David Brown, co-founder and ceo of Blue Sky Studios, passed away April 11, 2003 at the age of 64 in Westchester County, New York. Brown, joined MAGI SynthaVision to lead the newly opened New York sales and production facility. As the industry downsized in the late '80s he helped co-found Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Blue Sky Studios), in White Plains, New York in 1987. In the early years he concentrated on developing an animation language built around ray tracing mathematics. Blue Sky focused on photo realism and character animation. JOE'S APARTMENT, ALIEN RESURRECTION and BUNNY were produced under his guidance. Brown negotiated the sale of Blue Sky to Twentieth Century Fox in 1997 for the purpose of producing feature length CG films, which led to the production of the Oscar-nominated movie, ICE AGE. Known and admired as a behind-the-scenes guy, his colleagues say his efforts contributed greatly to the CG animation industry.

For more on the history and start of studioBlue Sky Studios check out Animation World Magazine's story "Ray Tracers: Blue Sky Studios."