Ian Worrel is the mastermind behind Second Wind, his brilliant senior thesis from CalArts, which emerged on the web last August. It got another release on Vimeo this week to rave reviews. Since school, he’s been hard at work at JibJab, where he makes fun projects like this Flash animated wedding greeting below:

The Cyanide & Happiness team teach us a valuable lesson in their new short Speed Racist: Don’t Drive Fast.

Here’s the latest short from the Russian studio Toonbox. It’s based on a poem by Sasha Svirsky, an artist working at the studio. It’s in Russian, and the story deals with an abstract word, Khabrahol, imagined by Svirsky and the word’s untimely fate.

Toon Boom has just announced the upcoming release of Animate 2, a powerful software package that rivals Flash. The second iteration of the software includes full SWF export, better velocity controls and a type tool. The pre-launch price is $549.99, and if you buy now, they’ll give you the first version to use until its’ successor arrives. Here’s some of my favorite Toon Boom animation from recent months:

Um Lugar Comum (A Common Place) from São Paulo-based studio Split Filmes

Water FX from Canadian Chris Graf

I also really like André Ruivo’s Januário e a Guerra.

The team at Blue Spirit Animation, formerly known as Spirit Productions, has been hard at work on a new Flash-animated series titled Le monde de Pahé (The World of Pahe). It airs on France 3, and I haven’t read about it jumping the pond or being dubbed into English, but here’s a little sizzle reel I spotted: