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I have recently been exposed by my kids to the joys of a very special cartoon. Adventure Time is a newish series on Cartoon Network. It is by far the most inventive and original series I've seen in years. The creator Pendleton Ward has combined a ton of stuff from my childhood into a very surreal setting, a combination of Dungeons and Dragons, Felix the Cat and the humour from the likes of The Simpsons and Futurama. It is a very good watch for geek dads as well as anyone interested in the world of surreal animation.

As Oscar fever is mounting up, there were lots of stories related to awards last week - no surprise there. But there were also lots of goodies such as a very cool video from TedTalk, an interview with the VFX Supervisor on Hugo and much more. Here's my take on last week...

This will be my last Weekly Round-Up of News for this year..., hope you enjoy it. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment. I'll be sure to look at your suggestion during the holidays.

Here are the flicks we plan to take in this holiday season—time permitting. Some have excellent visual effects to offer. MPC, Framestore and Bluebolt worked on the visual effects for Sherlock Holmes, Weta Digital for Tintin and Digital Domain and Method did the VFX work for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. You’ll find the work of ILM in Mission Impossible and Framestore and The Third Floor had much to do with the VFX in War Horse. Do click through the links to see the other work presented by these VFX houses. Many of these groups have members on our advisory board and we are proud to be associated with them. They do good work.

Another week has gone by – I sat out last week due to the holiday, but here, for your reading pleasure is a mashup of the good, the bad and the absurd. I hope you find some interesting reading within!

It’s one of those things—finding out who’s been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Animated Feature Category. Everyone has an opinion. This year offers up some interesting fare. The following made the list:

Here is my usual Weekly Round-Up of News, with stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

Ever wonder how to make an animated bird fly? It does look complex - doesn’t it? Now is your chance to find out how to make that fluid motion of flight look real. Alex Williams, Escape Studio’s character animation instructor will walk you through the mechanics of bird locomotion in this two part tutorial.

The creative people at Google have done it again - today you can interact with a doodle celebrating the work of Art Clokey on the event of his 90th birthday. The doodle was created by Clokey Productions Permavision Studios, and the lead animator worked under Art Clokey in the 80's. As you scroll across the letters beloved Clokey characters come to life - Gumby, Pokey, the Blockheads, etc.

Here is a roundup of interesting articles, events and phenomena that I picked up in the past week. Did I miss anything? Feel free to comment or add additional links. I hope you find it interesting, or at least entertaining.