One of Disney's many acquisitions from the $71.3 billion merger was Blue Sky Studios, the animation studio behind "Ice Age," "Robots," "The Peanuts Movie," and "Ferdinand." Blue Sky was founded 1987 by a team of computer animators including Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy, Alison Brown, David Brown, Michael Ferraro, and Chris Wedge, who directed "Ice Age" and "Robots" among others. After 17 years of making hit films, Blue Sky was shuttered by Disney in April of 2020, reportedly because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apart from the 450 animators who had to begin looking around at the new company for jobs, one...
The post Nimona Faced Pushback From Disney Over Same-Sex Kiss, Say Former Blue Sky Studios Staffers appeared first on /Film.
Apart from the 450 animators who had to begin looking around at the new company for jobs, one...
The post Nimona Faced Pushback From Disney Over Same-Sex Kiss, Say Former Blue Sky Studios Staffers appeared first on /Film.
- 3/18/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Editor’s note: Before he founded and became CEO of the Universal-based animation factory Illumination, Chris Meledandri was tasked with building an animation division at Fox. Early on, the president of Twentieth Century Fox Animation in 1998 acquired Blue Sky Studios for the studio. The Westchester, NY-based animation company might have started as an adjunct to Fox’s Hollywood animation operation, but that changed when Meledandri gave Blue Sky the room to grow, and the result was the multibillion-dollar Ice Age franchise. Meledandri, who would start Illumination and hatch another multibillion-dollar franchise in Despicable Me. Here, he laments the decision by Disney to shutter Blue Sky and celebrates its origins.
Hearing the sad news of the closing of Blue Sky Studios brings back the memories of our journey together. It was 1996 and I was running the animation division at Fox.
Hearing the sad news of the closing of Blue Sky Studios brings back the memories of our journey together. It was 1996 and I was running the animation division at Fox.
- 2/16/2021
- by Chris Meledandri
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Disney is shuttering Blue Sky Studios, the $5.9 billion global grossing former 20th Century Fox animation division which during its run churned out 13 features including the Ice Age franchise.
One can say that the writing was always on the wall for Blue Sky, especially after Disney acquired 20th Century Studios and its assets in March 2019. However, the past year has been challenging for Disney on many fronts, of course due to the pandemic, not just on the studio side but with theme park closures and cruise line dockings as well. Sustaining a third feature animation studio was no longer viable for Disney given the current economic realities caused by Covid. The last day for Blue Sky will be in April. The number of Blue Sky employees being impacted numbers 450. Disney will be working with the employees at the Greenwich, Ct based animation house to explore open positions at the other internal studios.
One can say that the writing was always on the wall for Blue Sky, especially after Disney acquired 20th Century Studios and its assets in March 2019. However, the past year has been challenging for Disney on many fronts, of course due to the pandemic, not just on the studio side but with theme park closures and cruise line dockings as well. Sustaining a third feature animation studio was no longer viable for Disney given the current economic realities caused by Covid. The last day for Blue Sky will be in April. The number of Blue Sky employees being impacted numbers 450. Disney will be working with the employees at the Greenwich, Ct based animation house to explore open positions at the other internal studios.
- 2/9/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
The highlight of the Academy’s 89th Sci-Tech Awards Saturday at the Beverly Wilshire was the pioneering efforts of five digital cinematography cameras that stood out among this year’s 18 recipients, acknowledging the dominance of the craft.
Receiving Academy plaques were Arri for the Super 35 Alexa, Red Digital Cinema for the Red Epic, Sony for the F65 CineAlta (with full 4K output), and Panavision and Sony for the groundbreaking Genesis.
Additionally, the formerly-named Thomson Grass Valley received a certificate for the Viper FilmStream system for importing into digital intermediate workflows.
Oscar-nominated “Arrival” (Bradford Young), “Moonlight” (James Laxton), and the Asc-winning “Lion” (Greig Fraser) were all shot on the Alexa.
In terms of animation and VFX, other areas of innovation emphasized rendering and facial performance capture, including Disney, Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, Blue Sky, Sony Pictures Imageworks, among others.
Disney’s Brian Whited accepted a technical achievement certificate for...
