Blue Sky Studios

Type	Subsidiary of 20th Century Fox[1]
Industry	CGI animation Motion pictures
Founded	February 1987
Founder(s)	Chris Wedge V. Gopalakrishnan
Headquarters	Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
Key people	Carlos Saldanha Chris Wedge
Products	CGI animated films
Owner(s)	News Corporation
Parent	20th Century Fox
Website	www.blueskystudios.com

Blue Sky Studios 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-length animated 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[link]

1987–97[link]

Blue Sky was founded in February 1987 by Chris Wedge, Carl Ludwig and four other artists and technicians who had previously worked on the Disney film Tron while employed at MAGI/Synthavision.^[2] 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.^[3]

1997–present[link]

In August 1997, 20th Century Fox's Los Angeles-based effects company, VIFX, acquired Blue Sky Studios to form Blue Sky|VIFX.^[4] The new company produced visual effects for films such as The X-Files, Blade, Armageddon, Titanic and Alien Resurrection.^[5] 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 1999, they sold VIFX to Rhythm & Hues Studios,^[6] 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.^[7]

On January 5, 2009, the studio moved from White Plains, New York to Greenwich, Connecticut.^[8]

Technology[link]

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,^[3] CGI Studio was notable for its use of ray tracing as opposed to REYES-like scanline rendering prevalent throughout the CG industry.

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

Released films

Upcoming films

Films in development

Television specials[link]

Short films[link]

Commercials[link]

• 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[link]

• 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

See also[link]

• 20th Century Fox Animation

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Blue Sky Studios at the Internet Movie Database
• Blue Sky Studios at the Big Cartoon DataBase

Blue Sky may refer to:

Science[link]

• Diffuse sky radiation, which causes the sky to appear blue
• Blue skies research (also called blue sky science), scientific research in domains where "real-world" applications are not immediately apparent

Art[link]

• Blue Sky (artist), an American painter and sculptor formerly known as Warren Edward Johnson

Business[link]

• Blue sky law, state laws in the United States that regulate the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from securities fraud
• Blue Sky Beverage Company, a soft drink manufacturer
• Blue Sky, LLC - owner and operator of the French Lick Resort Casino, controlled by Bill Cook
• Blue Sky - marketing and branding name for aircraft owned by Armenian air carrier Blue Airways (ICAO call sign "Blue Armenia") but operated on behalf of Mahan Air
• Blue Sky (company), maker of i'm Watch

Film and television[link]

• Blue Sky (film), a 1994 film starring Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones
• Blue Sky Studios, an Academy Award-winning computer animation studio

Music[link]

• "Mr. Blue Sky", a song by Electric Light Orchestra from their album Out of the Blue.
• "Blue Sky" (song), a song by The Allman Brothers Band from their 1972 album Eat a Peach
• "Goodbye Blue Sky", a song by Pink Floyd on their album The Wall
• "Blue Sky", a song by Patti Griffin from her album Flaming Red
• Blue Sky Records, a record label started by manager Steve Paul and featuring releases by his clients, including Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer and Muddy Waters
• "Blue Sky", a song by rapper, Common in his album, The Dreamer/The Believer

Software[link]

• Blue Sky Software, a defunct video game company
• Looking Glass Studios, a computer game developer originally known as Blue Sky Productions
• BlueSky Open Platform, an open source e-learning solution

Other[link]

• Blue Sky (manga), a Japanese manga
• BlueSky Charter School, an online school for Minnesota citizens
• Blue Sky navigation pod, airborne navigational/attack pod
• A Piece of Blue Sky
• Blue sky memo
• Blue Sky - Rainbow code for the Fairey Fireflash air-to-air missile
• Blue Sky Solar Racing, a solar car racing team based at the University of Toronto

See also[link]

• Blue Skies (disambiguation)

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