From Scan to Screen: A Conversation with Vermeil

If, like me, you spend a lot of time on Instagram scrolling through Reels and posts of art in many different mediums, you've likely seen the work of Vermeil, a French artist currently based in Tokyo. His animations are painstakingly created through a process that involves scanning pieces of paper frame by frame. Once everything is layered and audio is added, the result is a beautiful video, complete with the original texture of the material Vermeil printed on and used.

For the first art article, and all of the future ones that will be published in ven magazine, we want to spotlight artists who are creating things that are not so commonplace. As an example, most painters will paint landscapes or portraits in a very vanilla way. While it takes immense skill to paint those things perfectly, we want to show you artists who offer a fresh perspective on art. Not everything has to be perfect to be pleasing to look at, and sometimes the most interesting pieces of art are rife with small imperfections, or created in an unconventional manner. Generally, if you see something that has never been done before and is "new" to you visually, you are more likely to be inspired by it, so we will try to show you, the reader, artists that are doing something new with their work. To me, Vermeil is one of those artists. While he is certainly not the first person to create animations by scanning paper, the subjects of his work and the attention to detail put into each video are very different from others doing the same thing.

So correct me if I’m wrong, but you do all these animations on paper, then scan them one by one. How long does a 30-second animation take?

That’s right. It’s a really slow process. I’ve gotten better at it, and now I have templates and my workflow is way faster than before. But it still takes me between one week and two weeks to complete an animation from the idea to the finished product. I also dedicate a lot of time to experimenting because I want to offer something unique every time. Usually it’s two weeks for a short animation.

Vermeil's most recent animation.

How did you even get the idea to start doing these scanned animations?

That was a while ago, in 2022. I was in Spain for an exchange student program and I didn’t have many things on me to create, so I was imagining ideas for what I would make when I went back to France. I was obsessed with textures and I was exploring new ways to add depth to my designs, and that's when I got this idea of printing and layering paper and tracing paper. I did a still first, it wasn’t animation yet. Then I was like, what if I animate this? I tried it just to see how it looked, and I immediately fell in love with the result, so that’s how I started doing the animations.

Before that, were you doing any scanning at all, or had you never used a scanner?

The first one was the one I did was the Palestine graphic, the oldest one on my page. Before that, I had never scanned anything. I used to do texturing by putting textures on top of my designs in Photoshop so my work would feel more analog, but it never felt real, there was something off. It’s not authentic. That’s why I got into this, because it’s real. I was tired of creating things that only existed digitally. To me what’s only virtual doesn’t really exist. With my process my work first exists physically, on paper, and then I can share it in the digital world. And the best part is that I have the physical version of each animation.

Most, if not all of your work is about fashion in some way, shape, or form. What got you into fashion, and do you have an insane closet?

Not at all. I dress very simply, and I have very few outfits. I love fashion, and I love seeing how people dress and style, but for me, it’s not my way of expression. I want to dress as modestly and as simply as possible, as I don't want to consume too much either.

To me right now, fashion is one of the most interesting art scenes because designers keep pushing boundaries. There’s always new ideas, and I'm always seeing new things like, wow, this hasn’t been done before. It’s amazing. It’s very fast paced too, so there’s a lot of creativity in there. That’s why I love fashion.

Comme Des Garçons SS 2015 - Animation by Vermeil.

Can you describe your typical creative process from concept to finished piece, and what tools you use?

I reached a point where I have ideas that come to me every day, so I have a notebook where I sketch almost daily. When I have a new idea or a new project, I usually pick things from my collection of ideas. When I have a project that is in progress, I can pick things and make them bigger and more real.

For example, in the animation for CDG: I knew I wanted to do something with the brand first, then I looked at the runway shows. There is this one that really struck me—2015 Spring/Summer. I watched it, tried to get the theme and the vibe, and see what graphic element I could incorporate, what shots I could use. I also do some tests on paper and some prints to see how I can layer things. When I have a few ideas, I can do a storyboard, then I move on to the animation step. For the tools, I use Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, and Premiere Pro mainly, I don’t do anything crazy.

Test prints for the Comme Des Garçons animation.

As far as displaying your work physically, have you looked into that?

For now, I cannot afford to do anything bigger than what I do, and I think it’s perfect because I can start very small, do it in my room.

Of course, if it gets big one day, I want to do more design. On my main account I really constrain myself to doing animation and things on paper, but every day I’m creative in many ways: I do writing, drawing, and photography. I think of myself more as a designer than just someone who creates animations on paper, but that’s for another time, my other work is not ready yet.

I saw you've also been doing commissions recently. Does brand work ever feel like a chore to you?

I wouldn’t say it’s boring. I think it’s pretty exciting to get people to trust you to create something that will represent them. It depends on the clients. Sometimes clients have their own vision and it can be challenging to make it work with your own vision.

But there are clients I love working with because they’re like, “Yeah, I really love what you’re doing. Here’s some footage. I know you’re creative, just do whatever you want. Just tell us your vision so we can make sure it’s right for us too.” There’s a lot of freedom. On one hand, it’s kind of scary because you need to do something that works well for the client, but on the other hand it’s really exciting, because you can really unleash your creative vision.

So you moved from France to Tokyo—how did that move influence your style?

Right now in Tokyo, I believe I have created my best two pieces of work so far. I think that if I didn’t come to Tokyo, I wouldn't have made them.

Being here influences me. Japan is amazing in terms of arts and also philosophy, when they do things they’re really perfectionists. It influences me because I try to put that in my work, and now when I do something, I put in 100%, if not more.

All about Lily Chou-Chou - Animation by Vermeil.

Some of your work makes me smile, while other animations (with the audio you pick and the subject) feel more ethereal. Do you try to evoke specific emotions when you’re creating things?

I don’t think I have this specifically in mind, to make people feel certain emotions, but when I do work, I usually go through a lot of emotions myself, and maybe it goes through my work.

The audio takes me a long time. I don’t want to say the worst part because it’s the most important, it's the finishing touch—but it takes me a long time. I have to go through so many songs and try to see what fits with the image and also doesn't distract the audience from the sound design. You’re right: I think about the emotion when I pick the sounds, because sometimes it just doesn’t fit. There is one song I hear after listening to 100 different songs, and I’m like, okay, this is perfect.

I didn’t know how to feel about it at first. I felt like it was a bit like stealing my work for views and engagement. Then I realized maybe that’s how it is on Instagram, because people repost everything, sharing stories and all. You gotta just let your work wander in the world. At the end of the day it just shows that my work is appreciated, which I can only be grateful for.

So far, there are three pages that reposted my work, and they tagged me. People who really want to see the work will try to reach me somehow, they'll look in the comments, like “who’s that guy,” you know.

Do you post everything you make, or do you keep some things off your page?

Not everything. My mantra is: I only post something that is finished and that I’m satisfied with (I might be a perfectionist). If I did the work and it’s not finished, I’m not going to post it. I want to be satisfied, and say, “okay, this is good, there is nothing I can do to make it better.”

I have a very small amount of scrap projects. When I do something, I usually go 100%. If I didn’t finish something, it’s maybe because I spent two hours on it, so it’s not significant, and I’m keeping it for later, I’m gonna go back to it.

You can follow Vermeil on Instagram