The global stop-motion recordhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/en-ushttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-13/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-13/Two U.S. festivals with substantial stop-motion programming land in the second half of August 2026: the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (PFCAT, Aug 18-23) lists more than 170 films from 31 countries including two stop-motion features and 30+ other stop-motion works, plus a free Creator Expo on Aug 22 where attendees can meet stop-motion artists and see original puppets and production materials; Frame Fest (Aug 29-30) presents a dedicated Best Stop-Motion Short award. Neither Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-craft-in-motion-smear-frames/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-craft-in-motion-smear-frames/LAIKA's official "Craft in Motion" video series published a new entry, "Craft in Motion: Smear Frames in Stop-Motion Animation" (LAIKA Studios YouTube channel, 2026-07-03), explaining the studio's approach to reintroducing motion blur into puppet animation -- an effect ordinary frame-by-frame stop motion does not naturally produce, since each frame captures a puppet held perfectly still. The video walks through smear frames, an in-between technique borrowed from traditional hand-drawn animation Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-wrong-trousers-camera-blur-technique/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-wrong-trousers-camera-blur-technique/Inverse's retrospective on the making of Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993) recounts how cinematographer Dave Alex Riddett and the camera crew created the model-train chase's sense of speed without any motion-control hardware: rather than animate blur into the puppet itself, they physically pushed and pulled the camera -- mounted on a homemade dolly and crane -- along the train's own track between exposures. Riddett is quoted describing the train as travelling at "the equivalent of 300 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/deborah-cook-on-engineering-kubo-and-the-two-strings-costumes-down-to-the-millimeter/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/deborah-cook-on-engineering-kubo-and-the-two-strings-costumes-down-to-the-millimeter/LAIKA costume designer Deborah Cook (Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link) described stop-motion costuming as an engineering discipline rather than a sewing one: "It's different in scale. We use engineering under the costumes... we have to engineer that whole movement. We use wires, weighted linings, flexible fabrics," and material choice has to satisfy both constraints at once -- "not only do we have to find material that will work in our scale, they have Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTinterviewhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-10/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-10/Blue Fox Entertainment released an official trailer for Jim Capobianco's stop-motion musical The Inventor (already catalogued, France/Ireland/US, voice cast including Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard) ahead of its August 25, 2026 US theatrical debut. Separately, CEE Animation's Forum selected 33 animation projects (mixed techniques) for its 14th edition in Pilsen, Czech Republic, November 10-12, 2026 - a regional pipeline worth revisiting once the stop-motion-specific selections are aMon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/detlev-golden-lola-forced-perspective/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/detlev-golden-lola-forced-perspective/Ferdinand Ehrhardt's diploma film Detlev -- a silicone-puppet short about a lonely man's nightly petrol-station ritual -- won the 2025 Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis (Germany's national short-film award, a "golden Lola") in the animation category, per the Filmakademie's own announcement; the win automatically qualifies the film for 2027 Academy Award consideration. Nearly three years in the making with a crew of over 40, the film's puppets were built by Arne Hain (who has previously worked with Phil TiSun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/light-hole-kodansha-papercraft-manga/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/light-hole-kodansha-papercraft-manga/LIGHT HOLE, Kodansha's third global branded film, was directed by Toru Katori -- an independent creator selected from roughly 150 open-call submissions -- with Takuro Oishi as animation director, produced by Geek Pictures. Oishi has described building the film's stop-motion cities and characters as three-dimensional paper constructions folded and stacked from pages actually printed with content from Kodansha's own manga catalogue -- Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Attack on Titan and Initial D among Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/frame-by-frame-center-for-puppetry-arts-2026/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/frame-by-frame-center-for-puppetry-arts-2026/Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts opened Frame by Frame: The Art of Stop-Motion Animation on 2026-08-07, running through 2026-11-01: more than 80 original puppets, sets, artifacts