With their latest short, the duo transforms sporting slip-ups into playful storytelling. From building a golf course on a rotating drum to experimenting with vertigo-style shots, Kate Isobel Scott and Jordy van den Nieuwendijk prove that tiny worlds can carry big laughs.
Stop-motion has a knack for finding joy in the everyday. With Golf, the latest short from animation duo SNOTMOTION, a simple sporting moment – losing control of a club mid-swing – becomes a miniature epic of timing, humour, and craft.
The film is part of an ongoing series that explores slapstick accidents in sports. These are universal moments that make us wince and laugh in equal measure. No dialogue or translation needed. Just characters, props, and body language delivering the punchline. “Jordy loves the statistics about how often people get a ball in the face during sports,” says Kate. “He’s not great at sports, so maybe these stories are based on personal experience.”
Building a Whole Golf Course in Miniature
The making of Golf was as inventive as the idea itself. They were faced with the ultimate challenge of how to show a ball flying across a full course when your studio is the size of a living room.
Their solution was ingenious. They built the course in miniature on a giant rotating drum, fixing the camera in place so it could follow the ball as it “travelled” across the landscape. “It’s tricky to explain,” Jordy admits. “We made a making-of video that shows it.”
Every frame was meticulously planned. From quick sketches to storyboards, then animatics, the duo tests ideas before committing to sets. “Stop-motion is time-consuming,” Kate explains. “We don’t want to build a whole scene only to cut it later.”
For Golf, they also experimented with oversized heads for close-ups, vertigo-style camera tricks, and even flyover shots. The result is a short packed with visual surprises.
The Playful World of SNOTMOTION
Behind SNOTMOTION are Kate Isobel Scott and Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, who started collaborating almost a decade ago. Kate’s background in illustration and set design gave her an instinct for character detail. Jordy gravitated to lighting, camera setups, and editing. Over time, what began as casual help on projects became a shared practice.
The name? That’s a story too. Kate’s school nickname “Snot” stuck far longer than she expected… especially after Jordy cheekily registered snotmotion.com. “There’s no going back now,” Kate laughs.
Together, they bring humour and craft to handmade worlds inspired by the TV of their childhood. Think Pingu, Postman Pat, and the charming imperfections of 1980s and ’90s analogue animation. “We want kids to look at our work and think, hey, I can do this too,” Kate says.
Collaboration, Chaos, and Craft
Though their projects are largely just the two of them, friends often step in to help. Photographer Philip Huynh shot behind-the-scenes stills for Golf, while another friend 3D-printed typography for a golf club after paint and glue failed to deliver.
Their studio is a mix of order and chaos. Tools live in labelled drawers, piles of wood are stacked from big to small, and props sit in crates ready to be pulled out… it’s a creative space anyone would be proud of. Despite all this, Kate always knows where everything is – from a loose spring to a spare eyeball – while Jordy takes pride in making sure no drill bit or screwdriver goes astray.
What’s Next
Golf is only just the beginning. Kate and Jordy plan to explore more sporting disasters in future shorts, each one tapping into clumsy sporting moments. They’re also working with remote-control cars, sketching out hand-drawn 2D pieces, and testing 3D-printed skeletons for clay figures that can pull a wider range of expressions. Next year, Kate will add another layer to their practice when she begins at Aardman Academy to develop a new project.
“Stop-motion is always evolving,” Jordy says. “Technology brings exciting possibilities – and new worries. But that’s part of the adventure.”
And their hope for audiences? Simple. “We just want to bring a bit of fun or a spark to your day,” Kate says. “Maybe take you back to childhood, or make you laugh. That’s enough for us.”
