Happy Friday! It’s finally summer and boy, has it been a long time coming this year. Here’s to warm weather, sunshine, and lots and lots of barbecues!

This week’s roundup features two animated shorts, a music video, and a cool artist we’ve just discovered. Enjoy!

Totem – Caleb Wood 

Described by the artist as “a celebration of anima,” this beautiful short was animated by Caleb Wood for the “Worship” episode of the Adult Swim series Off The Air. The two minute animation features some amazing loops and beautiful colors, and the overall effect is mesmerizing.

The Art of Robin Davey

We just recently discovered the artwork of London-based artist Robin Davey, and we’re hooked. Much of Davey’s work uses vibrant colors and geometric designs to create fun and unique images and gifs, but a quick glance at his website shows a wide range of styles. We love finding new inspiration, and a visit to our Pinterest reveals that we found plenty of it on Robin Davey’s website.

C2C’s Delta Music Video – CRCR

This music video was created by French studio CRCR for C2C, a band of DJs also from France. The colors are gorgeous, the story is powerful, and it doesn’t hurt that the song is pretty great, too. If you like the sound, be sure to check out the band’s other music.

Johnny Express – Alfred Imageworks

This charming and fun short features slick 3D animation, great visuals, and a story that is out of this world (literally). There is almost no dialogue, but the perfectly executed sound design tells us everything we need to know. Johnny Express was created by Alfred Imageworks, an animation studio based in South Korea.

Happy Friday! It’s been a while since our last Friday Favorites post, but we’re back with a few treats for you today. We hope you’re enjoying the beautiful (almost) summer weather as much as we are, and wish you a very happy weekend.

Modern Love, Animated

The Modern Love column in the New York Times’ Sunday Styles section is always an interesting read, featuring a new non-fiction essay about love each Sunday accompanied by a fantastic Brian Rea illustration. Earlier this month the Times released this new video, an adaptation of a Modern Love essay brought to life with a simple color palette and beautiful motion graphics by animator Freddy Arenas. This is one of eight videos in a series of animated essays, all of which can be found here.

World Cup Google Doodles

We’re in full World Cup mode here at Planet Nutshell, and the Google Doodles team is clearly sharing our excitement. There have been numerous doodles daily celebrating the event and the nations playing, sometimes changing in response to the current score. Our favorite came this Wednesday, when the letter “L” bounced a soccer ball against a building amidst the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The simple animation shows us why soccer is so popular worldwide – it can be played anywhere, by anyone, with nothing but a soccer ball.

Don’t Fail Idaho PSA

Production Company Buck has created outstanding work in a variety of media, from live action and puppetry to mixed media and stop motion. This animated PSA combines strong graphic design elements with character animation and motion graphics to tell a compelling story about the state of education in Idaho. We love the visual style of this piece, and we always appreciate seeing animation being used for good.

Annecy 2014 Bumpers

Motionographer introduced us to these 5 beautiful shorts, created by students at Gobelins, l’ecole de l’image for the 2014 Annecy International Film Festival. Each short runs around a minute and tells a unique and beautiful story. The above short, entiltled “Le Coup du Lapin,” was directed by Emilie Almaida, Pierre Butet, Magali Garnier, Clémence Maret and Hugo Weiss.