Yet another amazing student film has emerged from the French school Gobelins. Le Royaume (The United) is the creation of Nuno Alves-Rodrigues, Oussama Bouacheria, Julien Chheng, Aymeric Kevin, Sébastien Hary, Franck Monier and Ulysse Malassagne. It’s surely an original tale. We watch a King boss around forest creatures, demanding a castle be erected in his honor.

I enjoyed the creative twists in Natalie Piotrkowski’s traditionally-animated short, Have a Chase. It was created in her final year at Vancouver Film School in the Classical Animation program.

It’s a little early to start talking Santa Claus…. or is it? Seems we start this Christmas stuff earlier each year. Well, what better way to do it than a brilliant animated short. Smoke My Christmas was directed by Clément Desnos, Jean-David Fabre, Julien Perron, Rémi Salmon and Vincent Vernier students at Gobelins. The 3-minute short feels a bit anticlimactic, but the dance floor sequence on it’s own is worth the watch. [NSFW - nudity]

Don Hertzfeldt, the Academy-Award nominated animator, continues to work on his trilogy, which so far includes Everything Will Be OK (2006) and I Am So Proud of You (2008). The third segment is apparently in the works. Clips are hard to come by, but this summer a segment from I Am So Proud of You was revealed on YouTube. The short won Best Picture at the Fargo Film Festival.

Holy keee-rap! The seatbelt light is on, and things are about to get bumpy. Nick DiLiberto’s rockin’ Medusa short is a tour de force of traditional animation and white-knuckle demon-fighting. I believe we’re watching Perseus in his quest to kill the angry snake-headed lady we read about in high school. Mike Nassar sent me this link, and then I spotted a short interview with DiLiberto over at Canadian Animation Resources. The Canadian-born animator is currently working at a video game studio in Japan (BioWare, I think), but he’s got more classical 2D shorts in the works. We’ll surely keep you updated, ‘cuz this dude has crazy good skills. [NSFW - tasteful animated frontal nudity]

Victor Ens was one of the talented artists working The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet’s upcoming 2D feature. Here’s a shot that he animated, first as a pencil test:

… and the final (no sound):

Eclectic artist/animator Gina Kamentsky has revealed the first half of her latest production. The Massachussets-based animator is creating Secret Bee frame-by-frame, painting directly onto found film stock, ala the late Stan Brakhage. Kamentsky has joined the Indiegogo phenomenon, and submitted a call for sponsorship.

Over on our sister-site, ColdHardFlash, we’ve featured a number of her shorts in the past.