Blur Studio is an American-based production company which specialises in CGI visual effects, CGI animation and CGI design. Located in

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, 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 Bionicle was a line of Lego construction toys, marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line originally launched in 2001 as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of Lego's biggest-selling prop ...

toyline by

The Lego Group Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aroun ...

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 Creative Capers Entertainment is an American animation studio founded by Terry and Sue Shakespeare with David Molina in 1989. Based in Altadena, California. It specializes in flash and hand-drawn animation in various feature films, television ser ...

. The studio worked on the 2004 short film '' Gopher Broke'' which was nominated for 2004

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

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

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

''. In 2011, Blur created the opening

title sequence A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often a opening theme song with visu ...

for ''

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' (original title in sv, Män som hatar kvinnor , lit=''Men Who Hate Women'') is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson (1954–2004). It was published posthumously in 2 ...

'', based on the first book of

Stieg Larsson Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson (, ; 15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish writer, journalist, and activist. He is best known for writing the ''Millennium'' trilogy of crime novels, which were published posthumously, starting in 2 ...

's Millennium Trilogy and directed by

David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...

. 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 ''PlanetSide 2'' is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter developed by Rogue Planet Games and published by Daybreak Game Company. The game supports battles with thousands of players (up to 2,000 on a single map) and inc ...

'' 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 ''Halo 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. ''Halo 2'' is the second installment in the ''Halo'' franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed '' ...

'' cutscenes for '' Halo: The Master Chief Collection'' (2014) and produced the cutscenes for ''

Halo Wars 2 ''Halo Wars 2'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly. It was published by Microsoft Studios and released in February 2017 on Windows and Xbox One. The game is set in the science fiction universe ...

'' (2017) after doing so for ''

Halo Wars ''Halo Wars'' is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was released in Australia on February 26, 2009; in Europe on February 27; and i ...

'' (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 Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

until they put the project into turnaround and sold the rights to

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

in 2017. The film was released in February 14, 2020 in collaboration with

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

and their animation studio,

Marza Animation Planet is a Japan-based CGI animation studio dedicated to making full-length feature films and video game cutscenes. Their extensive résumé includes CGI add-ins for television series and video games. Their head office is located on the 18th floor ...

, and

Original Film Original Film is an American film and television production company founded by Neal H. Moritz. Notable films the company has produced include the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. History Original Film was started out in the early 1990s by Neal H ...

. A

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

was released on April 8, 2022. In 2017, Blur created another opening title sequence for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

psychological thriller, ''Mindhunter'' based on the 1995 true-crime book, '' Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit'' by

John E. Douglas John Edward Douglas (born ) is an American retired special agent and unit chief in the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was one of the first criminal profilers and has written books on criminal psychology. Early life a ...

and

Mark Olshaker __notoc__ Mark Olshaker (born February 28, 1951) is an American author from Washington, D.C. who frequently collaborates with FBI agent John E. Douglas in writing books about criminal and investigative psychology. In 1995, they formed Mindhunters ...

, produced and directed by David Fincher. In 2019, the studio produced the animation for the Netflix anthology series ''

Love, Death & Robots ''Love, Death & Robots'' (stylized as ''LOVE DEATH + R⬮BOTS'', and represented in emoji form as ❤️❌🤖) is an adult animated anthology streaming television series created by Tim Miller and streaming on Netflix. Produced by Blur Studio ...

'', 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 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and

Chernin Entertainment Chernin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded and owned by former News Corporation president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin, also CEO and chairman of the company. Jenno Topping is the current Head o ...

Works

Film and television

Games

Rides

Links

*
Blur Studio API's, Libraries and Tools (blur-dev)

Making of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Trailer
at Gnomon Events

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blur Studio American animation studios Mass media companies established in 1994 Visual effects companies 1994 establishments in California Companies based in Culver City, California