How a small band of animation innovators brought movie magic to millions (with a little help from one of the world's most powerful film studios).

Blue Sky Studios Founders

1987 | This early image with Studio demonstrates soft shadows and smooth surface tracking (no polygons). It was entirely built with solid geometry

1990 | One of the first tests where Studio was able to demonstrate its Radiosity (Global Illumination) capabilities.

1990 | Another early CGI Studio image demonstrating Radiosity (Global Illumination) and CGI Studio's reflection/refraction capabilities.

1992 | An image from an early commercial that demonstrates CGI Studio's diffuse reflections and advance physically based lighting model. Besides winning a Clio award, there was much industry skepticism at the time about whether the razor was real or CGI.

This was a test to show Studio’s implicit surface rendering. Infinite detail with virtually no RAM footprint.

1997 | A signature image from Academy Award® winning short “Bunny”, demonstrating the first use of Radiosity in a short form theatrical picture.

1998 | The Blue Sky crew celebrates after winning the 1998 Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film. The groundbreaking short transformed the studio from a service company to a feature animation studio.

2002 | "Ice Age" was a cinematic milestone as it was the first feature length animated film to deploy 100% Monte Carlo Raytracing in every rendered frame.

2017 | The crew celebrates the release of Ferdinand!

2018 | Blue Sky toasts to getting nominated for an Academy Award® for "Best Animated Feature Film" for Ferdinand.

To begin the story of Blue Sky - before the lonely bunnies, hungry squirrels, and quirky robots, we have to go back to a time when the idea of a feature film made only with computers wasn't even an idea.



The year was 1982 and intent on making use of rising computer technology, Disney hired a small computer animation company based in Elmsford, NY named MAGI to create the majority of the CGI animation for the groundbreaking film Tron. MAGI is credited with some of the most memorable sequences in the film, including the classic light cycle sequence. It is here that a few employees met and went on to form the diverse and incredibly gifted group that would found Blue Sky Studios.

In February 1986, six of these innovators sat together in a cramped apartment and fueled only by their determined enthusiasm, decided to pool what little money they had to start their own computer animation company. These pioneers were Alison Brown, David Brown, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy and Chris Wedge.

Carl Ludwig was an electrical engineer who worked for NASA on the tracking systems of the Apollo mission’s lunar module. Alison Brown came from a marketing and special effects background. David Brown (no relation) who would become Blue Sky's first President and CEO had been a marketing executive with CBS/Fox Video. Michael Ferraro was an accomplished programmer with a Masters degree in Fine Arts who worked for the US Navy on early virtual reality simulations. Chris Wedge was a classically trained animator with extensive experience in stop-motion puppet animation as well as a Masters degree in computer graphics from Ohio State University.

While they intended from the beginning to produce high-resolution computer generated character animation for feature films, Blue Sky’s early days lacked software, money and clients. The team worked for months without pay in their tiny one room office equipped with only three computers and a coffeemaker. Each member brought his or her own unique set of skills to the table. Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy had a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Columbia and worked as a nuclear physicist to create computer simulations of nuclear particle behavior. He is credited with helping develop the amazing technique for capturing 3D scenes with remarkable realism called Raytrace rendering.