Pixar

The History of Pixar.

The company we know today was formed after Steve Jobs bought the computer graphics division of George Lucas's company 'Lucas film' in 1986, founding Pixar.

Prior to this, George Lucas's original idea behind his Lucasfilm computer division and graphics department was to create state- of - the - art  computer technology for the film industry. The Vice President of  Lucasfilm computer graphics group, Ed Catmull  then became the chief technical officer at the newly formed Pixar where he was one of the key developers of the RenderMan rendering system used in films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

In 1983 while working at Lucasfilm, Ed Catmull met up with an old friend John Lasseter, whilst they were both visiting a computer graphics conference in Longbeach, California. After this chance meeting and before the day was out, John Lasseter had agreed to work with Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm in the computer graphics group, which resulted in their first computer animated short film 'The adventures of Andre & Wally B' which was completed in 1984.

In 1986 after Steve Jobs purchased Lucasfilm computer graphics group from George Lucas, the company then employed a total of 44 people including Ed Catmull as Chief  Technical Officer and John Lasseter as an Executive Producer, overseeing all of Pixars films and other projects.

Over the next three years Pixar went on to create short films, such as Red's Dream, Tin Toy and Knick Knack. Tin Toy went on to receive the first  Academy award for a computer generated movie.

The next big step Pixar happened in 1991, when Disney and Pixar announced an agreement to make at least one computer generated movie. In 1995 the first computer generated movie was released, this was 'Toy Story'. In 1998 'A bugs life' was then made. In the year 2006 Pixar was bought by the Walt Disney Company.

As previously mentioned Pixar have made numerous short films. The Pixar we know today are known for big production blockbuster animated movies of the family and children movie genre such as, Toy story, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters inc and many more. These movies tend to be very uplifting, often making the viewer look back on their own happiest childhood memories and fantasies, often with wonderful characters that children and adults alike can relate to. My own personal favorite is The Toy Story trilogy because, it reminds me of the bonds between me and my toys as a child, some which i still have and others which are sadly long gone. Of how Andy grew up, went to school, then on to college as i have done.

In 1996 at the 68th academy awards Toy Story was presented the Academy Special Achievement Award for the best animated feature film, as a result of Pixar's development and techniques, making it possible for the first feature length computer animated film. Since then academy award winners have included Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Rattouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Brave and most recently Frozen.  

In more recent times Pixar have branched into advertising, creating adverts such the new Sky Fibre Broadband television advert.

The style of Pixar animation tends to include very bold bright colours, everything we see on the screen is pleasing to the eye, from the characters, to the entire worlds created. This is done while trying to keep a real sense of reality and believability. The characters are often voiced by well known actors to emphasise this. The worlds created by Pixar such as landscapes, the oceans, lakes and rivers are all a result of Pixars advances in animation techniques. Pixars development of the rendering system Renderman has allowed animators to create realistic textures such as skin, hair and fur, light and shade, water with realistic reflection and movement, and given animators much more freedom than just a flat image. Renderman is now available buy as a tool for private animators for colleges/universities, advertising companies and also offered as lessons in rendering.