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Motion Mondays: Biggest Stories of the Year (So Far), with motion design presenters, a robot and creative software logos.

10 of the Biggest Motion Design Stories of 2026 (So Far) | Motion Mondays

After EffectsCavalryCinema 4DFigmaRive

Ten of the biggest motion design stories of 2026 so far trace a year of artists building their own software, free apps challenging After Effects, and AI promises meeting production demands.

Jake Bartlett’s Railcut and Motion State, Marco van der Vlag’s Plate, and ArtCraft’s Adobe lookalikes show how much the tool-building landscape has changed. Cavalry and Autograph went free, while Figma added animation. AI assistants began working inside creative applications, but tests from Jake and Andrew Price exposed the gap between a polished demo and a result that holds up to revisions. CorridorKey, Object Matte, and LTX Alpha Gen offer more specific progress on keying and rotoscoping.

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