Blur Studio

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

## History

Founded in September 1994 by David Stinnett, Tim Miller, Cat Chapman and Al Shier, Blur has worked on numerous projects earning critical acclaim. Sometime in the early 2000s, the studio took interest in the Bionicle toyline by The Lego Group and came up with an idea for a Bionicle film, and a short test pitch was created, under the title *"Tahu Nuva vs Kohrak"*. The project did not manage to be green light by Lego, however a direct-to-video film was eventually made in 2003. The final animation for the film was eventually handled by Creative Capers Entertainment.

The studio worked on the 2004 short film *Gopher Broke* which was nominated for 2004 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. In 2000, Blur signed a movie deal with Amblimation to make *Mystica*, Amblin's first computer-animated film that was in development at the studio. *Mystica* was released in 2004 by Universal Pictures. This was followed by Amblin's next film *Metro Cone* in 2005.

After the success of *Mystica*, in April 2004, Blur and Amblin signed a production deal to animate eight computer-animated films for Amblin Animation that were estimated to be completed during the next 10 years. Along with the deal their first project was announced, titled *Haired*. Intended to be a modernization of the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" and directed by Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller, it was put on hold two years later because of script issues.

In 2009, they assisted with the creation of CGI environments in the Academy Award-winning film *Avatar*. In March 2010, it was announced that due to creative differences Amblin and Blur would not be extending their contract. The deal was officially terminated on June 30, 2010. The studio had a 2012 film *Tales* in development, which had been announced in 2008. With the end of the partnership, the film's animation outsourced to Amblin via NextMotion Studio, its in-house computer animation department. The animation in *Metro Cone 3: The Mystery to New York* was shifted to Sony Pictures Imageworks.

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.

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

Blur Studio produced a cinematic trailer for the video game *PlanetSide 2* titled "Death is No Excuse." 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) and produced the cutscenes for *Halo Wars 2* (2017) after doing so for *Halo Wars* (2009).

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. The film was released in 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.

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.

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.

## See also

* Marza Animation Planet
* DNEG
* Cinesite
* Animal Logic