The Christmas Star

"The Christmas Star" is a Christmas production that features choreographed dance numbers, live drama, and computer animation to tell the story of the very first Christmas. I was hired to create the animation for the program, and was titled Animation Director.

I created two characters, New Star and Old Star, who are two main characters that show up periodically throughout the program. In the production, Old Star acts as the narrator and takes New Star back in time to watch the very first Christmas unfold (which is played out by live actors on a stage). I was in charge of running the animation in real time with the drama, and cuing in each part of the animation when it was time to show them.

This project took about three months to complete: 440 hours of work combined with 700 GB of rendered images to make 14 minutes of animation in total. Scrolling through this thread will reveal exactly how I did it all.

New Star and Old Star together

New Star and Old Star together

The Christmas Star | Preview

The Christmas Star | Animation Documentary

In this video, I personally explain what "The Christmas Star" production is, what my role in it was, and how I created the animation from the ground up.

The Christmas Star | New Star and Old Star 3D Models

Early concepts for New Star

Early concepts for New Star

Early concepts for Old Star

Early concepts for Old Star

New Star's wireframes

New Star's wireframes

Old Star's wireframes

Old Star's wireframes

Here is a breakdown of the different passes

Here is a breakdown of the different passes

Time Warp!

Time Warp!

The Christmas Star | Christmas Production 2017

Here is the FULL Christmas Production