Disney to Close Down Blue Sky Studios

[Rodney]

Just days ago I found myself wondering what Disney might end up doing with Blue Sky Studios which was part of their recent acquisition of 20th Centry Fox.  Even before I got a chance to google it... into my news feed came the reports that Disney would be shutting down the Studio.

Several old time Animation:Master veterans work there... a few since the very early days of Blue Sky Studios... and here's hoping they make the transition well.

I saw in a separate report via Linked In that one Blue Sky Studio animator in particular, Teresa (Nord) Storhoff has recently been promoted to Training Lead which if true would suggest a role in transitioning some of the 450 employees to other studios and Disney departments.  From what I understand Disney still has plans to continue the Ice Age franchise in some capacity.

 

I fully expect to hear of a new animation startup ramping up in the not too distant future to cover the dearth of animation work on the east coast but the recent move to more telecommunicated projects prompted by Covid 19 may have animators dialing in their work from all parts of the world remotely to Disney...

Good luck to everyone involved!

 

[robcat2075]

Hmmm.

It had acquired a reputation as a worker-squeezing sweatshop.

Eighty-hour work weeks for "crunch time". But not 80 hours of pay!

Ouch.

But looking at the market glut of animated movies I'm not surprised someone had to fold.

 

I recall going to see one of the founders, Chris Wedge, give a presentation at a convention. After they had won an Oscar for the short "bunny" but before they had the big success of "Ice Age".

He spoke of working on the original "Tron"  and how all their modeling and animation was done by commands typed onto old-style punch cards. There was no user interface as we know it today.

[Roger]

Wasn't one of our forums members working at Blue Sky?  Or am I mistaken?

[teresan18]

Hehe, some co-workers and I were playing a game of googling ourselves to see what would come up and I happened across this thread!

Hi everyone! It has been awhile. 
Thanks for the well wishes.
(regarding the linkedin update to Training Lead, this was just me updating my profile after the fact, haha. :( :) Over the past year I've been splitting my time between technical animation and training department where I was training the studio on using our new pipeline technology.)

[Rodney]

It's great to hear from you Teresa!  And good to get caught up with what you are up to.

Here's hoping you make the transition to whatever will be smoothly and without too much disruption.