Happy Friday and happy New Year, everyone! We hope everyone’s holidays were great. We’re back in the studio, and we’ve got some wonderful links for you this week: a couple of videos, Cartoon Brew’s animation book guide for 2014, and a neat event happening here in Boston.

A beautiful video by Oliver Sin, featuring music by Jim Guthrie.

“Weekly Walks” – Conor Whelan created a walk cycle every week for 4 months! You can also check them out in gif form.

Animation Books to Watch for in 2014 – Cartoon Brew always posts helpful guides, and this one is no exception!

Doodle at the Nave Gallery – This is an event that Boston folks won’t want to miss. Doodle is an art show featuring cartooning in many different forms. The opening reception is today (January 10) from 6-8, and the show runs until January 26th.

“Hey Cowboy” by Craig Bostick

Happy Friday! This will be our last Friday Favorites post for a little while, because we’re going on a short holiday break! This week we’re featuring 2 videos by Alla Kinda, who has made an appearance in our Friday Favorites in the past, a behind-the-scenes Steven Universe production blog, a beautiful wintery comic, and Cartoon Brew’s handy awards season focus. Check them out, and we hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and a great holiday!

ÀnecBlau Spots by Alla Kinda

12 Meses 12 Causas by Alla Kinda and Headless

Steven Crewniverse  – This is a great blog with behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Cartoon Network’s “Steven Universe.”

 By Steven Universe storyboard artist Joe Johnston

Scarf – A beautiful comic by artist Emmy Cicierega about a girl meeting a wintery spirit.

Cartoon Brew’s Award Season Focus – Cartoon Brew helps you keep up with what’s happening in the world of animation during this year’s award season.

We hope everyone is having a lovely Friday! We’ve really been getting in the holiday spirit here at Planet Nutshell (did everyone see this photo of Trevor decorating our office?), so we’ve included a couple of festive favorites this week. There’s also a dog who loves to lick, a creative ad for a “modern tamagotchi”, and a very cool collection of space-themed art. Check them out, and have a great weekend!

A lovely and festive gif by Karoline Pietrowski!

“Dog + boy … lots of licking.”

A promo video by Spain-based Headless for Hatch, a new virtual pet app!

Yule Log 2.0 – A re-imagining of the traditional yule log by  illustrators, animators, directors, and creative coders.

14 Fresh Pieces of Space Art – A brief collection of space-themed illustrations and art from To Infinity and Beyond, a space art exhibition of 40 young Hungarian graphic designers and painters currently on display in the Budapest Planetarium.

Happy Friday, everyone! Here are some of the coolest animations and animation-related links that we’ve seen this week. Featured are a virtual advent calendar, a crazy dream, some singing donuts, Rebecca Sugar playing ukelele, and more. Check it out!

This is a beautiful short animated film for the song “Sometimes the Stars”, by Australian band The Audreys. The film was produced by Luke Jurevicius and directed by Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment:

And two great videos by Alla Kinda:

The Blue Umbrella Making-Of Holiday Calendar – A virtual advent calendar with footage from the making of Pixar’s short, The Blue Umbrella.

Rebecca Sugar’s Subtle Cartoon Chaos – This is a great interview with Rebecca Sugar, the first woman ever in the 21-year run of the Cartoon Network to create and run her own show. The interview also features interesting discussion about women’s roles in animation over the years.

Dave Donut’s Portfolio – We could have spent hours playing with this interactive banner on animator David Besnier’s blog.