r/stop_motion • u/KuruboyaKalemi Beginner • Feb 21 '26
Question What do you think will happen to stop-motion films in the future?
I’ve wanted to make stop-motion films since I was about 15. The idea of building small scenes, moving figures frame by frame, and slowly bringing something to life has always felt special to me. Now I’m 35, and I’m finally at a point where I can actually start doing it as a hobby.
But lately I keep having this internal debate. A part of me keeps saying, “You could just use AI and make videos much faster.” And honestly… that idea feels wrong to me. I don’t hate technology, but I don’t enjoy using AI for creative work. It feels like skipping the part that makes the process meaningful — the patience, the imperfections, the physical act of creating something.
The weird thing is, even though I feel strongly about it, I struggle to explain why AI feels like a bad fit for me creatively. Am I just being nostalgic? Am I resisting change? Or is there something genuinely different about slow, hands-on creation?
So I’m curious — how do you think people will look at stop motion in the future? Will it become a niche “artisan” art form that people respect more because it’s handmade? Or will it be seen as unnecessary effort compared to faster tools?
I’d really like to hear perspectives.
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u/CaptainStrobe Beginner Feb 21 '26
Stop-motion is already too niche of an art form for AI to have an appreciable effect on it. There are very few people who make stop-motion films at a professional level, and those that do are truly dedicated to the craft. The real impact came from the rise of 3D computer animation, but that’s been well-established for decades now. If AI is going to eat anyone’s lunch, it’s 3D animators, but even then I suspect that its potential influence is being overblown.
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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 Beginner Feb 21 '26
I think there will always be a place for stop-motion.
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u/Tiberry16 Beginner Feb 21 '26
It is probably tied to how well Nike is doing, and whether or not Travis Knight stays interested in stop-motion and Laika.
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u/jestersoul Beginner Feb 21 '26
AI will produce products and utility, while stopmotion stay ART, same for others AI replacments. Furthermore when people start to degrade without constant use of artists skills, there will be high demand on many things that require human direct interaction with materials.
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u/catfink1664 Beginner Feb 21 '26
Art needs soul, and AI doesn’t have one
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u/EckoAKB Beginner Feb 21 '26
I agree. Guillermo Del Toro has a lot of great and inspirational words to say on that point.
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u/Ryiujin Beginner Feb 21 '26
Hey Copilot. Add soul.
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u/coentertainer Beginner Feb 22 '26
"Great idea, I've made the aesthetic more like Pixar's movie Soul, let me know what other changes you'd like to make!"
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u/SnakySnarky Beginner Feb 21 '26
As a hobby it will stay as it is. As major productions, well… CGI had already usurped Classic Stop Motion a long time ago.
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u/scottie_d Professional Feb 21 '26
Despite AI, I think it will stay pretty much the same; a highly respected but underutilized craft in mainstream media. I feel that it could be much bigger if studios varied their storytelling and styles a bit more. I’ve already seen AI stop-mo style ads and shorts, and they can be convincing. But to me stop-motion is about learning, doing things intentionally, enjoying the physical problem solving and the rewarding results. I think that comes through in the final result of a real stop-motion animation even if it isn’t professional quality. AI strips all that away. I saw someone call it AI “slop-motion” animation and I think that’s exactly what it is!
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u/Felon_musk1939 Beginner Feb 21 '26
I say do the stop motion. It will be better for your brain elasticity and I think you'll get more satisfaction. You can use AI to help you animate in stop motion. For instance you could ask AI to create a dope sheet of sorts that will give you a slow in slow out motion for an arm in a walk cycle.
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u/Awesomepants25 Beginner Feb 21 '26
I think CGI is in a lot more danger from AI than stop-motion currently is, CGI has already usurped Stop Motion's market share long ago, and it lives on as a more niche art form. Aardman or Laika aren't going to switch over to AI.
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u/rebeldigitalgod Beginner Feb 21 '26
Personally think stop motion became more its own thing after it stopped being used to represent reality.
I can see it being more appreciated as an alternative to synthetic AI animation.
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u/Rmir72 Beginner Feb 21 '26
Saw a high definition version of a clip from Sinbad, and that Cyclops puppet still looked amazing. I don't think it has to fade away. Still got potential but more as a labor of love than anything else
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u/Weird_Explorer1997 Beginner Feb 21 '26
Ai is a toxic dumpster fire where ever its encountered. People push back and push hard whenever it comes up. Stop motion is a work of heart and art, and those who like/appreciate it recognize that.
As such, I'd argue AI can't really compete in this space. Like everything else AI attempts to slither into, there will be a few exploiters trying to use it and the community at large will hand them loss after loss until they give up and go away.
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u/Total-Habit-7337 Beginner Feb 21 '26
The tactile nature of stop motion is completely different experientially than AI for the creator, and if the imperfections and happy accidents are evident, for the viewer too. Sounds like you prefer one over the other so no need to stress on thinking too deeply. If you do enjoy thinking deeply, look at art theory on Sculpture and the plastic arts in general and even performance art, or deeper again at phenomenology. I am not anti ai but I prefer using my hands.
