Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation [Paperback]

Peter Weishar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002

3-D computer animation is the most revolutionary development in feature films since the introduction of colour. In recent years, a string of movies-from Pixar/Disney's Toy Story to Dreamworks's Shrek-have advanced the art of computer animation, so that today it is possible to create photorealistic worlds from scratch. Blue Sky is an introduction to the techniques used to create 3-D computer animated feature films. Blue Sky Studios, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, was founded in 1987 to pioneer photorealistic, high-resolution computer-generated character animation for the entertainment industry. In 1998, the studio's short film Bunny, created by director Chris Wedge, won an Academy Award. Now, the studio is producing its first animated feature, Ice Age, for Twentieth Century Fox, scheduled to open on March 15, 2002. Ice Age is an animated fable starring Manfred, a wooly mammoth voiced by Ray Romano, and Sid, a giant sloth voiced by John Leguizamo. Ice Age follows Dreamworks's hugely successful Shreck and next fall's eagerly awaited Monsters from Pixar/Disney as the next state-of-the-art 3-D computer-animated feature. Using mostly examples from Bunny and Ice Age, but also drawing on examples of the studio's work for other feature films and television commercials, Weishar takes the reader step by step through the making of a computer- animated feature film. This hip, informative book will bring techies and all fans of film animation in on the fun.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Most people can conceptualize animation easily in the form of the flip cards we made as children or as the crude Claymation movements of Gumby. However, 3-D computer animation takes some explaining. According to Weishar (animation, NYU's Tisch Sch. of the Arts), it's the most revolutionary development in feature films since the introduction of color. The book goes behind the scenes at the cutting-edge, Academy Award-winning Blue Sky Studios and uses their recently released film Ice Age to illustrate computer modeling, rigging, texture mapping, and special effects. Weishar entertainingly details the technological wizardry used to create 3-D animation of everything from storms and smoke to fully realized film sets and woolly mammoths. Highly recommended. Literature
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1ST edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810990695
• ISBN-13: 978-0810990692
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,589,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intresting book, February 8, 2009

By 

Salvador Garcia Luque - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation (Paperback)

This book contains a lot of tips for people involved in cg animation, but mostly is the story of bluesky studios, their works and their hardware.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving Spaces, April 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation (Paperback)

The title BLUE SKY is from the name of the company. Company director Chris Wedge says that they started out in 1987 with blue-sky ideas. They had big, seemingly impractical plans. But they believed that dreams could come true. They also believed that we're only limited by our imaginations.

Blue Sky studios began in advertising. Their reputation for high quality computer animation and effects drew in big clients, such as Bell Atlantic, Gillette, and Rayovac. In 1992, their TV commercial for Braun had a computer-generated image of an electric razor. It was so well done that even experts didn't know it wasn't the real thing.

The company then got into films. They went on to win an academy award for "Bunny," as the best animated short film in 1998. The film ended up with 25 international awards for excellence in animation. With all this attention, the company, in 1999, became part of 20th Century Fox feature animation. With this kind of money, power and reputation behind them, in 2002 the company released a computer-generated-image feature film, Ice Age.

The book is about animating Ice Age. Peter Weishar starts from building a scene by watercolor sketches, all the way through lighting and live-action. In between, there's modeling of characters and props, for scanning into the computer. There's storyboard drawings of who, where, what for each scene. There's rigging of skeletons inside characters for movement. There's lip syncing speech. There's 3-dimensional layout of all physical sets and movements of camera and characters. There's texture mapping of objects and surfaces. There's special effects, such as geysers and lava. There's making convincing fur for a mammoth, a sabertoothed tiger, and a sloth, as well as self-shadowing hair for a human baby and parents. Whew!

All along the way there are clear explanations, good examples, and telling illustrations. There are also interesting anecdotes about the business, the company, and the film. So it's a fascinating read. It's also a pleasantly easy learning experience, along with the author's DIGITAL SPACE.