Here’s a cool comic blog from UK artist Mike Smith. He draws comics about his life on a weekly calendar. Love that idea. I also like his style and sense of humor. I can relate to this weeks comic (seen above).

The good people over at Cold Hard Flash have put together a list of the top ten animated Flash films. They posted the animation along with great background info on the artists. Very inspirational stuff. Good to see some of the classics on there as well as some great films that were new to me.  Check it out.

Here’s a great stop-motion animated video by Rob Shaw at Bent Image Lab. It for the song “Dirty Laundry” by Bitter Sweet and showcased on Zune Arts which is a cool site featuring talented artist and musicians.

The nominees for the 2nd annual Channel Frederator Awards. The Freddie awards user submitted cartoons that have appeared on Channel Frederator through out the past year. Lots of great nominees this year including the classic Weird Al, ‘Trapped in the Drive-Thru’ video that I posted a while back. And another one called ‘Make Mine Shoebox’  from one of my favorite artists, Chris Harding of We the Robots fame (best comic on the web). So head on over and cast your vote.

Here’s a series of clever animations from Simon Tofield an animator at  Tandem Films. Enjoy.

Pearce Sisters is a unique animated film from director Luis Cook at Aardman. I really like the style of this work. You can learn about the unique process here on the production notes page.

Designer/illustrator Frank Chimero has an ongoing series of illustrations inspired by the shapes of American states. So simple and yet so clever. Fantastic idea and nice style.

Here’s one of a series of great new Starbucks ads. I never thought I’d every put great and Starbucks together in the same sentence. I’m not much of a fan of the place although that’s mostly because I don’t drink coffee. These ads were created by the

That’s right an airline safety video and you may want to pay attention this time. Virgin has broken away from the typical and decided to take a much more creative, stylish and updated approach. This definitely falls into the “it’s about time” category. Now I’d expect to see all the other airlines jumping on the bandwagon  and putting their own 21st century stamp on the genre. This trend could be the reality show craze of the airline industry.  And for those airlines out there in need of a fresh look video, give me a call.

Add some life to your next party or romance to your evening with this new DVD from PES. The Instant TV Fireplace. Turns any TV into a warm crackling candy corn and pretzel fire place. What a way to warm up the room.

Here’s another great animated ad to enjoy. Another one of those  where the artist is interacting with the animation, drawing in elements. Much like Chuck Jones’s classic Duck Amuck and Don Hertzfeldt’s Genre. This one is for V water. Don’t know what that is but I may need to give it a taste. I’m already a Vitamin Water addict.

Yet another short that shows us animation can be done anywhere. How I Met You was created for Samsung to show off the capabilities of their new video cell phone. It is yet another example of what can be done outside the more tradition forms of animation. At this rate  I could devote an entire section of my blog to posts like this. I can’t get enough of this stuff.

Here is a great new web comic from Chris Harding called We the Robots. This one looks very promising. I’m already a sucker for any comic about robots but i also love the illustration style and humor. Can’t wait to see where it goes. Click on over and check it out!

For those who have not seen it yet, it’s a classic!

This is a must see stop motion animation. It took 40 animators and over 2.5 tons of clay to make this Sony Bravia ad. The biggest challenge for the team at Passion Pictures was shooting all this on the streets of New York. You can see the making-of video and a high res version of the ad on Sony’s website.

Here’s what happens when a couple guys decided to take on the challenge of animating with t-shirts. 150 shirts were used, each representing one frame of the animation. Glad to see someone went through that hell to produce it. And Erbert & Gerbert’s Sub shop stands to benefit from this clever Your Tube ad. For more on the project check out their site.

5 0N is an animated series by Devin Clark where they interview 5 characters from a particular group like zombies, robots or aliens about current issues. This episode features Robot’s thoughts on immigration. They are all worth watching and can be found on Devin’s site.

Here’s a link to a nicely animated piece from Benjamin Renner an animator from Landerneau, France. Thanks to CHF for this one.