The Yule Log 2.0 Project

For all your fire-place less bachelors/bachelorettes out there, for the second year in a row you'll be able to bring some (Simulated) warmth to your home with the second installment of the Yule Log Project. Gathering from a collective of dozens of animators from around the world, each artist was tasked with creating his own rendition of an animated fireplace scene that can be viewed on the Yule website.

With over 50 different takes, they got pretty creative with it, ranging from interpretative dance versions of fireplaces to intergalactic battlefields. Choose your own fireplace, grab that glass of cognac, fullscreen it and admire the animated holiday cheer on infinite loop.

Animated Tower

This has to be one of the most rad projects that I've seen in a long time. A tall building, all with sliding windows, create a animated pixel effect for super entrancing video. I don't even want to begin to think how long this must have took. Between closing the shutters, the glass, and the occasional cheers, it all comes together awesomely to create a super cool effect. Pairing up with the pixel effect is a chill, somewhat electronic tune that is basically on loop the entire video.

Sparkles

There is something really entrancing about this awesome video, Sparkles. From the music to the black and white visuals, I just want to zone out a bit while watching this. Professional skater Danny Wainwright uses a Wiimote to track the positions of sparkles attached to his skateboard with an infared camera. It's a successful attempt to mix both sports and art, in a really cool way. Put together by BlipBlip.org, check out the rest of their stuff!

Documentary About Us

This is truly an offbeat, yet kind of fun animated short.  A school project, it shows the parallels between the wilds of Africa and a big city (in this case, London).  The clip uses audio from an interview with acclaimed British broadcaster and narrator David Attenborough.  That in itself should deem this short worthy for some National Geographic special, if only to be filed under "quirky".