A few weeks ago I was browsing through some Gobelins student work and was floored by the simplicity of most it.  What really got to me was how fundamentally sound every single choice was.  Every color had a purpose, every line had a weight.  Its amazing stuff and you should check it out.  For example:

Trois Petits Points

Check out the fantastic making of featurette to see how they progressed from very crude style frames all the way through final shots.  This film isn't good because of some fancy new piece of hardware.  Its good because its a solid story with impressive visuals that were built on solid fundamentals.