Kansas City-based motion graphics/design collective MK12 recently completed their long-awaited epic short The History of America. I, among many others, have been curious about this film ever since they posted a trailer of it online a couple years back. The film, a combo of CG and rotoscope animation with live-interludes, is a self-described “psychedelic Western space opera,” presenting an alternate American history of warring cowboys and astronauts.

Both streaming and downloadable versions of the short are available at Ventilate.ca. The film is certainly a curious effort. The pacing of the story and overall tone of the film are very “live-action,” due in large part to the reliance on live actors, though for the most part MK12 manages to dress the roto with enough artistry to make it palatable to the senses. The film’s ultimate downfall is its half hour length, which is far too sluggish for the amount of story it offers. I can’t help but think this would have been much more entertaining and effective as a tightly edited fifteen-minute short. Still, one has to give them kudos for their ambitiousness, both graphically and conceptually, and their willingness to tackle such a large project inbetween commercial gigs. The film has been selected to screen next month at Sundance.

MK12 has a website about the film at HistoryofAmerica.tv and there’s also a recent interview with the MK12 crew in New York Magazine in which they talk about their ideas behind the film.

New Yorkers have enjoyed their live-action Yule log TV program for decades, but now every home in America can have a roaring animated fireplace on their TV courtesy of indie animator PES. His new dvd, The Fireplace, offers toasty warm loops of a pretzel stick-and-candy corn fire. Just $9.99 at EatPes.com.

Animator Bruce Woodside (Cool World, Space Jam, Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse, etc.) made this film on his own, and posted it on You Tube last week to get the message out.

Three nerds turn a nativity scene into a roleplaying battleground.

Matt Burnett and Ben Levin spent a year animating this entirely by hand, on paper with pencils, and fancied it up in Photoshop and After Effects. Here’s their studio website, where you can also find a Quicktime version.

Virgin America’s cool in-flight Safety Film has popped up on You Tube. This piece alone would sway me toward using the upscale, low-cost air carrier. It was produced by Anomaly, with animation by Wild Brain.

(Thanks, Chet Gulland)

It’s debatable whether the films below qualify as “animation” but the filmmaker behind them, Fred Mogubgub, was an important part of New York’s indie animation scene in the 1960s and 1970s, and a founder of the commercial studio Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz. Whatever you want to call them, they are excellent examples of pop art filmmaking. The videos were posted onto YouTube courtesy of the NY studio Asterisk Animation.

The Pop Show: A Pop Art extravaganza by Fred Mogubgub from the late-1960s, innovative in the use of the quick cut, this film is a parade of pop icons of its time. Features a pre-Playboy, pre-N. O. W. Gloria Steinem.

Enter Hamlet: A film set to Maurice Evans’ recording of Hamlet’s soliloquy.

The Great Society: A parade of popular consumer items cut to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

In honor of today’s release of the next big leap in three dimensional, digitally enhanced CG — I give you Mike Grimshaw’s One D:

Who needs paper? Your flesh will do just as well…

Apparently this clever little short was commissioned for use as a viral video by Samsung — to promote its new cell phone with video editing capabilities. More info about how it was done is posted here.