Apple’s 2026 Chinese New Year Film Uses Hand-Built Stop-Motion And iPhone 17 Pro
Image courtesy of Apple, featured with permission
Meeting someone at the right moment can change everything. Apple’s latest Chinese New Year film leans into that idea, pairing a chance encounter with a technical experiment of both handcrafted animation and smartphone filmmaking.
Entitled Glad I Met You, the short film is Apple’s 2026 entry in its annual Shot on iPhone Chinese New Year series. Directed by filmmaker Bai Xue, the story follows Lin Wei, a man drifting through a noisy holiday season, and a stray dog known as Little White. Their meeting unfolds through a mix of live-action scenes and stop-motion animation, a dual approach illustrating the film’s emotional arc as both characters slowly find stability and companionship.
Notably, the work plays with mediums to create narrative contrasts. The live-action sequences capture crowded streets, quiet apartments, and fleeting moments of connection using the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera system. Scenes rely on optical-quality zoom, slow motion, and low-light performance to frame both the spectacle of Lunar New Year and the smaller gestures between Lin Wei and the dog. One pivotal shot shows Little White running toward Lin Wei in slow motion, stretching a brief moment into something more reflective and emotionally weighted.
The stop-motion sections take the film in a different direction, shifting from the external world to the characters’ inner voices. These sequences were created by animation studio BUCK, which built miniature sets and puppets entirely by hand. Each character contains custom internal armatures designed to withstand thousands of precise adjustments, along with more than 20 interchangeable, hand-painted mouth expressions used to sync movement with voice performances.
Image courtesy of Apple, featured with permission
Every frame was photographed individually on the iPhone 17 Pro, relying on its high-resolution sensor to capture textures, fabrics, and small details that might otherwise be lost.
Image courtesy of Apple, featured with permission
Crew members involved in the shoot have pointed to the phone’s physical form as part of its appeal. Its small size allowed cameras to move closer to animals and sets without disrupting performances, offering angles that would be difficult with traditional rigs. For the stop-motion work, that same compact setup made it easier to photograph miniature environments without sacrificing clarity or consistency from frame to frame.
“Everything you see on screen in the stop-motion portion was built by hand, with care and love,” explained Ege Soyuer, creative director at BUCK. “There’s something magical about knowing that what you see on screen actually exists in the real world, under lights, on a miniature set, moved millimeters at a time by real people.”
Beyond the film itself, Apple has extended the campaign to invite audiences to experiment with similar techniques. Behind-the-scenes content and creator collaborations highlight practical uses of features like Dual Capture and extended zoom, while encouraging people to document their own pets during the holiday period to emphasize how personal stories can emerge from everyday tools.
Image courtesy of Apple, featured with permission
Image courtesy of Apple, featured with permission
[via Apple, images courtesy and featured with permission]
