Four first-year animators at l’Ecole des Gobelins directed this new animated short, titled My Bloody Lad, about a boy who gets a zombie for his birthday. Working under the team name of DeadWalter, Cyrille Chauvin, Guillaume Dousse, Thibaud Petitpas and Pierre Rutz produced the video in about a month in conjunction with the team at Wizzprod°.

Zoë Moss’ CalArts graduation film is a “chilling historical fantasy” titled The Plague Bearers. Blending stop-motion and Flash animation, Zoë creates great tension and unease without a single word of dialog. Hit the play button, and you’ll be taken back to 1655, a year in which the Black Plague, among other evils, is ravaging the village of Eyam:

There’s been several great shorts recently released by Bezalel Academy students (like Or Bar-El’s Beat), but none better than this. Enjoy the stop-motion stylings of Udi Asoulin and Uriah Naeh, who crafted this 5-minute short titled Iluzia.

Halloween is upon us, and to help put fear into your soul, I present The Last Train, a CG short directed by the Irish team at Giant Creative. The film is the product of The Animation Hub, “a collaboration between staff and students of the Irish School of Animation (ISA) at Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE).” While the score was dramatic, and fitting, I think this film would be more powerful if it were also filled with sound effects. There’s so much going on, it would have added to the intensity and fright.

Wind Mills is a 7-minute, CG-animated graduation film directed by Guillaume Bergère, Guillaume Coudert, Maria Glinyanova, Bruno Guerra and Charlotte Jammet, all students at Ecole Georges Méliès. We follow a young girl’s stuborn journey to fulfill her family’s dream of building a magic wind machine. The lighting and environments in general grabbed my attention here – the mood is especially well set.

Below is a new student short from Vic Chhun, Leyla Kaddoura and Nicolas Ughen, students at the French school EMCA. The film is a dialog-free short titled Poussière (Dust).

A few years back, Sarah Wickens, while studying at The Royal College of Art in the UK, created this unique, stop-motion piece titled What Light.