Blue Sky Studios

Blue Sky Studios is a CGI animation studio which specializes in photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. In addition to their feature-length animated films, including Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), and Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Blue Sky has worked on many high-profile movies, primarily in the integration of live-action with computer-generated animation.

History

Blue Sky was founded in February, 1987 by a number of artists and technicians who had previously worked on the Disney film Tron while employed at MAGI/Synthavision. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, the studio concentrated on the production of television commercials and visual effects for film. Some of the more memorable commercials that Blue Sky worked on during this time period were a Chock Full O' Nuts spot with a talking coffee bean, and a series of station identities for Nickelodeon that featured the channel's mascot, Nick Boy, realized as human-shaped orange goo. Using their proprietary animation pipeline, the studio produced over 200 spots for clients such as Chrysler, M&M/Mars, General Foods, Texaco, and the United States Marines.

After their acquisition by 20th Century Fox in 1997, Blue Sky was merged with Los Angeles-based VFX house VIFX. Eventually, VIFX was shuttered, and Blue Sky was re-purposed to focus solely on animated features.

Technology

The studio is notable for its proprietary renderer, CGI Studio. Initially developed by Eugene Troubetzkoy, Carl Ludwig and Michael Ferraro, CGI Studio was notable for its use of ray tracing as opposed to REYES-like scanline rendering prevalent throughout the CG industry.

Filmography

Animated features

• Ice Age (2002)
• Robots (2005)
• Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
• Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009, in production)

Short films

• Bunny (1998, Academy Award winner)
• Gone Nutty (2002, Academy Award nominee)
• Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty (2005)
• No Time For Nuts (2006 Academy Award nominee)

Contributions

• Titan A.E. (2000) – the final "genesis" scene
• Fight Club (1999) – the "sliding" penguin
• Jesus' Son (1999) – sacred heart, "liquid" glass, and screaming cotton ball effects
• The Sopranos (1999) – the "talking fish"
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) – several alien creatures
• Alien: Resurrection (1997) – the aliens
• A Simple Wish (1997) – numerous characters and special effects
• Joe's Apartment (1996) – dancing and singing cockroaches

References

See also

• Chris Wedge
• Pixar
• DreamWorks Animation
• Walt Disney Feature Animation
• Big Idea Productions

External links

• Blue Sky Studios
• Blue Sky Studios at IMDB