PIXAR's next short film is titled Partly Cloudy and will be shown alongside Disney's Up. Partly Cloudy will be about where Storks go to get the babies they deliver. My parents always told me that place was China, but I guess PIXAR thinks otherwise.

Via Ain't It Cool.

Since graduating from Nihon Univeristy's College of Art in 2002, artist Takafumi Tsuchiya has been working on a number of these fantastic experimental vignettes. "With Rain" is one of my favorites (largely due to the wicked track by Caelum); be sure to hit up his website for more.

Via Fubiz

Star director Chris Cunningham has made his anticipated comeback with this gorgeous spot for Gucci's Flora fragrance. Featuring Abbey Lee Kershaw and Cunningham's own take on Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", the advert expands on Inez Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin's original print campaign and is a curious departure from his previous, more darker work. Check it.

Here's some fantastic use of data visualization in advertising. Slickly but not overly produced; the whole infographic movement has been around for quite some time now and yet this ad still manages to be refreshing and never gimmicky. Props to Superfad and Goodby, Silverstein and Partners for pulling this off. Check it.

Via Motionographer

Here's a lovely short film by urban anthropologists Andy & Carolyn London who animated commonplace objects off the streets of New York using the voices of New Yorkers they had interviewed.

Via Motionographer

This is absolutely stunning. For his master thesis at Arts et Technologies de l’Image, Mathieu Gérard created “Steel Life,” a breathtaking tapestry of textures and light that evokes themes of genesis and rebirth. While there’s no obvious narrative, the film uses abstract realism—lovingly rendered imagery inspired by nature—to build an associative network of ideas.

The lush soundtrack, composed by Mathieu Alvado and performed by the Star Pop Orchestra, adds a dramatic arc to the film. Check it.

Via Motionographer.

Apparently there is an upcoming animated series titled "Cat Shit One" (bound to be retitled in North America) featuring various cute furries duking it out Call of Duty style. Tack on some amazing production values to this brilliantly absurd premise and we've got a winner. Check it.

Via Motionographer.

The film 歲月 (The Days) from director Boi Kwong, tells the tale of Singapore’s rival street gangs as they clashed between the years of 1989 and 1990. Josef Lee/Mojo directed this insane titles sequence for the film, which condenses the entire narrative into a 2 minute Manhua-style animation. The title track is "My Freedom" composed by indie rock group Black Forest. Check it.

Via Motionographer.

PUMA's ad for its new LIFT footwear line tells a charming tale of two underwear-clad lovers through the use of some light projection wizadry. Spectacular work here by MJZ and MassMarket. The featured song is "Underwear" by The Magnetic Fields. Check it.

Via Boards.

Here's to catching up with old news. 1st Avenue Machine's alter ego Special Guest recently signed on Brazilian director/illustrator Vinicius Costa, and to celebrate the occasion they commissioned him to direct this gorgeous short titled "The Journey". The concept behind the film emerged from Costa's own "journey" to his new home at Special Guest. Check it.

Thanks to Ozan for the heads up.

IKEA's latest interactive ad campaign takes us on an ethereal journey to IKEA PS, a world composed enitrely of IKEA products (and one likely to fall apart after a year of living in it). I was a huge fan of last year's brilliant IKEA Catalogue 2.0 so count me a little disappointed that they didn't up the ante with this one; that being said IKEA PS is still a great looking site, so if you do have a few moments to kill it's well worth a visit.

IKEA PS is a collaborative project between Nordpol, Parasol Island and KOKO KAKA.

Via Motionographer

So on Friday I watched Watchmen, and to my surprise it was actually pretty damned good. I could have done without Snyder's excessive use of slow motion (and yes, there is an assload of it here) but the film certainly wasn't the flop many fanboys had expected it to be. Anyway, this is not a film review so I'll just cut to the chase. One of my favorite parts of the film was (surprise, surprise) the opening credits. Created by L.A.-based yU+Co, the sequence features Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" set to a gorgeous montage of historical events in the Watchmen universe.

Unfortunately, Flickr caps all of its videos at 90 seconds, so I've only been able to upload half of the sequence. Drop me a line if you want the full Quicktime video.

Ed Banger regular So Me brings his hand-drawn illustrative style to Kid Cudi's first music video, Day N' Night. I was never that big a fan of So Me's other work, so I'm not sure what it is about the video that actually "drew" me in (get it? okay, sorry), but I've probably watched this thing five times now and I still dig it. Post-production and animation courtesy of Paris-based studio Mathematic. Check it.

Via Motionographer

Guerrilla commissioned Dutch motion designer Joost Korngold aka "Renascent" to design the main titles sequence for PS3's upcoming Killzone 2. The result is probably the finest looking credits sequence ever seen in a video game (not that there were many to begin with but I digress). Hell, if someone were to tell me this was a Prologue piece, I'd have believed them. So if you're as much of a gamer as you are a fiend for good design (like yours truly) then check this out.

Via Motionographer.

The latest entry in the realm of educational motion design, "The Crisis of Credit" is an ambitious project by Jonathan Jarvis that tackles the complex and often controversial origins of today's failing economy. As expected, there have been a number of criticisms questioning the short's accuracy, but regardless of these no one can deny that Jonathan's visual essay is informative, engaging and effective.

The animation was completed as part of Jonathan's thesis for the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design.

Via Motionographer.

In a New York Times op-ed piece, designers Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler argue that the Oscars should have a category for the design of title sequences.

Titles have always played a significant part in motion pictures. They may have started out as simple black-and-white cards. But in the days before sound, they already did more than identify key players: they communicated dialogue and advanced plot. And as filmmaking evolved, so did title design. Titles have become wonderful bridges from reality into the cinematic world and back out again. At their very best, they are themselves innovative, emotional experiences, microcosms of their movies.

Their list of notable nominees (if such a category were to exist) include names as Saul Bass (though he'd probably be a better fit for Lifetime Achievement), Kyle Cooper, Pablo Farro and other contemporaries as the Prologue Films crew and this year's would-be winner, Pixar. Check it.

Via Kottke.

Shelter, the British housing and homelessness charity, collaborated with the Leo Burnett Group in launching a new campaign to highlight the depth of Britain’s current housing crisis. This mesmerizing spot features the music of Radiohead and is narrated by actress Samantha Morton. Directed by Dom and Nic with some amazing post-production work by Framestore. Check it.

Via Osocio

I don’t watch much TV (if at all) so this is the first time I’ve heard of Showtime’s United States of Tara. The show stars Toni Collette as a single mother (Tara) living with a multiple personality disorder. Having never seen an episode, I can't say much about the show itself, but what I can say is that director Jamie Carili has crafted a paper cut-out masterpiece for the opening titles, this guy can do no wrong. A follow up to his renowned commercial work for United Airlines, Carili uses cut-out illustrations by Alex Juhasz to create the sequence's charming pop-up book look. Check it.

Via Motionographer.

The Leo Burnett group recently posted their predictions for marketing trends in the new year. I'd say they're pretty much spot on (but what do I know right?). Then again, it's almost impossible not to be considering how much of a no brainer this shit is given our current circumstances. On a side note, there's some nice use of type and motion graphics here though I could have done without Ben's talking head.

Via Ispycool

Wicked opening sequence by Trollbäck+Company for TED 2009. Mad respect to Sacred Noise for the amazing sound design... Also, judging from this year's speaker line-up, the conference is sure to be a memorable one. Can't wait to see it all on youtube.

Via Motionographer.