From September through October of this year (2006), I had the great pleasure to work on a 22 minute Christmas Special called The Very First Noel. It was written, directed, and produced by Yarrow and Carrie Cheney. Both are absolutely, insanely talented...and also insanely great people as well. The entire reason I got into animation to begin with was to work on Faith based projects. I wanted to tell bible stories for kids, and really work on something that has great meaning and some eternal value. When Big Idea went under, I thought I had lost my chance to work on something like that...but since being at RFX I've now had the opportunity to work on a couple of projects that have similar focus (First Noel, and Boz the Green Bear). With that being said, I found my experience on The Very First Noel to be the most rewarding of my career so far. It was a great gift that Yarrow and Carrie gave to many of us at RFX.

I had the privilege to serve as the Animation Supervisor for Noel. There ended up being 27 animators on the project working over the length of 9 weeks (20 or so being offsite freelance animators). Sometimes it was fast and furious, but the subject and project was so much fun...it didn't seem to matter. The animators did absolutely great (as did the other departments on First Noel). Spiritually it was great for me as well. Often the directors and I would sit and talk about the spiritual meaning behind certain shots...as well as cracking open the bible a few times to discuss subjects further. It's safe to say that as a christian I really connected with the content and people who worked on this show. I'm really hopeful that I can work on something similar in the future. I believe that God gives us certain things...and they need to be used for Him.

If you want to check out The Very First Noel, you can order it from the website or amazon. Walmart should have some as well...but have had trouble keeping them in stock (YAY!!!). Also, check out Carrie and Yarrow's blog.

After we wrapped on Very First Noel, I took a short break and came back to work on the Warner Bros' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle feature that is due out in March 2007. We were asked to do some of the animation with Imagi in Hong Kong. I had the privilege to serve as supervising animator on TMNT. The animators really made my job easy...they did a great job! It was a great experience working with Ken Duncan (Animation Director) and Colin Brady (Director) as well. It's the second time I've had the opportunity to work with Colin (Everyone's Hero being the first he served as Director), and I'm hopeful RFX will be able to work with him again on something. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product in the movie theater come March. Check out the website here!

And now the crew at RFX is working on a game cinematic for a next-gen console. The game will parallel the movie coming out this summer. I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to say what the project is yet....but I will post something as soon as I am able. We are due to wrap on Feb. 10th. I was asked to serve as supervising animator for this project as well. Fun stuff.

Like I said...goodness all the way around... :)