Andy Kennedy “Accumulonimbus”

Natural and man-made objects on a spin cycle accumulate, disintegrate, and multiply in Andy Kennedy‘s short film, Accumulonimbus. The material is clay, but its movement is lively and effortless. Fun soundtrack by Andy as well!

Also check out the rubber molds, flash guides, and diy ceiling camera rig in the behind the scenes material.

blu “BIG BANG BIG BOOM”

Upgraded by popular internal and external demand! Check out blu‘s latest short film — BIG BANG BIG BOOM: an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life… and how it could probably end.

It revisits the stop-motion wall-painting of COMBO and MUTO, but takes it to the next level, both in terms of technique and narrative. Who doesn’t love clever hermit crabs, flying jellyfish, dino-sharpeners, katamari, and literal bullet-time?

Props to Andrea Martignoni on the nicely integrated soundtrack and ARTSH.it for production/distribution. and, of course, blu for the mind-blowing vision.

Johannes Schiehsl – ITFS Zoopraxiscope

For the 2010 Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, Johannes Schiehsl has created a clever ode to animation centered on the idea of constantly changing silhouettes chasing each other in a praxinoscope. Created during his third year at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, it’s a fluid, joyous leap from one animal to the next.

Check out concept art, animatics, motion tests, and more info here.

Seagulls Fly for Adobe CS5 Production Premium

Start off the week right with UFO cow abduction, samurai swords, and wild car chases, courtesy of Brazil-based Seagulls Fly and Adobe CS5 Production Premium. It’s a fun ride that takes you from flip books to nostalgic home-grown filmmaking to big budget space ships.

FlavioMac and Seagulls Fly were kind enough to answer some questions about the spot. Check out the interview and some behind-the-scenes videos and production stills after the jump.

Q&A with Seagulls Fly

James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs – OK Go “This Too Shall Pass”

Viral video kings OK Go have a new music video for This Too Shall Pass”. Again, they take a simple idea and push it impressively further than most. OK Go, James Frost, and Syyn Labs created a crazy Rube Goldberg machine (in the manner of The Way Things Go and Honda ‘Cog‘) that integrates with the song’s beats and lyrics, rather than solely providing visuals underneath them.

Looks like the shoot was a ton of fun – the paint-covered nod at the beginning of the video to the number of times they must have run through the whole process is a great touch. There’s a four part making-of series as well.

Credits

David O’Reilly & Jon Klassen “Black Lake”

Check out Black Lake, David O’Reilly & Jon Klassen‘s newest collaboration. A personal project rather than a commercial venture, it’s a lovely, looping, electric sheep dream.

“Black Lake” will be screening at the If You Could Collaborate show at A Foundation Gallery (London) through January 23. Wish I was on the other side of the Atlantic so I could check it out in person. Additional artists in the show include Julien Vallée & Nicolas Burrows and Hellovon & Timothy Saccenti.