and production materials on loan from the Walt Disney Archives, Warner Bros., Netflix and other studios and private collections, representing artists from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Named works include Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and James and the Giant Peach. CurSat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-08/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-08/Marking its 50th anniversary, Aardman used Annecy 2026 to unveil a full slate: 'Let's Go Timmy!' (a 30 x 5-minute stop-motion/2D series set in the Shaun the Sheep world of Mossy Bottom, directed by Merlin Crossingham and Daniel Binns for BBC/CBeebies in 2027), the newly revealed 'The Almost (Untold) Story of Danger Delilah' (co-directed by studio co-founder Peter Lord and Asa Lukander, adapting Oliver Jeffers' 'Once Upon an Alphabet', still in development/pitching), and fresh details on the PokeSat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/cnesst-hanging-by-a-thread-crochet-stop-motion/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/cnesst-hanging-by-a-thread-crochet-stop-motion/Montreal's See Creature Animation built "Hanging by a Thread," a workplace-psychological-health campaign for Quebec's CNESST, around a puppet made almost entirely of hand-crocheted wool over a metal armature -- the office-worker character, Harold, literally unravels as the story's central metaphor. Directed by Pierre Dalpe and Dale Hayward, crochet fabrication was led by Chason Yeboah's team; facial performance ran on a separate 3D-printed replacement-face system rather than the crochet body itsFri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/tiny-chef-shadowmachine-art-department-scheduling/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/tiny-chef-shadowmachine-art-department-scheduling/Autodesk's account of ShadowMachine's art department on The Tiny Chef Show lays out how a weekly series schedules handmade fabrication at a pace a feature never has to match: Art Production Supervisor Whitney Schmerber oversees "scheduling, staffing, purchasing, tracking, and inventories" using Autodesk's Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid), work moves from a "Build Bible" concept-art reference through set fabrication, model shop, mould-and-cast and scenic teams, finished sets are brokeThu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-vox-pop-unscripted-dialogue-history/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-vox-pop-unscripted-dialogue-history/Animation Obsessive's history of Aardman's "vox pop" dialogue technique traces it from Faith and John Hubley's unscripted 1950s American TV commercials -- "We did not use a script," Faith Hubley said, "we culled the improvisation for the best lines and adapted the storyboard from the improvisation" -- through the BBC's Animated Conversations series, where Aardman founders David Sproxton and Peter Lord's Down and Out (1977) set real audio recorded in a Salvation Army hostel against animated figurMon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-03/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-03/The Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (PFCAT), Aug 18-23, 2026 at OMSI, announced an expanded lineup with 30+ stop-motion films including two features: Heinrich Sabl's 25-years-in-the-making Memory Hotel (US premiere) and Beck Underwood's directorial debut The Lure of Ponies: A Spellbound Attic Mystery. Also screening: Siqi Song's She Creates Change: Dewmini and Rob Shaw's You Play Too Much (voiced by Fred Armisen), plus a "Meet the Animators of LAIKA" panel and "Attack of the Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/how-scale-model-studios-shot-a-one-take-rotating-build-reveal-for-bristol-s-aviva-arena/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/how-scale-model-studios-shot-a-one-take-rotating-build-reveal-for-bristol-s-aviva-arena/Dragonframe's showcase blog profiled Scale Model Studios' stop-motion preview film for Bristol's Aviva Arena (opening late 2028): a hand-built 1:500 scale model with 3D-printed interior seating and a segmented roof so the solar panels animate separately, mounted on a lazy-susan turntable divided into millimetre increments. Director Jennifer Kidd synchronized that turntable with a motion-control rig so the camera travels the full build in a single continuous take, then deliberately slowed the cloMon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-02/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-02/The Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (PFCAT) released its expanded 2026 lineup (Aug 18-23, OMSI): 170+ films, 30+ stop-motion works and two stop-motion features across six days. Skwigly's coverage names Heinrich Sabl's feature Memory Hotel (U.S. premiere) and Beck Underwood's feature The Lure of the Ponies: A Spellbound Attic Mystery (Oregon premiere), plus Portland premieres for Rob Shaw's You Play Too Much (featuring Fred Armisen) and Oscar/Annie-nominated director Siqi SongSun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/girl-who-cried-pearls-uv-ink-cg-mouth-tracking/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/girl-who-cried-pearls-uv-ink-cg-mouth-tracking/befores & afters' technical deep dive (2026-01-06, building on its 