Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

At what point is it too late for new year posts? You’re all still just settling back into work, right? Anyway, Christopher Harrup put together this swell animated new years card and you can find a short production journal over at his site.

The end of the year is never the end of the year without JibJab’s musical take on things. This time around, their signature cut-out style is achieved by—of all things—cut-out paper. Watch Never a Year Like ‘09.

I visited Evan at JibJab earlier in the year and he told me how he really wanted to bring more stop motion and hand-made touches to the work they do, and he wasn’t kidding.

One of the things I love about JibJab’s videos of late is the extensive behind-the-scenes looks at pretty much every aspect of producing their shorts. The Making of Never a Year Like ‘09 is chock full of animatics, production art, and more goodies for every single scene in the piece—a goldmine of inspiration for anyone interested in creating low-fi, hand-made animation.

See also: JibJab’s 2008 and 2007 in review.

Enjoy this stunning piece of pixillation made with 300,000 candles:Happy New Year by Electrebel.

There is also a making-of video at that link, but it is in French with German Dutch subtitles. Still worth watching, tho!

Happy new year!