Awesome Animation

(PG-13: Language) Animator Steve Smith’s hilariously weird short film drops us into a post-apocalyptic world where all that remains are electronically augmented mutants who float around flooded cities collecting garbage that humanity left behind. Can we get a S.L.U.G.Z. feature film now?

Some of our earliest childhood memories involve colorful Fisher-Price toys with big buttons, spinny parts, and other tactile things to play with. This short animation from NYC creative house Bullpen envisions the evolution of these toys as we grow into adulthood, better representing life, from the mundane to the downright dangerous.

Stop-motion animator Bebop cooks up a delicious pizza with the help of some unconventional ingredients, including 2×2, 2×3, 2×4, and other studded plastic blocks. The 2-minute film is comprised of roughly 3,300 photos, and an unknown quantity of LEGO bricks.

A man has been trapped aboard his own spaceship for years, as his robot guardian insists that not a single planet they’ve visited is habitable. But what’s the real reason he’s not allowed to disembark? Gökalp Gönen’s short film is a thought-provoking and creative work of science fiction with a fantastic style and mood.

Animator Lazy Square create this fun little 43-second clip which imagines the evolution of a little red sedan from its humble beginnings in 1989 through its retirement and eventual rebirth as something straight out of Doc Brown’s laboratory in Back to the Future.

After humanity has met its end, what will happen to the machines we leave behind? Michael Dockery’s eerie animated short film imagines just that, as robots roam a desolated Earth, left to their own devices, endlessly downloading old information and destroying their own kind as they search for a purpose.

México-based animation house Hobby Creative Studio demonstrates the similarities and differences between stop-motion animation from the 1920s through today. Using the same scene – a pirate skeleton guarding his treasure – you can see how the medium has evolved while still retaining its core values.

Marvel’s animated series “What If… ?” imagines alternative stories and variants of popular characters from the world of superheroes. As the Marvel cinematic multiverse expands, familiar storylines offer unexpected twists and new alliances emerge. Coming to Disney+ 8.11.2021.

(Flashing images) Motorcycles take the spotlight in Paul Bush’s stop-motion short film, which pays tribute to the motorcycle design and culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Bush created the effects by swapping bikes between frames, and featured quite the assortment of motorcycles thanks to Jose Pereira’s Museu das Motas in Portugal.

For Halloween 2020, animator Lawrence Becker created a stop-motion short featuring a miniature Will Smith carving a pumpkin with a tiny sword. This behind-the-scenes look at how he made it is just as awesome as the animation itself. Also, his stop-motion Danny Devito Penguin pumpkin would make Tim Burton proud.

Eternia is on the verge of extinction, and the Guardians of Grayskull must band together to save it – and the rest of the universe. He-Man faces off against an even more powerful Skeletor in this animated series from writer-director Kevin Smith. Premieres 7.23.2021 on Netflix.

The Star Wars franchise has paid homage to Japanese cinema and folklore throughout the years. Now Disney+ repays the debt by inviting seven of Japan’s top animation studios to create unique anime stories that take place in the Star Wars universe. The series premieres 9.22.2021.

Artist Niklas Roy shows off a computer-controlled graffiti painting machine called the Graffomat. In this example, the motorized plotter sprays out a sequence of images that serve as frames for brief animations. Now he needs some spray paints that don’t drip so much.

Montréal tattoo artist Phil Berge creates animated tattoos by inking individual frames then photographing them in sequence. His most incredible work so far is this 76 tattoo scene based on Max and Dave Fleischer’s 1933 classic Betty Boop: Snow White, featuring Cab Calloway. His Simpsons sequence is awesome too.

In 1996, photographer Charles O’Rear snapped a photo that would appear on over a billion desktops thanks to its selection as the default Windows XP wallpaper. Animator Zachary Loren Jones revisits the story of this iconic image and its impact on the zeitgeist with an imaginative and surreal retrospective.

CG artist pwnisher challenged his fellow digital artists to create a unique scene based on a simple base animation he provided. Watch the top 100 or all 2400 submissions, each showcasing their artistry, technical skill, and creativity. Be sure to check out pwnisher’s earlier CG challenge, Parallel Dimensions.

Joel Haver makes fun of what it’s like to pick up and start playing a role-playing video game that you haven’t played in a while. His observations on the mundane side quests and the NPCs are especially on-the-nose. Along the way, he worked in a few references to his previous game parody videos.

Animator Corrie Francis Parks created this marvelously creative short film. Using only microscopic grains of sand and cut-outs of currency, it paints a captivating picture of the sometimes tenuous connections that tie together the global economy.

With its devilishly difficult gameplay and awesome animation, Cuphead achieved quite the following among gamers. Now, we’re getting a Cuphead animated series, and King Dice is voiced by none other than Wayne Brady. The Netflix series follows brothers Cuphead and Mugman as they get into trouble on Inkwell Isle.

This Disney+ series picks up the day after the Monsters, Inc. power plant started running on children’s laughter instead of screams. It follows the story of Tylor Tuskmon, a recent grad of Monsters U. who always wanted to be a scarer, but comes to find that laughter is what’s in demand these days. Premieres 7.2.2021.

Artist Andrea Love created this charming stop-motion scene out of needle-felted wool. Sit back and enjoy a thirst-quenching glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade, complete with tiny ice cubes and a sprig of mint. Feeling hungry too? Have a banana split and a slice of cake.

Michael Frei and Mario von Rickenbach’s award-winning short film reminds us of the crowd physics game Humanity, though with a 2D line-art style. The setup is simple – watch dozens of primitive people follow each other like lemmings through life’s little adventures. There’s a playable version on iOS, Android, and Steam.

Award-winning director and photographer Andrew B. Myers presents a reel filled with random ideas from his digital sketchbook. Each of the 17 vignettes could stand on its own, providing a wonderful source of creative inspiration and a glimpse into the whimsy of the creator’s mind.