2025-11-24 overview) reports how The Girl Who Cried Pearls (Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski, National Film Board of Canada) solved CG mouth-replacement tracking without altering its stop-motion puppets. Directors refused the VFX team's usual asks -- cutting away a puppet's nose and ears, shrinking its head, or adding visible tracking markers. Technical director Eric Pouliot tested highlighters and glow-in-the-dark paint, both oSat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-01/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-08-01/2026-07-19 daily sweep of Cartoon Brew and Skwigly picked up fresh Annecy 2026 coverage: Sofía Carrillo's stop-motion feature debut Insectario has expanded into a 4-country Mexico/Spain/Canada/Latvia co-production backed by Latvia's NFC, Ibermedia Next and Telefilm Canada; Aardman and The Pokémon Company shared new pilot footage of Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu; and Skwigly interviewed I Am Frankelda directors Roy and Arturo Ambriz on making Mexico's first stop-motion Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/hidari-2026-annecy-keanu-reeves-financing/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/hidari-2026-annecy-keanu-reeves-financing/At the Annecy Animation Showcase during Cannes' Marche du Film (May 2026), writer-director Masashi Kawamura and producer Noriko Matsumoto presented the feature-length plans for Hidari, the carved-wood stop-motion samurai film in development by dwarf, Whatever and puppet-fabrication studio TECARAT, whose 5-minute 2023 pilot is catalogued here as Hidari. Keanu Reeves is now cast to voice the title character, Jingoro Hidari, named for the legendary Edo-period wood sculptor. Financing comes via the Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTinterviewhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-wildwood-2026-production-scale-reveal/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-wildwood-2026-production-scale-reveal/LAIKA's own behind-the-scenes reveal for Wildwood (catalogued here as Wildwood), reported by Screen Rant, puts the production at 136 physical sets -- several large enough for the crew to walk through -- 231 practical puppets and 54 hero characters, the studio's largest build to date. LAIKA chief marketing and operations officer Dave Burke called it "our most ambitious film yet"; director Travis Knight described it as "the hardest thing we have ever done." Separate coverage (Forbes) quotes KnightFri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-31/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-31/A stop-motion animator's path from studio floor to civics education: Brandon Lake, previously catalogued here only as an animator/camera assistant at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Robot Chicken, SuperMansion) with earlier stints at LAIKA and Sony Pictures Imageworks, is now the ACLU's Senior Creative Producer, Video & Animation. He created, wrote, directed and showruns Know Your Rights University (KYR-U), a stop-motion educational series made with animation studio Threadwood that premiered its four-epFri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/moma-opens-a-century-spanning-animation-exhibition-with-stop-motion-among-13-techniques/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/moma-opens-a-century-spanning-animation-exhibition-with-stop-motion-among-13-techniques/The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition It's Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection opens on 1 August 2026 and draws from a collection covering 13 animation techniques, including stop-motion, pixilation, pinscreen, cel and rotoscope. The exhibition is structured as an archival survey rather than a single-studio showcase, placing physical frame-by-frame practices alongside experimental, educational, commercial and digital animation across roughly a century.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pinocchio-2022-lens-and-motion-control-cinematography/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pinocchio-2022-lens-and-motion-control-cinematography/Befores & Afters' account of cinematography on Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) quotes director of photography Frank Passingham on the shot-level camera choices behind the film's look. Passingham shot on Canon 5D DSLRs rather than mirrorless bodies to avoid dust contamination over shoots that could run three weeks per setup, and matched del Toro's live-action focal-length preferences (28-85mm) to stop-motion's smaller sets by mixing Laowa macro lenses for wider coverage, Nikon glass for genWed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pfcat-2026-brings-more-than-30-stop-motion-works-to-portland/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pfcat-2026-brings-more-than-30-stop-motion-works-to-portland/The Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology will run August 18–23, 2026 at OMSI with a programme of more than 170 films from 31 countries. Animation World Network reports that the six-day lineup includes more than 130 animated works, more than 30 stop-motion works, two stop-motion features and more than 30 world premieres, making stop motion a substantial strand rather than a single award category or sidebar.