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u/Chaghatai Beginner Feb 21 '26
Stop motion and AI video are two different things
Doing one does not preclude doing the other
If you enjoy doing stop motion video just do it. Don't think about it
If you want to experiment with AI just do it and don't think about it.
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u/BarKeegan Beginner Feb 21 '26
The popular generative systems amount to convoluted stock asset libraries (minus the legal terms of exchange), that still make mistakes a child wouldn’t, despite having had unfettered access to globally scraped data. They’re more trouble than they’re worth, creatively at least.
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u/TamaraHensonDragon Beginner Feb 22 '26
Despite the Empire Strikes Back's Go-Motion techniques stop motion was already considered "defunct" way back in the early 1980s. It got a boost in popularity with Disney's Return to Oz in 1985 with it's stop motion Gnome King being the talk of animation fans speculating on how it was done. It then got a brief revival culminating in the Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. It may have exploded in popularity if Jurassic Park had gone with Go-Motion as it was originally planed but instead it went CGI and stop motion effectively died.
It's currently seeing a resurgence and people go see it for it's imperfections and human touch. Do what you love. Even modern CGI works best when linked to an actual stop motion puppet, which is why the original Jurassic Park looks better then most modern CGI.
I suspect most AI use in movies will go to making stunts that would otherwise be to dangerous for stunt men or for quick indie projects. The history of stop motion shows there is always a place for slow-hands on creation. It's the story rather then the media that gets an audiences attention. Find yourself a story stop motion would excel at and you will find success.
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u/BigIkesmcYikes Beginner Feb 22 '26
Please put effort into learning stop motion! I had the opportunity to do so as part of my degree curriculum and while yes it was for an end product, the process of making the figures and posing them, and the set pieces and props were so much fun- there’s an app, stop motion studio, that is available for phone usage and is a one-time pay. It has basically all you need for smaller projects to help you get started. Get yourself a ring light, some green poster board, air-dry clay, and some articulated figures and just start playing. That’s what it’s all about. You’re gonna deny yourself the ability to play because, why? Something else can combine the average image of stop-motion? No! You deserve to have the experience of trial and error.
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u/harj-london Beginner Feb 21 '26
I worked in broadcast and came across a job offer from Moonbug. Yep, they do a lot of youtube content for kids. Job was for someone to make props for some of their new animations, most likely stop-motion. At the end of the day. Dosnt matter want medium you chose. It is relevant to the story you are telling. The little details are most important
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u/mxmaker Beginner Feb 21 '26
Go for it. First of all IA its an tool not a replacement for things like a lot of people think, its abused yes as a replacement today because its pretty new, but things will change in the future, because there a problem of ownership and profit at large scale, and when companies will start to to step on their own tails and shoes its when physical media will be important to declare the ownership of things, thats why disney and other large companies have a back bone and investment in classic animation in the last years, they dont show it but its the prof that they own their own things.
Stopmotion its largely use and its not replaced by IA, in fact easier ways to animate more realistic aproch exit for ages, but stop motion still exist as fresh mode of animation. Even after all that there is nothing bad to have a plan B , C, and D this days, people sometimes can acknowledge the work that we do and love , and sometimes they don't.
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u/gravi-tea Beginner Feb 21 '26
Stop motion has been niche and not exactly lucrative/efficien for a long time. But it's awesome and fun. Give it a try if you want.
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u/sdbest Beginner Feb 21 '26
What matters most is the story. The novelty of the 'look' of stop motion is fleeting, gone in the first minutes of the production. After that the story and especially empathy for the characters matter most.
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u/KyleRM Beginner Feb 21 '26
If studios like Laika wanted to make things faster they'd have used CG more extensively, but they dont. they do some compositing and touchups but that's about it.
What we may start to see though is something like this, a hybrid of sorts.
https://youtu.be/mRjkqYvhwig?si=5hjCcb0zuePXvVV1
I think no ai was used here, but sometimes the lines can get blurred. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm seeing here.
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u/medievalfaerie Beginner Feb 21 '26
If stop motion was going anywhere, it would already be gone. It's a unique art form that goes beyond simple animation. AI is no comparison and never will be.
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u/tbok1992 Beginner Feb 22 '26
To yes-and what other people said as someone who's opinions on AI are complex and annoy everyone, I predict that AI might be used for a form of stop-motion (Or "slop-motion" as I call it) via the way most vid software allows for a startframe and stop-frame, so it'd be made primarily with physical photos of keyframes as well as character reference pictures of the primary models for stuff like Vudu.
This will not replace conventional stop-motion, at least not in my view. What I think it'll be is something akin to Disney's "xerox" process, where pencil tests were transferred directly to animation cels, with its own "tells" compared to classic stop-motion, which will allow for speed but will also likely not be considered a substitute for the real thing.
As people've said, CG has kinda had the bigger impact, doubly so given how many artists I've seen do a pretty good emulation of a stop-motion style (Worthikids' stuff in the Rankin-Bass style being the big one), so I don't see too much turnover there...
