The last 20 years artists and scientists have worked on transforming the 2D world in to 3D.
- Ed Catmull – Creative scientist
- Steve Jobs – Visionary entrepreneur ‘The three wise men behind Pixar.’
- John Lasseter – Artist/Director
- Brad bird – Director who studied with Lasseter at Cal Arts. At Cal Arts they were taught by Disney’s animators ‘the nine old men.’
After graduating Cal Arts and, creating two award-winning short films while studying there; Lasseter got a job at Disney Burbank, California in 1979.
- The brave little toaster was his first production using computer graphics.
- Disney thought the idea was too ambition and laid him off.
There was a general hysteria and fear in the public that computers would replace peoples job. This was especially prevalent in traditional 2D animators.
Futureworld, 1976 used CG for the first time; created by Catmull while at the University of Utah.
- Alexander Schure invited Catmull to spearhead the new CG department at New York tech.
- George Lucas brough Catmull aboard after the success of Star Wars.
As Catmull’s vision got broader, Lucas was not able to fund his dreams. The Pixar department within Industrial light and magic was getting to big to keep funding.
- Steve Jobs invested $10 Million in to Catmull’s dreams and bought the Pixar division from Lucas.
- The first animation as an independent animation firm was the famous Pixar lamp ‘Luxo’.
- Tin toy 1989 was the first Oscar for computer animation.
- The software created by Pixar ‘RenderMan’ helped add the CG in Jurassic Park.
- Pixar wasn’t making profits and Jobs was losing money.
Disney and Pixar put aside their past and collaborated to create the first feature film ‘Toy Story’.
- After a few hiccups, the first scene animated was the green army man scene.
- Woody was voiced by Tom Hanks
- Buzz was voiced by Tim Allen
- Lasseter won another Oscar for Toy Story in 1995, creating a new award category for an animated feature film.
Bugs life was Pixar’s second film production.
- In 1998 it was the highest-grossing film.
- With this film they proved to themselves they weren’t a one hit wonder and broke through the ‘second film syndrome’.
Monsters inc broke more records, setting higher standards for the company.
Finding Nemo went on to break more records and furthered what was possible to animate using computers.
Incredibles produced by Brad Bird Catmull’s friend from Cal Arts was another big success.
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