In the Rough was on the short list for an Oscar nomination in 2004.

EW: How do you keep your animators happy when they’re not doing Blur’s original films?

TM: We talk all the time about how to keep people happy. After the Oscars both Jeff Fowler and Paul Taylor got calls, and they showed a sense of honor and loyalty to the studio. Jeff is 26 years old and it was impressive for him to get an Oscar nomination. But he acknowledges that it was through Blur that he was given a shot. I try to mentor these guys about being leaders, and letting them know that when the spotlight swings to them, they have to acknowledge the team’s effort.

At the moment Jeff is directing some commercials with animated cars for a Japanese client and Paul just finished a game cinematic for Warhammer. We’re also doing game cinematics for Hell Gate, Aeon Flux, Company of Heroes and X-Men: Legend Two. We’ve done a Time Riders ride film for a theme park in Germany, and we have toy commercials for Fantastic Four and Spider-Man Megamorphs. It’s all work that we want to do, and our clients are people that we like. We have no sales force — all our work comes in through word of mouth. We see commercials and game cinematics as great training grounds for new techniques.

EW: After you’ve won honors for Blur’s original films, how do you manage people’s expectations?

TM: Our own stuff is like gravy — but if work is all gravy, the gravy loses its taste. When I think back to the Spanish Pampers commercials that I did, there was some value to that. I learned to eke out every little creative crumb that I could. I about the color of the pee!

I feel like an old man when I say that, but I like to think that the guys respect me enough to listen. I also think I get credit for the fact that I drive up every day in a ‘98 Miata that’s kind of beat up. Rather than the owners of Blur paying themselves exorbitant salaries, we roll profits back into the company. My desk is right out in the middle of the floor so I guess I’m a socialist at heart. But I do know this can’t be communistic. It is a meritocracy and we have to find ways to compensate people appropriately. We have superstar talents here but there are also people who’ve been here for nine years who’ve fallen on their swords for me and they need to know that’s valuable, too.

Any Blur employee can submit ideas for potential shorts and the 20 supervisors vote. Gopher Broke, this year’s Oscar-nominated animated short, was created by Jeff Fowler, who was a character animator at the time.

EW: You’ve made no secret of Blur’s ultimate desire to make animated features. Now word is out that Vin Diesel’s company has optioned a feature version of Rockfish that you’ll direct, and you’re being talked about to direct other animated features. How will Blur need to ramp up to tackle an entire feature?

For Rockfish we’d have to add 40 or 50 people. A lot of it depends on what the look is. We might get away with fewer people on Rockfish, although the feature treatment has several more environments than the short film did. It’s a much richer place. A lot will also depend on the schedule — do they want an 18, 24 or 36 month schedule and four months of pre-production? I’d prefer a longer schedule and fewer people. Personally I would like to have a minimum of six months pre-production and a 24-month production schedule. Pre-pro could overlap quite a bit because we could do R&D while we’re doing storyboards. We have a lot of experience at solving problems.

EW: How did Rockfish attract the attention of Vin Diesel?

TM: Through Cos Lazarous, who’s in the game division at Vin’s One Race Films production company. He was dealing with our managers, The Gotham Group, on another matter. Because he’s in the game world, Cos knew our work, and he saw Rockfish on our reel. He thought it was cool and showed it to Vin, who liked it too. So Cos came to Blur and saw the studio and asked if we had a feature idea for Rockfish.

After being in lawyer-land for a while, One Race optioned it. We finished a treatment and now we’re tidying it up into a document that can actually be pitched. We’re also doing development art based on that treatment. I’ve been talking to studio people for a year about doing a Rockfish feature, but now that Vin Diesel is attached and Blur got an Oscar nomination we’re more attractive!