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTfestivalhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pinocchio-2022-3d-printed-metal-puppet-armatures/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/pinocchio-2022-3d-printed-metal-puppet-armatures/Skwigly Animation Magazine's October 2022 interview with puppet supervisor Georgina Hayns and production designer Guy Davis, conducted by Laura-Beth Cowley, describes how Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio pushed puppet armature-making past the standard machined ball-and-socket skeleton. Mackinnon and Saunders built the puppets, and armature engineer Richard Pickersgill combined his background as a traditional armature maker with 3D printing in metal alloys Hayns says "lend themselves more for puppeTue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTinterviewhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/hidari-pilot-wooden-puppet-motion-control-craft/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/hidari-pilot-wooden-puppet-motion-control-craft/Animation Obsessive's account of Hidari's 2023 five-minute pilot -- the hand-carved-wood samurai short from director Masashi Kawamura that is now in development as a feature with Keanu Reeves voicing the lead -- names the crew behind its "wood punk" look: TECARAT's Takeshi Yashiro designed the puppets, Kimimasa Inazumi animated the action scenes, and Shigeru Okada (Rilakkuma) led the rest. Even a five-minute short needed two Jingoro puppets, a separate Inumaru puppet and Inumaru robot, five hencMon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-27/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-27/Aardman's June 2026 news round-up (via aardman.com/latest-news) confirms co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton were honoured in the King's Birthday Honours, and that the Royal Mint released a commemorative 50-pence coin marking Aardman's 50th anniversary. Same round-up also surfaced the second Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom trailer, the Let's Go Timmy! BBC series, a Gromit autobiography ('Grand') from publisher Ebury, and a Royal College of Art/Aardman Animation MFA partnership -Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/chicken-run-dawn-of-the-nugget-set-visit-puppet-and-animation-craft/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/chicken-run-dawn-of-the-nugget-set-visit-puppet-and-animation-craft/Animation Magazine's Rich Johnson toured Aardman during the final months of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget's six-year production (2023-12-06). In the puppetry department, head of puppets Kate Anderson explained how the flock's feathers are built: each rubber feather's size is randomized before the plumage is 3D-printed as a mould, with a week of hand-painting per puppet's full coat, and drew a direct contrast with LAIKA's approach -- "Laika uses color 3D printers, which enables them to play witSun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/mackinnon-saunders-pinocchio-mechanical-3d-printed-puppet-heads/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/mackinnon-saunders-pinocchio-mechanical-3d-printed-puppet-heads/befores & afters (Ian Failes, 2022-12-12) reports on how Mackinnon & Saunders built the mechanical and 3D-printed puppet heads for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, drawing on interviews with director of character fabrication Georgina Hayns and head puppet maker Richard Pickersgill. Most of the film's characters, including Geppetto, carry fully mechanical heads: a roughly three-inch head holds a gear system driving jaw movement, three hinged lower-lip paddles for consonant shapes, four independentSat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-25/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-25/Cartoon Brew's stop-motion feed this run centred on LAIKA's Wildwood press tour (theatrical release Oct 23, 2026), Aardman's Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom trailer and Pokemon Tales reveal, and Manchester duo Mackinnon & Saunders / Nihil Declarandum's newly announced adult feature Heads (dir. Tiffany Kimmel) - all already catalogued here. Outside the trade-press feed: Kleber Mendonca Filho's Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent uses a stop-motion sequence from Dutch studio Holy Motion foSat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/how-emmy-winning-dp-ozlem-akturk-lights-stop-motion-for-the-tiny-chef-show-isle-of-dogs-and-frankenweenie/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/how-emmy-winning-dp-ozlem-akturk-lights-stop-motion-for-the-tiny-chef-show-isle-of-dogs-and-frankenweenie/Cinematographer Ozlem Akturk, whose stop-motion credits include The Tiny Chef Show, Isle of Dogs and Frankenweenie, describes stop-motion lighting as a control problem before it is a design one: because each frame is a separate exposure re-assembled into motion, any shift a live-action set would absorb -- drifting daylight, a bumped flag, a warming bulb -- reads back as a visible flicker or jump once the frames play at speed.