Blur Studios

There's an animation studio that is not as widely known as those who make the big movies. Everybody has heard of Pixar and Dreamworks, and many know of Blue Sky who make the Ice Age films, and Robert Zemeckis's studio ImageMovers, who made Beowulf and The Polar Express. But there are lesser-known studios making 3D Animation of repute, who aim themselves mostly at the short film, advertising, and video game market, and one of particular note is Blur Studios.

I just watched the trailer for the game Age of Conan, and was astonished by its quality. It had better motion capture animation than in Beowulf, by several degrees, and was therefore the best I've ever seen. Now, the facial animation was still a little artificial, but that was slight, and not distracting. And anyway there was some stylisation to the character design, as this is Conan we're talking about - if Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't really exist and then someone independently came up with a character design that was an exact match for him, people wouldn't believe he could be real.

Blur Studios, or some other company just like them, would be a fantastic place to work. Their achievements are impressive, and increasingly world class. I think we can expect big things from them.