Computer animation/visual effects house Blue Sky Studios has pulled out of commercialmaking until further notice. The White Plains-based company is currently in production on the animated feature Ice Age, which will be released by 20th Century Fox.
The first feature-length film teaming Blue Sky Studios and Fox, Ice Age is being directed by Blue Sky’s Chris Wedge and produced by Fox’s Lori Forte. The comedy/adventure focuses on a woolly mammoth, a sloth and a saber tooth tiger who must return a baby to its human family. Television’s Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) and comedian/actor John Leguizamo voice two of the major roles.
Wedge won an Oscar in 1998 for his short Bunny. For Ice Age he is working closely with Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri and senior VP Kevin Bannerman, both based in Los Angeles.
Fox bought a partial stake in Blue Sky Studios in ’97, when it merged Blue Sky with VIFX, Los Angeles, to become Blue Sky/VIFX. Fox later sold VIFX to Rhythm & Hues, Los Angeles; and since ’99, Blue Sky has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox Filmed Entertainment.
Preproduction on Ice Age began in October ’99, when Chuck Richardson, former VP of physical production at 20th Century Fox Animation, joined Blue Sky as senior VP/general manager. Over the past year, staff at Blue Sky has increased from about 60 employees to more than 150. Richardson pointed out that most of the new staffers are permanent and not just at the company for the duration of this project. However, a Blue Sky mainstay, CEO David Brown, retired from the firm this past June.
Production on Ice Age started in July and is expected to run until spring 2001. The film should be completed in spring ’02 and released later that year.
Blue Sky’s last commercials were Subway’s "Balloon," "Computer," "Western, "Beach" and "Firehouse," via Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York. Animation helmer on the spots was former Blue Sky staffer Christopher Scollard, with live action directed by David Jellison of bicoastal Tool of North America.
Regarding the closure of Blue Sky’s commercial production operation, Richardson commented, "We wanted to maintain a Blue Sky quality to what we were doing, and we were afraid that if we tried to do features and commercials at the same time-especially now-we would have overextended our creative resources."
Richardson added that he hopes Ice Age will be the first of many feature productions for Blue Sky. It’s expected that a second feature will most likely follow this one. "Blue Sky wanted to do features, and then the issue was finding the right project," he said. Fox and Blue Sky started discussing Ice Age about two years ago, according to Richardson, who related: "It was something that Fox had. There had been conversations [between Fox and Blue Sky] before that about other projects, probably before Blue Sky was purchased by Fox."
Richardson described Ice Age as being "the first fully raytraced film." Raytracing is the technique associated with Blue Sky’s proprietary software, CGI Studio (TM). The software simulates the way light behaves on objects and surfaces in a natural environment, through the use of geometric modeling.
"CGI Studio is a program with algorithms that are based on the physics of lights, and so its tendency is to be a much more realistic renderer than anyone else’s renderer. It creates an image that has a vibrancy, presence and reality that’s hard to achieve through other media," claimed Richardson.
