We’ve changed the name of the Indie Updates blog, but the content remains the same — independent, non-establishment, under the radar animation not from the big Hollywood studios hoping to rake in billions, but from artists doing it for the love of the craft. These animators are all drawing Outside the Lines.

This month we circle half way around the world to bring you some interesting work you might not have seen yet — animation from France, Israel, Belgium and The Netherlands, and the United States.

Pour une Pepite de Plus

Two french animators in Paris, Antoine Kinget and Rémi Parisse, have entirely self produced an impressive stop motion animated short film titled Pour une Pepite de Plus (For a Gold Nugget More). The film centers around a gold miner and a bandit whose plans might be thwarted by a playful bison. Besides watching the Vimeo video below, a making of video is also available. More info can be found on their website and Facebook page.

Lunacidal Tendencies – Common Is The Sense

Lunacidal Tendencies, a mass collaboration of 35 artists mostly from Israel, has released 2 singles from their album After the End. The latest is titled Common Is The Sense. Besides just being a really catchy song, they’ve released a cool animated music video to go along with it. Animated and directed by Nadav Arbel with artwork by Yoni Boaz and post production by Barak Drori, the video takes us through a journey of nature and our senses to highlight the motif of the song: “our sixth sense is common”.

Two-Headed Cop

Animation industry vets Derek Friesenborg and Brian Ormiston have been wanting to get Two-Headed Cop off the ground ever since they conceived of it almost 20 years ago. Now they’ve taken matters into their own hands and are independently financing the film themselves. The computer animated short film from Figment Studios combines the absurdist humor of classic cartoons with the dark sophistication of film noir. As for the plot: “Two-Headed Cop follows the gritty story of Ray and Ray as they battle crime and occasionally each other to upend Fat City’s criminal element. Framed for an assault on the town’s most beloved entertainer, Two-Headed Cop becomes a fugitive from the law. To clear their name, they must descend into the seedy underbelly of Fat City on a journey into the dark, tilted world of carnies, goons, grifters, pet markets, fine haberdashery… and a mysterious figure from out of their past.” If you’re at Comic Con this week be sure to check it out at booth 2445. If not, here’s a sneak peek of their first shot to go into lighting.

Junkyard

Last, but definitely not least is the trailer for Junkyard, an animated short by Hisko Hulsing, and produced by il Luster and CinéTé. An official selection at Annecy 2012, Junkyard is about a man who has been robbed and stabbed and in that last seconds of his life, a childhood friendship flashes before his eyes.