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTinterviewhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-s-newplast-plasticine-supply-ran-out-in-2023-the-clay-it-built-wallace-gromit-on-is-now-back-as-hue-clay/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-s-newplast-plasticine-supply-ran-out-in-2023-the-clay-it-built-wallace-gromit-on-is-now-back-as-hue-clay/In 2023, the single factory that made Newplast -- the plasticine Aardman has animated on since its 1972 founding, across Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep and Star Wars Visions -- closed. Aardman bought the remaining warehouse stock outright rather than risk an unmatched material mid-production, and kept working from that reserve while producing Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-launches-handcrafted-wildwood-portal-experience-at-san-diego-comic-con/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-launches-handcrafted-wildwood-portal-experience-at-san-diego-comic-con/LAIKA opened The Forest is Calling Portal Experience outside the Hard Rock Hotel during San Diego Comic-Con, presenting the first public, in-person environment based on Wildwood. The installation recreates the atmosphere of the film's Impassable Wilderness at human scale, guiding visitors past story-linked objects including Prue McKeel's bicycle, Baby Mac's wagon, hidden symbols, forest artifacts and a personalized faction activity. It is scheduled to continue to additional North American citiesFri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/kevin-parry-office-chair-stop-motion/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/kevin-parry-office-chair-stop-motion/Independent stop-motion animator Kevin Parry built a short scene of an office chair ‘driving’ itself through a room and into a chase, shot as 444 still photographs over 10 days, as reported by 80.lv (Stephanie Almogabar, 2026-07-20) drawing on Parry's own making-of video. Parry worked from a sketch and a written screenplay before shooting, used a half-circle protractor to keep the camera's arc consistent between shots, moved the chair roughly two floorboard-widths per frame to keep its motion reThu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/dragonframe-adds-eos-c50-r6-mark-v-alpha-a7-v-camera-support/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/dragonframe-adds-eos-c50-r6-mark-v-alpha-a7-v-camera-support/Dragonframe's camera-support table now lists Canon's EOS C50 and EOS R6 Mark V and Sony's Alpha A7 V as its newest supported cameras, all gated to Dragonframe version 2026.07.1 or newer. The panoramic tier the software added in its 2026.01.1 release -- Insta360's X3, X4, X4 Air and X5, plus Ricoh's Theta X and Z1, all sharing a 1920x960 live-view feed -- remains the only 360/spherical hardware on the list. Folded into the Wiki's Dragonframe camera and lens support page.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/dragonframe-dev-branch-adds-python-scripting-hooks/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/dragonframe-dev-branch-adds-python-scripting-hooks/Dragonframe's public development-branch changelog has moved into a new 2027.01 build cycle, and alongside small interface refinements (new Arc orbit-tool graphics, a +/- control on point-of-view directions) it adds three Python scripting additions: event callbacks now receive a full event object, an optional reference-layer parameter, and an optional DRAGONFRAME_PYTHONPATH environment variable for extending where the app looks for Python modules. A parallel 2026.04 build fixed the Arc workspace Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-capture-stage-02-cam-stage-rebuild-2026-07-21/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-capture-stage-02-cam-stage-rebuild-2026-07-21/MOTK Capture Stage 02 replaces the Stage 01 tab-drawer shell with a camera-first instrument that has exactly two modes. CAM covers everything decided before and between shots: camera source and resolution, manual controls generated from whatever the camera exposes (zoom, focus, shutter, ISO, white balance, exposure compensation), mirror and rotation, and one-tap monitor toggles for focus peaking, clipping zebra and a live histogram, plus chroma-key and anamorphic-desqueeze monitoring. STAGE keepTue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-launches-n-cleo-latam-animation-market-alongside-its-ninth-festival-edition/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-launches-n-cleo-latam-animation-market-alongside-its-ninth-festival-edition/SMOF's ninth edition expands beyond screenings and training with Núcleo Latam, described as the festival's first Latin American animation market. The three-day programme is designed to bring projects from the region into structured meetings with producers, studios, distributors, platforms and institutions, creating a practical route toward development, co-production, financing and circulation rather than treating the festival only as an exhibition event.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-adds-n-cleo-latam-animation-market-to-its-stop-motion-festival/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-adds-n-cleo-latam-animation-market-to-its-stop-motion-festival/The ninth SMOF International Animation Festival ran in Buenos Aires from 20–26 July 2026 with almost 100 stop-motion shorts in competition, screenings, premieres, workshops, masterclasses and the eighth Latin American Stop Motion Laboratory. The programme positioned the festival as both an exhibition platform and a training structure for regional makers, with fourteen projects in development receiving individual consultations and competing for production-support awards.