By way of Nexus Productions, Smith & Foulkes directed this new Aardman Animation has produced yet another ad for Hotels.com. You miss Ed Helms’ soothing vocals, but replacing him is another funny man – Chris Parnell. This spot is titled Party Penthouse.

Wes Ball and his talented conspirators at Oddball Animation just released Ruin, an epic, 8-minute thrill ride that he’s been crafting for a couple years. Hang on tight!

Director Sebastian Panczyk lead the team at Platige Image through production on a new spot for Millenium Bank in Poland. The CG spot is titled Less Than Zero.

Rainmaker Entertainment’s 5-minute short film Luna has just become available on the web. The CG “film noir” short was inspired by a concept from Rainmaker producer Luke Carroll and directed by Donna Brockopp (The Jungle Book 2 and Peter Pan’s The Return to Never Land). We meet a charming caterpillar who finds himself in a romantic encounter with a flirty female moth. With world-class production values, and a clever twist at the end, I highly recommend a viewing. Details about the production process over at Rainmaker’s site.

Luc Schurgers directed a series of 3 spots for The Art Institutes, each illustrating what an art education can deliver. Here’s a spot set in a vinyl toy shop titled Design. Animation was handled by Green Dot Films.

The invasion has begun! A team of 9 students at The Animation Workshop have teamed up to bring you this 6-minute CG short, titled Slug Invasion. The tag line is “all’s fair in hunger and war!” Ready, aim, eat!

With the smoggy aftertaste of Cars 2 still clouding the air, the antidote arrives. This 2:30 minute clip from The Brave should renew your faith in Pixar, who, to be fair, have almost never let us down. In this clip, you’ll meet Merida, who can simply not contain herself as the men compete for all the glory. With the time period and the accents, it’s hard not to feel like we’re watching a sequel to How To Train Your Dragon. The feature will not arrive soon enough – June 22nd in US theaters.