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OGDEN: What issues / obstacles did you discover that are unique to the longer format film compared to those encountered in earlier, shorter animated work?

TOMOV: The volume of work to coordinate and creatively supervise a film like this is overwhelming. Of course now, when looking back, I realize that we (me too) could have done some things better. But this is normal for any creative experience, I guess. Just this fact that the work had to be divided between few studios makes a huge difference compared to the production of a smaller and shorter animated work.

It is more difficult as well not to lose the artistic vision and not to be distracted by the thousands of small details and tasks when you are in the midst of such a long, intense production involving so many people. It sure was quite a school for me and all the others who created Triplets.

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OGDEN: What tasks did you delegate to others on the project, and what did you refuse to delegate?

TOMOV: During the first part of the production I was involved mostly in designing the environment (the decors) and drawing the actual lay-outs. I tried to handle as much as possible by myself he development (design) of the environment in order to maintain a coherent artistic vision when designing different locations.

As a result of our decison not to have precise posing for the characters, I had to anticipate and guess sometimes how the animator would move the character within the environment, so I could make it suitable for the scene. This was quite challenging and I decided to trust myself mostly in doing that. The two other lay-out artists really helped me keep the lay-outs precise, and they also did cleanup with that kind of wobbly and sketchy line which you see in the final backgrounds on the screen.

Once finished with the designing and the lay-outs, I moved to background coloring and there I got to work with a great team of painters. Having in mind that we had more than 850 original backgrounds to be painted, there was no illusion that this work could be done by only a couple of people. There was some great color development work done by the lead painter Thierry Million and some beautifully painted backgrounds by the other painters. I was painting main locations along with them and all the backgrounds had to go through me, for corrections and retouching in order to maintain unified style and color continuity.

So, we had to delegate quite large part of the work to other artists from the creative team. A film of this scale is a team sport after all.

OGDEN: How long were you in pre-production, production, and post?

TOMOV: The preproduction phase was quite symbolic - there was little done during the one year of pre-production aside from finalizing the story and Sylvain finishing a large part of the storyboard. There was very limited budget and only two people working during the pre-production - Sylvain and another artist, who did some design work prior to my involvement in the film. He left really early in the production because of profound differences between his and Sylvains visions on many fundamental topics.

Anyhow, not much was done to pave the road for the actual production and, in fact, most of the design and development work was done simultaneously with and during the production, which often posed greater challenges to us. I hope the producers have learned their lesson about the importance of the development work during the pre-production. For the money you save on pre-production, you pay dearly during the production, which in our case took about three years.

The post-production period took roughly a few months - from July 2001 to October 2001, when everything was finalized.

OGDEN: How does Sylvain like to work -- did he storyboard out the whole film, or just certain parts?

TOMOV: We worked from a complete storyboard, and it was done by Sylvain himself. I believe this is his preferred method of work.

CLICK TO SEE A CLIP FROM THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE FEATURING A COMBINATION OF 3D AND TRADITIONAL ANIMATED ELEMENTS. (1.7MB)

OGDEN: These days, it is fashionable for animation companies to choose 3D animation over hand-drawn. And you have used 3D in places it made sense to do so (the closeup of the Eiffel Tower model that Madame Souza plays with) but what informed your choice to use hand-drawn animation on the bulk of the film?

TOMOV: The possibilities of the digital 3D medium at at the moment still don't offer enough to avoid the somewhat "synthetic" and "plastic" feeling of the characters. To be fair - it is evolving quite rapidly and I believe we'll see amazing results in the future. But until now - can you think of an animated 3D feature among all the very successful ones, with convincing and believable human characters which don't give you the impression
of vinyl dolls? The best examples of the 3D animation feature either toys, insects, fantastic furry creatures or fish and animals... The creators are still forced to resort to particular themes and stylization in order to accommodate the restrictions of the media.

It works perfectly fine for a specific type of story and aesthetic. But the thing is to choose the right means to do what you intend, without simply following a trend or a "success recipe". In the case of Triplets it had to have this warm, hand made and vintage look of nostalgia to fit the theme and the story. Whenever we used 3D it was not for the typical 3D look, but for practical and technical reasons which would justify that.

And it was intentionally rendered and integrated in a way that will make it look like 2D. It has its charm, I believe.

OGDEN: There's an old saying that, since animation is such a long and expensive process, if a story can be shot with human actors, it should not be animated. What are the aspects of Triplets that you feel lent itself to animation in particular?

TOMOV: That old saying doesn't bear much merit, in my opinion. Animation has its charm and qualities. It delivers different aesthetic and emotional experience. It is not just about telling a story the fastest and the cheapest way. The Triplets would have not been nearly as interesting and unique if it was a live action film. The hand made, drawn feel that comes from the screen, the stylization of the characters (you can not find actors with this kind of bizarre physics) resonate quite well with the equally bizarre story we are witnessing.

OGDEN: In Europe and Asia, Animation is simply a style of film making, regardless of audience. In North America, it is more regarded as a genre exclusively for children, and as a consequence, a lot of great animation gets overlooked by mainstream adult audiences. What is your feeling about animation and its appeal to different audiences?

TOMOV: I really hope that the animation in North America will break out of its confining reputation as being for children only. It is a style of film making and I hope Triplets will contribute its little share in breaking the stereotype among the mainstream American audience.

OGDEN: What do you feel about where Animation as a medium is heading, compared to where it has been?

TOMOV: It is definitely changing, reflecting the mentality change in the society and also accommodating all the technological advancements available in this techno era. I would not whine about the lost good old times. The world is changing - and animation as well. I would just hope we filmmakers don't turn our backs on the achievements of the past, and simply relegate ourselves to following shallow trends.

OGDEN: I assume that the team was able to get funding for Triplets based on the success of your previous, shorter work, "Old Lady and the Pigeons". Silvain has said that "Old Lady" took 10 years to make. Was that 10 years of part time work? What did you do when you weren't working on "Old Lady"?

TOMOV: I worked on "Old Lady" as well painting backgrounds, but it was in 1995 and I do not know precisely how many people were involved and how long exactly took to produce (although, I believe it took about a year and a half). It was definitely much smaller and simpler. As far as I know, it took Sylvain 10 years to push through the project, which he was caring and developing in his head while working on other things. It took years to find producers to finance the project.

OGDEN: What are you working on next?

TOMOV: Sylvain is already finalizing the story for a new movie and on the development of the characters for next film. It is quite different than Triplets (for instance, it will have dialog...) and, in my opinion, way more ambitious and challenging. I will soon be joining him in France in late November or December for the development (pre-production) phase.

OGDEN: Our thanks, Evgeni, for your thoughtful and thorough answers to our questions. It was a pleasure speaking to you!