Gobelins keeping it real for Annecy 2009. Awesome bloopy 2D animation, very heavily Ren-and-Stimpified — such a relief after so much 3D. I would trade a million high-tech 3D pieces for a few more like this. I do miss Ren and Stimpy. [Via Motionographer.]

Wow, a lot of this looks like 3D. Some of it is, including the ship and much of the sets, but even the characters often look 3D. And it’s not the precision of the lines or the smoothness of the shading — the volume and the massing on the rotations is, how you say, parfait. [...]

Gobelins alert — this is one of the intro shorts for Annecy 2009. Brilliant design, motion, and pacing. Lots of Japanese influence: shades of Miyazake and Zelda. Fenrir is of course the wolfy son of Loki the Professional Norse Shit-Starter, and this scene looks a lot like his death at the hands of Víðarr, son [...]

Watch “La Mare aux Têtards” (The Tadpole Pond). Charmingly twee piece from French five-tet Bonzom, made up of graduates of Les Gobelins, La Poudriere, and L’ESAAT, and repped by Passion Pictures Paris.

Goebelins encore, naturellement. Blending 2D and 3D, they’re getting better every year. So much has to do with restraint: which things you emphasize, and at which times. Matching 3D camera speed and pacing to the 2D character’s speed and pacing is a lot of it. The camera is a spoiler, and can hide a world [...]

So far, the new 3D Clone Wars tv series looks to be just as engaging and well-acted as the prequels. Too bad. At least the character design is interesting…

More Gobelins from Annecy 2005: something funny’s going on here. “Chachachat” It’s the dancing scene — her head and the cat are hand-drawn but I believe the rest of her body is 3D… but it blends really well. The Gobelins kids have shown themselves to be quite good at mixing the two techniques, as seen [...]

Speaking of Gobelins, I can’t forget their charming short “La Migration Bigoudenn” from 2004, which won Jury Honors at Siggraph 2005: High-res versions here. No complicated high-tech trickery here; just solid characters, motion, and story. And speaking of the bigouden, you should really see this gallery of traditional Breton headwear.

One more from Gobelins for Annecy 2005, with “Gnap Gnap,” featuring classic Mobius stylee, excellent sound design, and decent 2D+3D, which should be called 5D. And here’s Quicktime with stereo. The song on the record is the song sung by the man in the shower in “Le Building,” thanks no doubt to the sound designer [...]

Today on Gobelins Appreciation Week: “Le Building” for Annecy 2005. “Le Building” in high-res on Stage6. Excellent in every respect. They pulled off an extra-nifty trick here you don’t see done well very often.

While we’re riding the Francophile Express, here’s another Annecy opening short, this time from 2006, and again from the kids at Goeblins. “Burning Safari” in high-res on Stage6. The story doesn’t have the pathos and poignancy of the dramatic masterpiece that is Cocotte Minute, but the writer in the house notes that they both end [...]

There’s nothing better than a face-full of chickens racing to the death! “Cocotte Minute” in high-res on Stage6. “Cocotte-Minute” is an animated movie directed by 6 students from Gobelins, l’école de l’image (Paris, France). The short was made as an opening short for the Annecy Animation Festival, which is an international meeting between professionals and [...]