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-capture-stage-01-and-native-iphone-still-save-2026-07-20/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-capture-stage-01-and-native-iphone-still-save-2026-07-20/MOTK Capture is the public identity for this independent stop-motion product. Stage 01 provides a cyan-and-amber shooting instrument with a large camera stage, editable exposure filmstrip, transport deck, independent browser recovery, Windows profile and release cycle. It remains separate from MOTK Shoot and cannot silently open or overwrite a MOTK Shoot project.Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-5-previs-first-after-effects-round-trip-2026-07-20/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-5-previs-first-after-effects-round-trip-2026-07-20/MOTK Shoot 0.4.7-beta.1 adds MOTK Shoot Local, a focused Windows application for animators who want the camera-room workflow without production administration or post-production controls filling the screen. It is deliberately not reduced to a still-camera shutter: Capture and TEST remain beside the exposure timeline, holds, frame stepping, scrub, loop and normal playback, remove and Undo, reverse and ping-pong, onion skin, guides, layers, audio/X-Sheet, local mirror, project backup, movie exportMon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-opens-a-week-of-stop-motion-screenings-and-training-in-buenos-aires/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-opens-a-week-of-stop-motion-screenings-and-training-in-buenos-aires/SMOF 2026 runs from 20–26 July across Buenos Aires, presenting an international competitive programme centred on stop-motion animation. The festival combines short-film screenings with laboratories, workshops, exhibitions, clinics, seminars, retrospectives, conferences and talks, with activities designed for both emerging makers and the wider public.Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTfestivalhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-identity-spot-builds-a-handmade-planet-around-the-festival-s-community/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/smof-2026-identity-spot-builds-a-handmade-planet-around-the-festival-s-community/SMOF's 2026 festival identity follows an astronaut arriving on a small animated planet inhabited by varied creatures. The festival presents the piece as an expression of its commitment to visible process: rather than hiding tests, gestures, material seams and handmade traces, the spot treats them as part of the appeal of stop-motion. Its opening on 20 July also connects the festival's community theme with both Argentina's Friendship Day and the anniversary of the Moon landing.\n\nThe official crMon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-publishes-a-reproducible-full-software-verification-gate/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-publishes-a-reproducible-full-software-verification-gate/MOTK Companion's public beta now includes one reproducible verification command for its complete non-hardware software surface. Twenty-one test groups cover local pairing and origin security, safe production folders, Media Job cutting, encoding, resumable upload, assembly, playout, Kdenlive project generation, project-scoped control, Google Sheets integration, Cloudflare retry and isolation, and the common camera-adapter contract. A separate Windows package test installs and launches the bundledSun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-4-companion-0-4-0-beta-7-sigma-native-capture-2026-07-18/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-4-companion-0-4-0-beta-7-sigma-native-capture-2026-07-18/MOTK Shoot 0.4.4-beta.1 and MOTK Companion 0.4.0-beta.7 complete the free toolset's native camera path: SIGMA fp still capture now works end to end and was verified on real hardware, including camera settings (exposure mode, shutter, aperture, ISO, white balance, quality) controlled from the browser, live view, and full-resolution originals saved with collision-safe names. Tethered frames are now committed only after the camera writes a real file, so a failed shutter can never produce a false frSat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/stopmotionanimation-com-launches-professional-stop-motion-mentorships/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/stopmotionanimation-com-launches-professional-stop-motion-mentorships/StopMotionAnimation.com has added a professional mentorship offering intended to connect developing animators with experienced stop-motion practitioners. The initial mentors are Porter Young and Ian Boone, both described by the site as feature-film animators who already have experience working with students. The announcement positions the service as an extension of the community’s longstanding role in exchanging practical knowledge and connecting makers.