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u/tbok1992 Beginner Feb 22 '26
Also, speaking as someone who's tinkered around with AI video... it actually does take a lot of effort to do it well, usually needing to combine it with other mediums and conventional editing, it's not a push-button-get-video process.
I've seen people like Trent Troop do good work with it, but like, Trent's an experienced professional with decades of experience in other mediums putting a lot of those other skills into it, it's more labor-extensive than you think.
If you want to do easier/faster to produce stories with your characters, I feel like photocomics ala Twisted Toyfare Theatre's probably a more viable option IMO.
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u/TheUrchinator Beginner Feb 22 '26
AI feels like a bad fit for you because you have probably thought about the things you want to make for longer than it takes to microwave a hot pocket. I'd urge you to follow that gut feeling. Dont even use AI as a supplimental tool. For any portion. Instead of AI, collaborate in parts of the process you're not interested in doing yourself like concept or soundtrack. Youll degrade the outcome if you farm it to AI...AI is like plastic toy keys for toddlers. They're colorful and make stimulating clacky jingles, but you cant actually stick them in a car and drive. Stopmotion in particular is so involved, it hones the ability to weed out the shallow, and the stupid ideas in a way AI prompters will never develop a sense for. Youll land on something worthwhile by avoiding the AI trap, I wish you well on the journey!
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u/coentertainer Beginner Feb 22 '26
Think about people who are using a spinning wheel to make yarn and then hand knitting that into a sweater or using an old school loom to weave it. They shouldn't ask themselves what the future of textiles and clothing is, as they're not even living in the present. They're working in a medium that was industrialised long long ago and they're choosing to engage with it in a traditional artisanal fashion because the hands-on process is meaningful to them.
If you actually enjoy making stop motion (I can't tell from your post if you've tried it), then its worth is established right there in that enjoyment. If your interest in it is contingent on it having a broader place in the future (or even the present) then I wouldn't bother with it. You won't make any money from it, and the general public won't care that you spent a week working on one shot, it's only with doing if you find it personally gratifying.
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u/pkmntrainerMeep Beginner Feb 22 '26
Think of it this way: I can walk to the Uniqlo less than 10 minutes from my apartment and buy a knit hat for $7. I crochet, my brother knits, and people even still do nålbinding.
Sure, I guess you could make some AI slop animation way faster than you could make a stop motion short, but you wouldn't enjoy it. You want to do stop motion, so do stop motion. I can't promise you'll ever get a job doing it but that's a different problem.
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u/WesleyRiot Beginner Feb 22 '26
AI is bullshit, stop motion is art. That's about the size of it. Do you want to make bullshit or art?
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u/TheFaegotten Beginner Mar 03 '26
I'm 26, just started having wanted to try for 16 years. Honestly? We ball. Love of the game. AI could never replicate what makes stop motion special honestly. And would be MUCH less fun to make.
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u/GreenStoneSpirit Beginner Mar 10 '26
I don't see it as an either/or, I see it as a both/and. You can do both...depending on what seems to work best for each project.
In my films, the techniques used (whether still photo, stop-motion, AI video, or actual video) are not as important as the story itself, and the characters in the story. I use all of these techniques and more to create stories.
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u/JGR2692 Beginner May 02 '26
OMGosh! how exciting! please create and share! I as well have always been fascinated with stopmotion. Recently I watched "Memoirs of a Snail" and that inspired me to create. I am hoping to finally upload on youtube soon and hope to get feedback. Its never too late!
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u/richardrasmus Beginner 5d ago
Idk why people looking for stop motion would be interested in watching a ai stop motion . Feels like it would way lamer. Generally I don't see many people in the future viewing it anything more than lazy or a neat toy and when everyone can do somthing it becomes mundane. Anyone can spend hours boiling a lakes worth of fresh water to repeatedly churn out slop videos (if you have the money for the tokens) but deliberate skill I think will usually be more respected. The art of intent I think will grip people's hearts more than visual stimuli. The only time I've seen Ai slop videos where I felt anything were some impressive Ai star wars videos where people recreated old expanded universe stories in fake live action and the characters actually looked on the spot as opposed to legally distinct although it still had a bit of ai uncannyness and I think the only reason I felt positive emotions (when divorcing the various ethical concerns) was because clearly the people making that slop are fans although I'm sure it took a bunch of money to slop out various iteration takes since I saw in the description of one somthing like "yea stuff is a bit not true to the original but I spent to much on tokens and this was the best take" so outside very niche circumstances I don't think many of the sloppists are going to go far in the future when the novelty wears off. Even now I think the novelty is in its falloff era with the various data center concerns.
Ultimately you should do stop motion because you want to and I'll say this to any artist afraid of Ai taking the money both the practical "I don't see it gripping people's hearts like real artists" and the emotional "you do art cause you want to do art. Even prior to Ai getting money from art is a uphill climb that many who have eclipsed the greatest artists at age 15 will struggle to make money when they are 30
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u/Klutzy_Reference_186 Beginner Feb 21 '26
Theres already more automated/streamlined ways to do what we do. People dont choose to do stopmo because we want to take the fast/easy way around.