is never easy, especially landing gigs as a freelance animator when nobody knows you. Just keep at it, improve, and try to provide as much value as possible for the company that hired you, so that they will always come back for more.
There's a huge amount of stuff, tutorials and free rigs online to read and practice. Start with the basics – if you can make the audience feel for the bouncing ball or flour sack, you can also do the same with complex characters.

Get enthused about the art form, which will motivate you to ace even the seemingly most boring animation task. It's a great field to be working in, with tons of awesome people, and the work itself is very multifarious - touching on everything, from emotions and psychology over writing and story, to mechanics, movement, dance... Lots of animation also has to do with animals – watching and studying those is always fun, too.

ACC - Finally, How do you envision the future of animation and motion graphics?
TV - That’s a very interesting question. As Nils Bohr put it “prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future”. However, I do envision more intuitive ways to control motion in motion graphics as well as in animation. Imagine, you could just swipe your hand across or make some gesture that gets captured by a webcam and transferred directly to the characters.

Motion capture devices already exist, even small, inexpensive ones. But it's not yet as simple as using a computer mouse - especially setting up the software seems tedious. I haven't spent a lot of time researching – so, if anyone knows some good and easy-peasy tools, let us know in the comments below.

ACC - Thanks so much for your time and for sharing your expertise with us, Tilmann, and good luck with all your projects!

To Learn More...  

If you’d like to learn more about Tilmann and his work, visit his official web page at https://til5.org 

To download the "Little Kitten" app, go to Squeakosaurus , or visit the Apple store.

To learn more about Felini and the worthy environmental causes it supports, visit its official web page: https://felini.rocks

Additionally, you can follow "Felini" on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram , and Pinterest.
           
All images courtesy of Tilmann Vogt.