The studio was founded by film director Richard Rich in 1986, who previously worked at Walt Disney Productions.
[1] Around that time, Rich was contacted by Jared F. Brown to produce half-hour animated videos based on audio cassettes of the Book of Mormon for his Living Scriptures firm.
[2] They subsequently expanded to educational animated Christian and historical videos for children through a sister company Family Entertainment Network.
In February 2007, RichCrest was renamed to Crest Animation Productions and announced that it was "expanding its business to become a full-service animation studio specializing in the development and production of CGI-animated properties for theatrical, television, home entertainment and interactive distribution".
Norm of the North, a film that was in production at Crest before closing, along with future Alpha and Omega sequels were handed over to Splash Entertainment while future Swan Princess installments were handled by Streetlight Animation, which Rich also formed.