Blur Studio

Last updated
Blur Studio
Company type Private
Industry CGI Animation, VFX, animation
FoundedSeptember 1994;29 years ago (1994-09)
Founder
Headquarters Culver City, California
Key people
Products Films
Television series
Video games
Website blur.com

Blur Studio is an American production company which specialises in CGI visual effects, CGI animation and CGI design. Located in Culver City, California, [1] the studio has produced CGI-animated films, teasers and ad spots for television, as well as video-game CGI cinematics.

Contents

History

Founded in March 1995 [2] by David Stinnett, Tim Miller and Cat Chapman. [3] Blur has worked on numerous projects earning critical acclaim.[ citation needed ] Blue produced Xbox demo video Two to Tango for console's mascots Raven and Robot. [4] [5] [6] Sometime between 2001 to 2003, the studio took interest in The Lego Group's Bionicle theme and produced a short test pitch, under the title "Tahu Nuva vs Kohrak", but Lego had ultimately passed on the project. [7]

The studio worked on the 2004 short film Gopher Broke which was nominated for 2004 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. [8]

In 2009, they assisted with the creation of CGI environments in the Academy Award-winning film Avatar .

In 2011, Blur created the opening title sequence for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , based on the first book of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and directed by David Fincher. [9] [10]

They created the "Heaven and Hell" sequence for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut . [11]

Blur Studio produced a cinematic trailer for the video game PlanetSide 2 titled "Death is No Excuse." [12] [13] They were also responsible for the cinematic trailers of Batman: Arkham City , Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight . They remade the Halo 2 cutscenes for Halo: The Master Chief Collection (2014) [14] and produced the cutscenes for Halo Wars 2 (2017) [15] after doing so for Halo Wars (2009). [16]

In 2016, Miller and the studio returned to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and were involved with the film adaptation of the series which was in development at Sony Pictures until they put the project into turnaround and sold the rights to Paramount Pictures in 2017. [17] The film was released on February 14, 2020 in collaboration with Sega and their animation studio, Marza Animation Planet, and Original Film. A sequel was released on April 8, 2022. [18] [19]

In 2017, Blur created another opening title sequence for the Netflix psychological thriller, Mindhunter based on the 1995 true-crime book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, produced and directed by David Fincher. [20] [21]

In 2019, the studio produced the animation for the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots , created by Tim Miller, and also produced the second volume of the series. On May 16, 2019, it was announced that Blur Studio's film The Goon, based on the 1999 comic of the same name by Eric Powell, secured a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment. [22]

Works

Film and television

YearTitle
1999 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
2004 Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
2009 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron
2017 Mindhunter
2019 Love, Death & Robots
2020 Sonic the Hedgehog
2022 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
2024 Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Games

YearTitle
1998 CarnEvil
2001 Quake III Revolution
2001 Grand Theft Auto III
2001 Return to Castle Wolfenstein
2002 Spider-Man
2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
2003 Midnight Club II
2003 Need for Speed: Underground
2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2004 Spider-Man 2
2005 Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition
2005 Shadow the Hedgehog
2006 Sonic the Hedgehog
2006 Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
2009 Halo Wars
2009 Prototype
2010 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
2011 Star Wars: The Old Republic
2014 Dark Souls II
2014 Halo 2 Anniversary
2017 Halo Wars 2
2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2020 Valorant
2022 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
2023 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

Rides

YearTitle
2003 SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D
2008 The Simpsons Ride

Commercials

YearTitle
2009 Goldfish

See also

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References

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  2. "About Blur Studio". December 26, 1996. Archived from the original on 1996-12-26.
  3. Intergraph Computer Systems (February 12, 1997). "Intergraph Workstations Play Starring Role in "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" at Blur Studio". Business Wire. The Free Library. Archived from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  4. Miller, Tim; Shier, Al; Wallace, Sherry (2001). "Microsoft Xbox Two to Tango". ACM SIGGRAPH 2001 video review on Animation theater program. p. 39. doi:10.1145/945191.945230. ISBN   978-1-4503-7429-3. S2CID   38192173.
  5. "Issue 140: SIGGRAPH 2001 Animation Theater Program Part 2 – ACM SIGGRAPH HISTORY ARCHIVES".
  6. "Xbox Desktops". 11 May 2000.
  7. "Tahu Nuva vs Kohrak". YouTube . May 26, 2011.
  8. Jessen, Taylor (February 24, 2005). "Children and Animals (and Reluctant Animators): The 2005 Oscar Nominees for Best Animated Short". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  9. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) — Art of the Title". Artofthetitle.com. 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  10. "Blur Studio: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ~ Titles (2012) | ventilate". Ventilate.ca. 2012-01-10. Archived from the original on 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  11. Felperin, Leslie (September 1999). "South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut". Sight and Sound. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  12. "PlanetSide 2: Death is no excuse". Destructoid. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  13. "Blur Studio delivers epic new 'Planetside 2' trailer". NBC News. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  14. Dornbush, Jonathon (November 10, 2014). "'Master Chief Collection' developers discuss 10-year evolution of 'Halo 2' cinematics". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
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  18. Kroll, Justin (May 28, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog' Sequel in the Works". Variety. Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  19. Fuster, Jeremy (July 23, 2020). "'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' Gets April 2022 Release Date". TheWrap . Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  20. Zabrocki, Darek. "DAREK ZABROCKI STUDIO". DAREK ZABROCKI STUDIO. Retrieved 2023-01-27.
  21. "Mindhunter". www.artofthetitle.com. Retrieved 2023-01-27.
  22. Trumbore, Dave (May 16, 2019). "'The Goon' in Development at Long Last Through Disney's Fox with Chernin Group". Collider . Retrieved September 21, 2019.