Blue Sky Studios
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Blue Sky Studios | |
| Type | Subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Animation (20th Century Fox) |
|---|---|
| Founded | February, 1987 |
| Headquarters | White Plains, New York, USA |
| Industry | CGI animation |
| Parent | News Corporation |
| Website | http://www.blueskystudios.com |
Blue Sky Studios is an Academy Award winning computer animation studio which specializes in photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. In addition to their feature-length animated films, Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Robots (2005) and Ice Age (2002), Blue Sky has worked on many high-profile movies, primarily in the integration of live-action with computer-generated animation.
Contents |
[edit] 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 80s and 90s, 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 U.S. Marines.[1]
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.
[edit] Technology
The studio is notable for its proprietary renderer, CGI Studio. Initially developed by Eugene Troubetzkoy and Carl Ludwig[1], CGI Studio was notable for its use of ray tracing as opposed to REYES-like scanline rendering prevalent throughout the CG industry.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Animated features
- Ice Age (2002)
- Robots (2005)
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
- Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
[edit] Short Films
- No Time For Nuts (2006)
- Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty (2005)
- Gone Nutty (2002, Academy Award nominee 2003, lost to Harvie Krumpet))
- Bunny (1998, Academy Award winner 1998)
[edit] 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
[edit] References
- ^ a b Ohmer, Susan. Ray Tracers: Blue Sky Studios. May 1, 1997. Accessed September 29, 2006.
[edit] See also
[edit] Links
| Blue Sky Studios |
|---|
| Feature-length animations |
|
Ice Age (2002) • Robots (2005) • Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) • Horton Hears a Who! (2008) |
| Short films |
|
Bunny (1998) • Gone Nutty (2003) • No Time for Nuts (2006) |
| Contributions in other films |
|
Joe's Apartment (1996) • A Simple Wish (1997) • Alien: Resurrection (1997) • Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) • Jesus' Son (1999) • Fight Club (1999) • Titan A.E. (2000) |
