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Blue Sky Studios

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Blue Sky Studios
Company typeSubsidiary of 20th Century Fox[1]
IndustryCGI animation
Motion pictures
FoundedFebruary 1987
FounderChris Wedge
Carl Ludwig
Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy
Alison Brown
David Brown
Michael Ferraro
HeadquartersGreenwich, Connecticut, USA
Key people
Carlos Saldanha
Chris Wedge
Brian Keane, COO[2]
ProductsCGI animated films
OwnerNews Corporation
ParentIndependent (1987-1997)
20th Century Fox (1997-present)
Websitewww.blueskystudios.com

Blue Sky Studios is an American computer animation film studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Founded in 1987 by the visual effects team behind Tron, it is owned since 1997 by 20th Century Fox. Using its in-house rendering software, the studio had worked on visual effects for commercials and films, before releasing in 2002 its first animated film, Ice Age, and completely dedicated to producing animated films. The studio has produced eight animated films, with Ice Age and Rio franchises being the most successful.

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 film Tron 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 as The X-Files, Blade, Armageddon, Titanic and Alien Resurrection.[6] In 1998, Chris Wedge realized long unfulfilled dreams and produced the Academy Award winning 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's RenderMan. 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

Feature films

Released films

# 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 76%
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 $877,244,782 37%
8 Epic May 24, 2013 $93,000,000 $189,330,559 62%

Upcoming films

Title Release date Ref(s)
Rio 2 April 11, 2014 [10][11]
Peanuts November 6, 2015 [12][13]
Anubis July 15, 2016 [14][15]
Ferdinand April 7, 2017 [15][16]
Rio 3 April 11, 2018

Films in development

Title Ref(s)
Spore [17]
Mutts [18][19]
Left Tern [20][21][22]
Alienology [23]

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

Contributions

See also

References

  1. ^ "Company Info of Blue Sky Studios". Blue Sky Studios. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
  2. ^ "Vanessa Morrison Re-Ups With Fox, Brian Keane With Blue Sky After 'Ice Age 4′". Deadline. July 18, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
  3. ^ Dumas, Timothy (2010-10). "Animation Domination". Greenwich Magazine. Retrieved 2011-02-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b Ohmer, Susan (1997-05-01). "Ray Tracers: Blue Sky Studios". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2006-09-29.
  5. ^ "Imaginative Pix takes interest in Blue Sky". Variety. August 27, 1997. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  6. ^ "Blue Sky|VIFX". VFX HQ. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  7. ^ Graser, Marc (March 3, 1999). "Fox to sell visual F/X division to R&H". Variety. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  8. ^ Fritz, Ben (May 2, 2008). "Fox animation soars under Blue Sky". Variety. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  9. ^ Strike, Joe (January 28, 2009). "Checking Out Blue Sky's New Connecticut Studio". Animation World Network. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  10. ^ "Sergio Mendes says a 'Rio' sequel 'looks like it's going to happen'". Inside Movies. January 25, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  11. ^ "Rio 2 (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  12. ^ "Charles Schulz's 'Peanuts' Gang to Hit Theaters". ComingSoon.net. October 9, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  13. ^ 20th Century Fox (November 7, 2012). "Fox Gives Peanuts and B.O.O. Earlier Releases". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved November 8, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (April 13, 2008). "Fox Animation weaves 'Tapestry'". Variety. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  15. ^ a b Chitwood, Adam (May 16, 2013). "DreamWorks Animation Moves B.O.O. Release Up to June 5, 2015 and TROLLS to November 4, 2016; Fox Dates ANUBIS and FERDINAND". Collider.com. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  16. ^ Brodesser-Akner, Claude (2011-02-18). "Fox, Ice Age Director Bullish on The Story of Ferdinand". New York. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
  17. ^ Graser, Marc (2009-10-01). "EA sets up 'Spore' at Fox". Variety. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  18. ^ Kit, Borys (July 22, 2011). "'Mutts' Comic Strip Headed to Big Screen From 20th Century Fox (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  19. ^ Millero, Ralph (November 2, 2011). "Ralph Millero's Photos". Facebook. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  20. ^ Lewis, Buck. "Buck Lewis". LinkedIn. Retrieved June 9, 2012. LEFT TERN is an animated feature in development at 20th Cent Fox/ Blue Sky Animation. The story is an original concept I co-wrote with my writing partner, S.F. Marengo. We started with the high concept - "Home Alone with Birds" and found the our way from there. Fox went on to engage us to write the treatment, and also to supervise the writing. I am attached to direct the feature. As of this fall, we are 3 drafts with the brilliant Laurie Craig (Ramona and Beezus, Ella Enchanted), subsequent draft Jenny Bicks (Sex and The City).
  21. ^ Lewis, Buck. "Credits" (PDF). Buck Lewis. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  22. ^ Denise, Christopher. "Visual Development - Left Tern". Christopher Denise. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  23. ^ Kroll, Justin; Abrams, Rachel (October 25, 2012). "'Rio' helmer Carlos Saldanha inks Fox pact". Variety. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
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