British and French stop-motion specialists Aardman and Foliascope have teamed up with Paris-based animation training company Rhinocéros to combat a skilled talent shortage by launching a new program designed to teach advanced skills to stop-motion animators.

The cross-border program is a four-week intensive course that will be taught in person at Foliascope Studio in France and Aardman Academy in the UK. Training involves building animation technique, speed and improving character performance and expressions. The goal is to prepare the trainees to work on upcoming stop-motion feature films. 

Applications will open on the Rhinocéros site in September, and the program is set to start next March. Eight animators are fully funded to participate, thanks to contributions from the two partner studios, as well as French training orgs AFDAS and France Travail Scène et Image. 

The challenge of finding skilled stop-motion talent in the market is not a new one. Aardman started its Academy more than 20 years ago to solve this problem for its stop-motion productions like Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.

Pictured is various Aardman characters, courtesy of Aardman.