Resonant Chamber is taken from the Animusic 2 DVD, a selection of computer animated music sequences where virtual instruments perform music on their own, precisely playing each note. This particular instrument is more of a hybrid of string instruments, plucked by strange, crab-like claws. The modelling is higly imaginative, and the animation timing is particularly precise. When played at full screen, with headphones, the piece is quite mesmorising.

Honest Directors have produced this animation using Google Maps images. The sequence is not too dissimilar to Rockstar’s first installment of their hugely successful series Grand Theft Auto, released in 1997.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Amazing, but terrifying at the same time.

Since being uploaded in early November, Lucas Martell’s animation short Pigeon: Impossible has gone viral. But what most people don’t know is that he has been vlogging his progress for over a year on his YouTube channel, and has quite a large following.

The winning formula for this shortfilm is the pigeon character. The modeling, texturing and animating for the rest of the objects in the sequence are very professional and well thought-out, but the mischievous pigeon’s movements are believable and comical, the success of which is down to Lucas’ study of real pigeons, as shown in one of his podcasts.

A rookie secret agent is faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.

What starts off looking like a student’s film project quickly turns into a full on, in-your-face graphics fest, that builds gradually more amazing over the five minutes. What is particularly clever is its ability to tell a story without any dialogue, with what essentially is a series of cut scenes of action.

The choice of shots is what gives a sense of order to the unfolding events – the boy at the start who feels the footsteps for the first time (00:20) – the tourist with her camera filming the invasion as it happens (01:32) – the news reporter standing less than 100m away from the action (01:45).

The guerrilla-style shaky-cam puts the audience right in the thick of the chaos, as if they are experiencing it in real-time. There is no coverage of rescuers, army generals or Government officials, but the arrival of fighter jets who engage with the enemy towards the end suggests that the world is watching and trying to stage a counter-attack.