Snotmotion’s squidgy stop-motion shorts reenact the slapstick qualities of sport

Snotmotion is an animation studio founded by Kate Isobel Scott and her partner Jordy van den Nieuwendijk. Under this joint moniker, they’ve released three shorts “inspired by TV’s funniest Home Videos and YouTube compilations like 32 faceballs in 30 seconds,” says Jordy. Safe to say, watching Snotmotion’s shorts is like watching You’ve Been Framed, but with plasticine.

These self-initiated shorts are made with no client in mind, simply for the sake of creating a space for the two creatived to refine their craft and experimenting. Kate and Jordy tell us that they’re by no means sporty, but admire the droll potential physical activity and games have to create slapstick laughs. Take short N° 01, where a character’s attempts to film a dunk quickly turns into a sour rebound straight to the head. Each bounce of the ball satisfyingly flattens into pancakes, before our protagonist gets pied.

On Snotmotions subject matter Kate says: “The aesthetics of sport, the motion and movements in sport, and the fact that there isn’t much talking is very interesting from an animation point of view.” Tennis is known for powered pitches and anime-fight-scene-like grunting; a ripe playground for Snotmotion’s N° 02 short. “Animating a tennis serve was surprisingly tricky, but it forced us to study the timing and rhythm of the action in a new way,” Jordy says. Paying close attention to timing, both Kate and Jordy switch hats from animators to foley artists. “We sit upstairs, at our desk making all sorts of strange noises to match the scenes,” says Kate.

N° 03 brings us to a high-speed golf cart stunt scene, which feels like a throwback to Rory the Racing Car. The buggy flies across a grassy chasm, before sticking the landing and mucking up the pretend ‘camera’ lens in the process. The viewer is part of the action, making timing all the more important. “With the golf animation, I wanted to push interesting transitions between scenes and camera angles.” She continues: “It’s fascinating how even shaving off one quarter of a second from a short can make it far better or entertaining.” When spending such a long time working on such painstaking details, the euphoria when a scene if executed well is palpable for Kate and Jordy. When taking a step back to see what works and what doesn’t – sometimes you need to phone a friend to help test the attention, pace, and humour. Snomotion thrives on a creative challenge, but fun and collaboration is never forgotten.