Tim Burton & Stan Winston to be Honored as LightBox Expo Returns with Deep Dive Programming & Retrospectives
Pasadena, CA – October 24-26, 2025
LightBox Expo — now in its seventh year — returns to the Pasadena Convention Center October 24-26, once again gathering professionals, fans, and students across the fields of animation, illustration, games, and live-action filmmaking. For folks in stop-motion, visual development, puppet/character design and effects, this year’s lineup contains a number of highlights that promise both inspiration and practical insight. (Cartoon Brew)
What to expect
- More than 200 hours of content including panels, screenings, workshops, demos, artist alley, and community events. (Cartoon Brew)
- A packed schedule featuring retrospectives, art-of panels, career-oriented talks, and special screenings. (Cartoon Brew)
- Over 30 studios, companies, and educational institutions will be present — good opportunities for networking, portfolio review and seeing what’s current in pipelines, materials, and artistic workflows. (Animation Magazine)
Honorees & Retrospectives
The Expo will bestow Lifetime Achievement Awards on two giants with strong ties to stop motion, visual effects and creature work:
- Tim Burton — his stylized, gothic aesthetic and use of puppetry and stop motion (as in Corpse Bride) has influenced many in the stop-motion world. (Cartoon Brew)
- Stan Winston — legendary effects artist whose work spans creature design, animatronics, special effects, and practical effects that often are deeply connected to tactile, physical creation. (Cartoon Brew)
The retrospective programming includes:
- Corpse Bride 20th Anniversary — including panels with original creative forces (e.g. Carlos Grangel, Ian Mackinnon, Anthony Scott). (Animation Magazine)
- The Emperor’s New Groove 25th Anniversary (Cartoon Brew)
- A Goofy Movie 30th Anniversary — exploring the journey from script to storyreels. (Cartoon Brew)
Panels, Artists & Key Talent
LightBox has lined up many creators and directors whose work overlaps with stop motion, visual development, character-design, prop and costume work. Some of the featured names:
- Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans (KPop Demon Hunters) (Cartoon Brew)
- Fede Álvarez (Alien: Romulus) (Cartoon Brew)
- Kevin Lima & Jymn Magon (A Goofy Movie) (Cartoon Brew)
- Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Guapo vs. The Narco Vampires) (Cartoon Brew)
- Angela Sung (The Bad Guys) (Cartoon Brew)
Also heavy involvement from the Disney family of companies: panels on Zootopia 2, Elio, revival of Phineas & Ferb, plus career panels from divisions like Disney Animation, Pixar, Lucasfilm Animation, Imagineering, and so on. (Cartoon Brew)
Stop-Motion-Relevant Content
While the official program isn’t focused solely on stop-motion, there are several sessions that stop motion artists and artisans will likely find worthwhile:
- Corpse Bride retrospective — with creators who worked closely on designing puppets, sets, and the production look. (LightBox Expo)
- Costume design and concept art panels (some of which may discuss physical costume/drapery work, which can align with puppet/character costume in stop motion) (Cartoon Brew)
- Workshops and demos that explore visual development, storyboarding, character/world design, and pipelines — all skills that are very useful in stop motion. (LightBox Expo)
- Portfolio reviews and connections with studios that may have stop-motion or mixed-media components in their work. (Animation Magazine)
Community Features & New Additions
- Artist Alley remains a centerpiece — both for established creators and newcomers. The selection process is competitive; many tables are filled with new artists each year. (Animation Magazine)
- Sketch Crawl, a chance to draw together and connect more informally. (Animation Magazine)
- Paint the Scene, a new plein air event: artists gather with mentors to observe & draw or paint live in front of the Expo. (Animation Magazine)
- The Concept Art Awards (7th Annual) will include recognition across many categories (character, creature, environment, etc.) and is held Saturday evening, Oct 25 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. (Animation Magazine)
Scale, Accessibility & Ethical Issues
- The organizers expect in the neighborhood of 16,000-18,000 attendees over the expo weekend. (Animation Magazine)
- A notable policy: LightBox Expo does not allow display or sale of AI-generated images in the Artist Alley or in exhibitor booths; they want the work shown to be created by the artists themselves. (Animation Magazine)
Why Stop-Motion Folks Should Be Excited
For stop-motion practitioners, LightBox Expo 2025 offers:
- A rare opportunity to see how visual development, character design, costume and creature work intersect with the more tactile crafts of stop motion.
- An occasion to connect with people from studios and paths that may not be 100% stop motion but overlap or use mixed techniques (live-action effects, animatronics, hybrid VFX).
- Retrospective insights (esp. Corpse Bride) that speak directly to stop motion’s history, challenges, and evolution in aesthetic and technique.
- Workshops & portfolio reviews that help hone skills in design, storytelling, materiality — all relevant to stop motion pipelines.
