Motorbike - An Incredibly Cute Short By Mechanical Apple

Animated by Jason Pamment and Ari Gibson of the Mechanical Apple collective, Motorbike is a charming, colorful short about a young boy trying to make it to his date in time in a quaint town. It's rare to find animated shorts this cute, and simple in their premise yet executed at a quality level of this caliber.

The entire aesthetic that they created for Motorbike, especially in the background elements and color palettes definitely reminded us of the likes of the critically acclaimed Ernest and Celestine. The town itself actually felt like it was straight out of Kiki's Delivery Service, which had a similarly colorful, sunny coastal town feel.

Touch

Animated by David Davis as part of his first year film at Calarts, Touch is a really promising first year film which surprised me with it's subtlety. Centered around a solitary man living in the woods we come to realize that despite his serene, honest demeanor this man is afflicted with a very unfortunate condition centered around his touch. When he's faced with a suffering creature outside his house, a difficult choice must be made.

While the choice of grayscale was probably due to time constraints, it really does lend itself well to the tone of this short. Despite being a first year student, the pacing and narrative reminded me of something a more veteran animator would put out, so kudos to David for that.

The Art Of Stephane Fert

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Stephane Fert is an up and coming French illustrator with a truly fresh, striking style dictated by limited color palettes, highly stylized anatomy and a wonderful sense of flow. It's a little hard to put my finger on where Stephane drew his inspiration from to come up with his style, but after racking my brain over it for a while I found traces of Juarez Machado's signature stylization and limited color palettes, a dash of Gustav Klimt (Especially in the patterning used in some of the pieces) and Disney feature animation.

Despite the fact that his pieces look relatively simple on first glance, on closer inspection Stephane's works are actually a great example of doing more with less. Bold, harmonious shapes, fantastic flow and some truly creative compositions showcase a truly confident artist with a very strong style. More of Stephane's amazingly stylized work after the break!

Ozymandias

While we don't usually post much in terms of TV content, this subtle, understated promo for the final chapter in the Breaking Bad saga was too good to pass up, narrating a passage from Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous short poem: Ozymandias. The theme of the passage, narrated by Bryan Cranston centers around the inevitable decline of all leaders, and the empires they once built, regardless of how mighty they once were.

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: — Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert…Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Bill Presing's Pinup Art

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Bill Presing is a former Pixar veteran, who spent a few years working as a storyboard artist on projects including The Venture Brothers, Ratatouille, Mr. Incredible and Pals (A short), UP and Cars 2.

On his free time though, Bill has kept himself busy with a slew of different side projects featuring tasteful, cute pinups in both digital and analog formats, while always maintaining a truly charming watercolor look. Considering his animation background, I'm not surprised that he definitely has an expert level control of his lines, resulting in images with some truly beautiful flow to them. Let's not forget his watercolor skills, a medium so damn tedious due to it's additive nature that one bad stroke can screw up your entire image.

What's not to love? Check out more of his awesome pinups after the break.

Gloam

A wandering forest creature stumbles into an encounter with an entity in this simple, yet stunning little short about curiosity. The film by David Elwell and Garteh Hughes was created by using a mixture of real life footage and 3D compositing, and a wonderfully understated score. Really loved the subtlety of the narrative and the overall mood.

OBEN

Created by Thierno Bah, Noé Giuliani, Pierre Ledain and David Martins da Silva, Oben simultaneously chronicles the past and present of a man's journey between life and the confines of death. Using a truly unique narrative structure mixed with some very clever transitions, the short emphasizes both the ambition and frailty of man. The simple looking, yet beautifully animated angular style worked hand in hand with the somewhat abstract story. And it leaves just enough to the imagination to leave you wondering at the end. Loved it.

The Art Of FlowerZZXU

Monkey and the land god (Via)

FlowerZZXU, aka Tim Xu is a Beijing based artist who floored me with his fantastic illustrations. If there's one thing that truly struck me about his work, its the fact that he obviously had a traditional painting background before moving onto digital mediums. How can you typically tell? Its a matter of looking at the subtleties, including incredible control of his values, color shifts and edge variation, even down to how he lays down his paint strokes.

Looking through his portfolio, Tim has also dabbled in comic book work, concept art and a few other fields, but his illustrations truly take the cake. Check out more of his work after the break!

Jean-François

This beautiful French short won top honors back in 2010 at the Annecy awards, and with good reason. The piece was co-produced by Cube Creative and Brunk Manyoku and Tom Haugomat, and follows thestory of a champion swimmer haunted by images of childhood.

Its a little on the vague side, and its hard to make out..But in a way I believe it tells the story of somebody trying to get closure after a childhood of never quite being up to snuff in the eyes of others. In that sense I kind of found a point of resonance with the short, something to relate with. The style is really beautiful, and brought back memories of  visually striking animated features likeTekkon Kinkreet and Cat Soup. Enjoy.