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Blue Sky Studios
Wikipedia | 2013-11-29 18:22
| Blue Sky Studios | |
| Type | Subsidiary of 20th Century Fox |
| Industry |
CGI animation Motion pictures |
| Founded | February 1987 |
| Founder(s) |
Chris Wedge V. Gopalakrishnan |
| Headquarters | Greenwich, Connecticut,USA |
| Key people |
Carlos Saldanha Chris Wedge Brian Keane, COO |
| Products | CGI animated films |
| Owner(s) | News Corporation |
| Parent | 20th Century Fox |
| Website | www.blueskystudios.com |
Blue Sky Studios, or simply Blue Sky, is an American CGI-animation studio which specializes in high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. It is owned by 20th Century Fox and located in Greenwich, Connecticut. In addition to their feature-lengthanimated films, including the Ice Age series, Robots (2005), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), and Rio (2011), Blue Sky has worked on many high-profile films, primarily in the integration of live-action with computer-generated animation.
History
1987–97
Blue Sky was founded in February 1987 by Chris Wedge, Carl Ludwig, Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy, Alison Brown, David Brown and Michael Ferraro, who had previously worked on the Disney filmTron while employed at MAGI/Synthavision.[3] 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 an intro for a Nickelodeon block called Nicktoons that featured the show'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.[4]
1997–present
In August 1997, 20th Century Fox's Los Angeles-based visual effects company, VIFX, acquired Blue Sky Studios to form a new visual effects and animation company.[5] The new company produced visual effects for films such asThe X-Files, Blade, Armageddon, Titanic and Alien Resurrection.[6] In 1998, Chris Wedge realized long unfulfilled dreams and produced the Academy Awarded animated short film, Bunny.
Due to the f/x market crash, Fox decided to leave visual effects business. In March 1999, they sold VIFX to another visual effects house, Rhythm & Hues Studios,[7] and considered selling Blue Sky next. At the time, the studio got the opportunity with the Ice Age script to turn it into a comedy. In 2002, Ice Age was released to a great critical and commercial success. The film got a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and established Blue Sky as the third studio, after Pixar and DreamWorks, to launch a successful CGI franchise.[8]
On January 5, 2009, the studio moved from White Plains, New York to Greenwich, Connecticut.[9]
Technology
The studio is notable for its proprietary Renderer CGI Studio, a rendering software system like Pixar'sRenderMan. Initially developed by Eugene Troubetzkoy, Carl Ludwig, Tom Bisogno and Michael Ferraro,[4] CGI Studio was notable for its use of ray tracing as opposed to REYES-like scanline rendering prevalent throughout the CG industry.
Filmography
Filmography
Feature films
Upcoming films
Films in development
Television specials
| # | Title | Release date | Budget | Gross | RT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ice Age | March 15, 2002 | $59,000,000 | $383,257,136 | 77% |
| 2 | Robots | March 11, 2005 | $75,000,000 | $260,718,330 | 64% |
| 3 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | March 31, 2006 | $80,000,000 | $655,388,158 | 57% |
| 4 | Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! | March 14, 2008 | $85,000,000 | $297,138,014 | 79% |
| 5 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | July 1, 2009 | $90,000,000 | $886,686,817 | 45% |
| 6 | Rio | April 15, 2011 | $90,000,000 | $484,635,760 | 72% |
| 7 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | July 13, 2012 | $95,000,000 | $859,750,929 | 38% |
Upcoming films
| Title | Release date | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Epic | May 24, 2013 | |
| Rio 2 | April 11, 2014 | |
| Peanuts | November 25, 2015 |
Films in development
| Title | Ref(s) |
|---|---|
| Spore | |
| The Story of Ferdinand | |
| Mutts | |
| Left Tern |
Television specials
| # | Title | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas | November 24, 2011 |
Short films
| # | Title | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bunny | 1998 | Academy Award winner |
| 2 | Gone Nutty | November 26, 2002 | Academy Award nominee |
| 3 | Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty | September 27, 2005 | |
| 4 | No Time for Nuts | November 21, 2006 | Academy Award nominee |
| 5 | Surviving Sid | December 9, 2008 |
Commercials
Braun "The Last Word" (1992)
Nicktoons "Show Open" (1993)
Chock full o'Nuts "Complements" (1993)
Nestlé "Cookie Jar" (1993)
Pepsi "Swingers" (1996)
Rayovac "Fierce Creatures/Super Stomper" (1997)
Target "Toys" (1998)
Contributions
Square One Television (1987) – "Mathman" segments
Joe's Apartment (1996) – dancing and singing cockroaches
Alien Resurrection (1997) – the aliens
A Simple Wish (1997) – numerous characters and special effects
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) – several alien creatures
Jesus' Son (1999) – sacred heart, "liquid" glass, and screaming cotton ball effects
Fight Club (1999) – the "sliding" penguin
The Sopranos (2000) – the "talking fish" in the episode Funhouse
Titan A.E. (2000) – 3D animation: creation of the new world