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-wildwood-annecy-the-general-puppet/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-wildwood-annecy-the-general-puppet/LAIKA opened "Wildwood: Discovering a Handcrafted World," a first-look exhibition at Annecys Galerie de la Cite (running through September 27, 2026), built around a miniature set inspired by Portlands real Pittock Mansion and a puppet called The General -- a golden-eagle-inspired character measuring 86 cm from beak to tail with a 163 cm wingspan. The puppet is LAIKAs first built with fully articulated wings designed to open and fold like a real birds, and is dressed with 3,794 individually positFri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmaking-ofhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-17/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/industry-sweep-2026-07-17/Swedish stop-motion director Niki Lindroth von Bahr (The Burden, Bath House) premiered her 15-minute stop-motion short The End -- a dark tale of death at an international airport, voiced by Noomi Rapace, Alexander Skarsgard, Tuva Novotny, Denis Lavant and Anna Mouglalis -- in the Cannes Official Short Film Competition. Separately, Aardman and The Pokemon Company International confirmed director Tom Parkinson for Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu (2027) at their Annecy 2026Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/nina-gantz-s-wander-to-wonder-receives-an-official-free-online-release/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/nina-gantz-s-wander-to-wonder-receives-an-official-free-online-release/Nina Gantz’s stop-motion short Wander to Wonder has been made freely available through Miyu Distribution’s Bang Bang YouTube channel after an extensive festival run. Animation World Network reports that the 13-minute-45-second film reached 188 festival selections, received 49 awards and earned an Academy Award nomination before this wider online release, giving audiences a legal route to see a prominent recent independent stop-motion production outside the festival circuit.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTreleasehttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-4-reduces-windows-control-to-shoot-and-files/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-4-reduces-windows-control-to-shoot-and-files/MOTK Companion 0.4.0-beta.4 replaces the earlier collection of setup, start, pairing-key, folder, documentation and maintenance entries with one visual Windows Control Center. Its normal surface has two large actions: Shoot opens MOTK Shoot, and Files opens the exact local production folder. Storage, camera method, SIGMA SDK selection, manual pairing for another device and Media Tools remain available behind Settings instead of competing for attention during normal capture work.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-3-makes-running-windows-updates-transactional/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-3-makes-running-windows-updates-transactional/MOTK Companion 0.4.0-beta.3 fixes a Windows update failure discovered immediately after the visual installer was released. When Companion was still running, the earlier installer tried to move its live application directory and Windows refused access to the active app files. That attempt could leave the application folder partially moved even though configuration, pairing keys, job history and production media remained safe in their separate data locations.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-2-replaces-powershell-first-installation-with-a-windows-setup/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-companion-beta-2-replaces-powershell-first-installation-with-a-windows-setup/MOTK Companion 0.4.0-beta.2 replaces the first public beta's command-line-first Windows entry with a normal double-click path. After extracting the ZIP, a user opens INSTALL MOTK COMPANION.cmd, chooses a local media folder and camera method in a setup window, and presses Save & Start. Start menu actions can reopen setup, start the local service, copy the private pairing key, or open the exact folder used for local production media. No PowerShell command or system-wide execution-policy change is Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-media-tools-launches-with-universal-videocutter-and-a-shared-companion-contract/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-media-tools-launches-with-universal-videocutter-and-a-shared-companion-contract/MOTK Media Tools has opened in public beta as a browser surface for small, repeatable media jobs that should not require uploading production sources to a cloud service. Its first module is Universal VideoCutter: an editor or production team can choose a local movie, read marker ranges from Premiere, Resolve, Kdenlive or a generic CSV/TSV, check the names and timing before work begins, then create one named MP4 per range. Accurate mode re-encodes for frame-level boundaries; Fast mode preserves sThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-2-fixes-phone-landscape-controls-and-makes-capture-storage-explicit/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-2-fixes-phone-landscape-controls-and-makes-capture-storage-explicit/MOTK Shoot 0.4.2-beta.1 corrects a phone and tablet interaction regression in the camera-room Focus view. In landscape, the entire Focus control layer now accepts touch input instead of relying on a child-only hit-test pattern that could leave Exit working while Capture, Play and Hide appeared inert. Focus Play is also a real