Two things live on this page: the free tools this project's maintainer builds and ships (distributed from the MOTK tools site, the umbrella for all the maker's tools), and a plain directory of the tools the wider stop-motion industry actually uses — so newcomers can see the landscape and what free options already exist.
Built by this project's maintainer and released free. SMDB introduces them as part of the industry landscape, but does not send readers directly to an app, ZIP, or source archive. Every link below first opens the tool's page on the MOTK Public Site, where the Web version, downloadable version, requirements, limitations, and source are explained together.
Production management for small film, animation and VFX teams. The recommended Web public beta runs in the browser while Google Sheets remains the production-data source of truth and Drive remains the media store.
New Web projects are organized inside one project folder owned by the signed-in Google account. Cloudflare does not own the Sheets or Drive files. The MOTK Public Site explains this structure, the no-install Web edition, and the downloadable ZIP/GAS edition.
A local companion for camera, folder, encoding, upload, playback and Kdenlive automation. It keeps privileged hardware and filesystem work on the operator's machine while pairing it with hosted MOTK tools.
Read the supported-operation and hardware limitations on the Public Site before downloading the Windows package.
Free stop-motion capture for phones, tablets and desktops. The camera-room-first workspace keeps shooting visible, Focus mode can hide every control, and Session receives prepared Shot/Take context without managing the production.
No install or account is required. Browser recovery storage is automatic; supported desktop browsers can mirror JPEGs to a chosen folder, while iPhone/iPad can save or share a backup. The optional Companion handles RAW, vendor SDKs and trusted production roots.
Offline character-voice converter for temp dialogue: performs-in, character-voice-out, preserving the actor's timing and intensity. Dummy backend runs with no model; Seed-VC opt-in.
After Effects scripts that render each layer of a comp as its own pass and keep a text record of every layer's blend mode and opacity.
Batch-cuts a long video into clips from an editor's marker CSV (e.g. a Premiere marker export) via ffmpeg — one named clip per marker.
Blender add-ons that exchange camera moves with a VOLO motion-control rig as per-frame CSV — design a move in 3D and run it on the rig, or previsualize a rig move in Blender.
A directory, not a how-to — for step-by-step technique and workflow guides, see the Wiki. Free entries below are framed as lowering the entry barrier, not as replacements: Dragonframe, for example, remains the professional capture standard the free capture tools coexist alongside.
| Category | Tool | Pricing | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture | Dragonframe | Paid | The professional stop-motion capture standard, used across major studio productions, with broad camera, lens and motion-control support. |
| Capture | Stop Motion Studio | Free tier + Paid | A widely used mobile and desktop capture app for stop motion, with a free tier and a paid Pro tier for more advanced tools. |
| Capture | qStopMotion / Boats Animator | Free / open source | Open-source desktop capture tools that lower the entry barrier for hobbyists, students and small setups getting started with stop motion. |
| Production tracking | Autodesk Flow Production Tracking (ShotGrid) | Paid | A production-tracking and review platform used widely across film, TV and games pipelines, integrating with tools like Maya, 3ds Max and Blender. |
| Production tracking | Kitsu (CGWire) | Free / open source | An open-source production tracker for animation and VFX studios, covering scheduling, review and budget tracking. |
| Compositing | Adobe After Effects | Subscription | An industry-standard motion graphics and compositing application, commonly used for stop-motion clean-up, effects and titling. |
| Compositing | Nuke | Paid | A node-based compositing tool used on high-end film and VFX productions for advanced keying, tracking and image processing. |
| 3D / comp / edit | Blender | Free / open source | A free, open-source 3D creation suite covering modeling, compositing, video editing and camera tracking in one application. |
| Edit / color | DaVinci Resolve | Free tier + Paid | An editing, color-grading and audio-post application with a capable free edition and a paid Studio version for extra features. |
No tool this project ships is paid, and nothing that helps an artist get found is ever paywalled. Support for the tools' upkeep will come from optional donations once the site's donation channel opens — never from sales.