Computer Generated Imagery

This is for any of you who are interested in learning more about the process of creating a CGI's (Computer Generated Imagery). This is a step by step of what Blue Sky do to create one.

The Modelers take the 2D design and begin to build its 3D counterpart in the computer. Once their dimensions are established, and their look is consistent with their 2D design, they hand off the models to the Rigging department.

The Rigging department evaluates the model, taking into account the action required by the script and inserts a computer generated skeleton with a set of controls that offer all the functionality needed to make the character or prop perform. If Blue Sky were a puppet factory, then the Rigging department would be responsible for attaching the strings that the Animators would use to put on the puppet-show.


Layout does just what the name implies, they create the map that the sequence will follow. Layout places the characters and props, establishes the camera angle, and incorporates the geometry of the background so they all know what will happen before we make it happen.

Next is Animation, where the full life of the characters takes hold. For example, when Fender needs to dance in Robots, Animation choreographs the dance as well as makes him perform. When background characters need to move in a crowd scene, it is the animators that give them subtle movement, creating "extras" out of otherwise secondary models. Once the action is cemented and the performances meet the expectations of our directors, the sequence continues down the pipeline where it will receive its details and finishing touches.
Once they establish the audience's perception of the film and the characters are at their most functional, the details are applied through several departments. Materials, Lighting, Effects and sometimes Fur all step in to finalize the vision of the film.


During Robots the core protagonists are "the Rusties", and well... they needed to be treated with rust. Similarly, Big Weld's door is a combination of copper and nickel. The Materials department studied the way these elements react to light, how they appear in the dark, took into account countless other variables, and then built them as textures. In Ice Age the fur on the mammoth, Manny, is thicker than our sloth, Sid, leading to different treatments that are now stored in the vast library there at Blue Sky.
As the details of the characters take hold, they need to address the finer nuances of the action in the story. This is where they bring in the special effects and lighting departments.

Some of the actions in the stories require special effects similar to a live action film in order to create what can not be achieved in reality, or to simply create a more extreme reality. A fantastic example of this occurs in Ice Age where the heroes are crossing an ice bridge with molten lava being shot up like geysers; it was the effects team that created the explosion. When an action needs to be impressive, surreal or explosive you'll know the effects team was present.

Towards the end of the process you have the Lighting department. Since every scene and every moment has a time of day, it is the lighters who come in to add the sun, the moon, shadows or anything that will persuade the audience to understand the time frame, and heighten the mood. As all of this comes together, they then have to render the imagery to see how it went.

The rendering team comes in when it's time to compile all of the detailed pieces of each shot into film resolution frames. They make sure all the pieces of technology the creative teams created flow together to become what you see on the big screen. If shots still need polish after rendering, the Paint artists come in and touch them up so you don't even know what you missed.

Editorial is hard at work through the whole process, cutting the film together in an endless array of versions for the directors evaluate its flow. They are constantly busy cropping, rearranging, and replacing shots, recording scratch tracks, and inserting sound effects and music throughout the film until it is just right. Their department is constantly busy throughout the entire production.

When it's all put together, we send the digital reels out to be printed to film to see how it looks. Which is where you come in...


hope this information was usefull to you.