shooting toggle: it loops the current take until Pause is pressed, without changing the project's ordinary Loop preference. The phone transport keeps Capture, Live, Play anThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-1-keeps-earlier-captures-closed-and-restores-phone-playback/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-0-4-1-keeps-earlier-captures-closed-and-restores-phone-playback/MOTK Shoot 0.4.1-beta.1 changes how the free browser shooting tool starts a working session. A new browser tab or later browser session now opens with a new empty shoot instead of automatically showing the last project and its captured images. Previous projects remain stored locally and recoverable, but they stay closed until the animator opens Projects and deliberately chooses Open project. Reloading the same tab still resumes that tab's active shoot, so an accidental refresh does not discard tThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-web-creator-owned-project-folders/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-web-creator-owned-project-folders/MOTK Web's public beta now creates a complete production workspace inside the signed-in user's own Google Drive. One project name produces a Project Root containing the main MOTK Sheet, a separate ADMIN Sheet, Originals/01shots and Originals/02assets folders, and a Proxies folder. A first-time user no longer needs to copy headers, prepare a blank Sheet, or manually assemble the expected Drive structure.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-redesign-puts-the-camera-room-first-adds-focus-mode-and-local-capture-copies/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-shoot-redesign-puts-the-camera-room-first-adds-focus-mode-and-local-capture-copies/MOTK Shoot 0.4.0-beta.2 reorganizes the free browser stop-motion studio around the camera room. The live shooting surface now stays visible while three clearly named work areas—Assist, Session and Settings—open only when needed. A new Focus mode fills the display with the camera view and Live, Capture and Test; the animator can hide every remaining control until the next tap. The same application still runs on desktop, iPhone and iPad, with compact touch controls on narrow screens rather than a Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-at-50-craft-archives-and-public-exhibitions/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/aardman-at-50-craft-archives-and-public-exhibitions/Country Life marks Aardman Animations' 50th anniversary through a studio-history feature that connects the company's Bristol roots with its continuing commitment to handmade production. The article describes the visible fingerprints, dense background detail and frame-by-frame manipulation that remain central to Aardman's identity, while noting that the studio has also used CGI where appropriate. It traces the path from Peter Lord and David Sproxton's early work through Morph, Nick Park's arrivalThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTindustryhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/eter-anima-festival-closes-inaugural-competition-call-with-129-submissions/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/eter-anima-festival-closes-inaugural-competition-call-with-129-submissions/ETER Anima Festival has closed submissions for its first edition after receiving 129 films from Poland and other countries. The festival will run in Łódź from 30 September to 3 October 2026, with competition screenings selected from films produced after 1 January 2025. Its international main competition keeps a dedicated stop-motion category alongside a separate 3D animation category, while additional competitions cover Polish animation and films for children.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTfestivalhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-intel-ai-assisted-rotoscoping-for-rig-removal/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/laika-intel-ai-assisted-rotoscoping-for-rig-removal/befores & afters reports that LAIKA partnered with Intel's Applied Machine Learning team, working near the studio in Portland, Oregon, to build a prototype tool inside Foundry's Nuke that speeds up the rotoscoping work behind rig removal -- the standing practice, running since Coraline (2009), of painting every tie-down point, wire, and puppet-face seam out of the finished frame. Trained on as few as five or six of LAIKA's own finished shots, the tool tracks facial landmark points on a puppet faWed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtoolhttps://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-free-production-toolkit-public-beta-2026-07-15/https://stopmotiondatabase.com/news/motk-free-production-toolkit-public-beta-2026-07-15/MOTK, a free and open-source toolset for stop-motion and small film/animation teams, is now in public beta. The lineup covers production tracking on the user's own Google Sheets and Drive (browser app plus the original Apps Script edition, both supported), MOTK Shoot for browser-based capture, and MOTK Companion, a local app for camera control, ffmpeg proxies, resumable uploads, and automation. Data stays in the user's own Google account; the tools are free with source published on GitHub. The aWed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtool