Vilppu is an internationally renowned draftsman, painter, and instructor whose books and DVDs are used by universities, art schools, and independent students around the world. Vilppu has had at least 20 one-man shows and is represented in collections throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The Vilppu Academy online art school is an international resource for students wishing to improve their drawing skills remotely. Vilppu's approach to teaching drawing has become the standard for professional artists imitated and by numerous teachers and applied by the tens of thousands of students of his teaching.

At the age of 40 Vilppu brought his approach to traditional figure drawing and composition to bear in the animation industry for over 20 years on both feature and shorts for all of the major studios, as well as teaching at all of the major studios as well many of the game and special effects studios.