War was upon us.

This was the Christmas following the toppling of the twin towers in New York. Emotions were running high and the US was girding for war. With... someone.

I didn't want to get overly political at this time of year. A wish for peace seemed adequate.

This was my first year with the new midi system and I was eager to use it for this card. The voices, bells and effects were all canned elements from the sound module. The original intent was to create a cheery children's choir type of sound, but the music evolved into a more haunting wistful composition that seemed better suited to the message.

Drawing the elves in a 1940's style seemed appropriate, given the circumstances. This was such a simple progression, from elves to snow angels to doves in a tree, but it worked well. The final image in combination with the music drew a strong reaction.

I've since created more technical and complex animations, but this remains one of my favourite.

Christmas elves do not have gender, they are all just very stylish.

Elves enjoy dressing up in Santa suits and performing impromptu musical numbers. Santa doesn't mind what the elves do in their private lives as long as it doesn't affect the workplace.

The fact you can't find them proves they are there.

All the elves appearing in this performance were drawn in Flash using a Calcomp Ultraslate.

The musical arrangement was composed on a Yamaha QY100 with all internal digital effects. The sound files were imported into Flash as a single aiff and compressed there.