Building Story - Ideas for the Animated Short - page 149

Story and Humor: An Interview with Chris Renaud
and Mike Thurmeier, Blue Sky Animation Studios
Chris Renaud started in New York City, drawing for Marvel and DC Comics. In
2000, he was hired as an illustrator and then a production designer on The topic of
Pooh and Bear in the Big Blue House , for the Disney Channel. After being production
designer on It's a Big , Big World , for PBS, Chris was hired by Blue Sky. He started
as a story artist on Ice Age 2 and Robots , and then went to shorts. Chris was director
with Mike Thurmeier on No Time for Nuts , winner of ASIFA's Annie Award for Best
Animated Short and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short
Subject.
Mike Thurmeier has been an animator at Blue Sky since 1998, when he was hired out
of Sheridan College with no formal animation training. He animated several Blue Sky
commercials and feature fi lm projects before serving as a lead animator and additional
story artist on the company's fi rst fi lm, Ice Age . He was a supervising animator on Blue
Sky's next two features, Robots and Ice Age 2 , and is now senior supervising animator
on Horton Hears a Who , due out in 2008.
No Time for Nuts , directed by Chris Renaud and Mike Thurmeier, Blue Sky Studios
Q: How do you recognize a good idea for an animated short?
Chris: I think the way to recognize a good idea is to understand where we're starting,
what the setup is, and how it's going to resolve. That may change as it goes through
development, but I think that's how you recognize a good idea. Everything else is just
a concept. What you'll often fi nd, when you start with just a concept, is that you start
going down a road and you'll fi nd it doesn't go anywhere.
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