Receiving Academy plaques were Arri for the Super 35 Alexa, Red Digital Cinema for the Red Epic, Sony for the F65 CineAlta (with full 4K output), and Panavision and Sony for the groundbreaking Genesis.
Additionally, the formerly-named Thomson Grass Valley received a certificate for the Viper FilmStream system for importing into digital intermediate workflows.
Oscar-nominated “Arrival” (Bradford Young), “Moonlight” (James Laxton), and the Asc-winning “Lion” (Greig Fraser) were all shot on the Alexa.
In terms of animation and VFX, other areas of innovation emphasized rendering and facial performance capture, including Disney, Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, Blue Sky, Sony Pictures Imageworks, among others.
Disney’s Brian Whited accepted a technical achievement certificate for...
- 2/12/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Leslie Mann and John Cho make a stunning pair of hosts.
The actors brought their A-game as they prepared to host the Academy's Sci-Tech Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday.
Watch: 2017 Oscar Awards Nominees: 'La La Land' Leads With 14 Nominations
Before the ceremony started, the Academy shared an inside peek at the night on Twitter.
Getty Images
The Academy announced last month that 18 scientific and technical achievements would be honored at the annual Scientific and Technical Awards presentation. See the honorees below:
Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates)
Thomson Grass Valley for the design and engineering of the pioneering Viper FilmStream digital camera system.
Larry Gritz for the design, implementation and dissemination of Open Shading Language (Osl).
Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy and Maurice van Swaaij for the pioneering development of the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios.
Brian Whited for the design and development of the Meander drawing system...
The actors brought their A-game as they prepared to host the Academy's Sci-Tech Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday.
Watch: 2017 Oscar Awards Nominees: 'La La Land' Leads With 14 Nominations
Before the ceremony started, the Academy shared an inside peek at the night on Twitter.
Getty Images
The Academy announced last month that 18 scientific and technical achievements would be honored at the annual Scientific and Technical Awards presentation. See the honorees below:
Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates)
Thomson Grass Valley for the design and engineering of the pioneering Viper FilmStream digital camera system.
Larry Gritz for the design, implementation and dissemination of Open Shading Language (Osl).
Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy and Maurice van Swaaij for the pioneering development of the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios.
Brian Whited for the design and development of the Meander drawing system...
- 2/12/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Louisa Mellor Jul 13, 2016
Blue Sky Studios’ CGI work on Alien: Resurrection began a long and fruitful relationship with 20th Century Fox…
When Blue Sky Studios was tasked with creating swimming CGI Xenomorphs for the fourth film in the Alien franchise, its animators looked to inspiration from the natural world. Aptly for Hr Giger’s demonic creations, said inspiration was found in a Galapagos Island creature nicknamed by Charles Darwin the “imp of darkness”.
“We patterned [the Xenomorphs’] movements on reference footage of sea iguanas” Blue Sky’s Digital Effects Supervisor for Alien: Resurrection Mitch Kopelman told American Cinematographer magazine in November 1997. “They have this crazy little swim where they tuck their legs under their bodies and use this really long tail to propel themselves.” After much work, the end result was the CGI swimming aliens that pursued Ellen Ripley and co. through the flooded kitchens of the Usm Auriga in the 1997 sequel.
Blue Sky Studios’ CGI work on Alien: Resurrection began a long and fruitful relationship with 20th Century Fox…
When Blue Sky Studios was tasked with creating swimming CGI Xenomorphs for the fourth film in the Alien franchise, its animators looked to inspiration from the natural world. Aptly for Hr Giger’s demonic creations, said inspiration was found in a Galapagos Island creature nicknamed by Charles Darwin the “imp of darkness”.
“We patterned [the Xenomorphs’] movements on reference footage of sea iguanas” Blue Sky’s Digital Effects Supervisor for Alien: Resurrection Mitch Kopelman told American Cinematographer magazine in November 1997. “They have this crazy little swim where they tuck their legs under their bodies and use this really long tail to propel themselves.” After much work, the end result was the CGI swimming aliens that pursued Ellen Ripley and co. through the flooded kitchens of the Usm Auriga in the 1997 sequel.
- 7/12/2016
- Den of Geek
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