Up, Up, and Away

Pixar Animation Studio has been around for twenty-seven years now, and in that time, they have accomplished more notable milestones in the world of computer animation than any other company out there. Pixar has produced fourteen top-ranked feature films, and they have received forty Oscar nominations. A legendary company was born with the entrance of Steve Jobs in 1986, and “Luxo Jr.,” the lamp, would blaze the trails as the company’s mascot for many years to come.

Pixar was originally launched as The Graphics Group, a division of LucasFilm in 1979. Ed Catmull, one of the original pioneers of the company, was recruited from the New York Institute of Technology, where he overlooked the Computer Graphics Lab. Seven years later, after Steve Jobs purchased the company for five million dollars, the newly independent company, Pixar, was headed by Ed Catmull.

John Lasseter, a Pixar employee who worked mainly on digital animation short films, created Luxo Jr., which was then debuted at SIGGRAPH, which is the computer graphics industry’s largest convention. Pixar, totaling 100 employees, was experiencing hardship trying to sell their computers, so Steve Jobs invested more into the company, eventually totaling fifty million dollars. It was then, that John Lasseter and his animation department started producing computer-animated commercials for other companies, such as Tropicana, Listerine, and Life Savers.

 

Pixar was struggling to survive, and the only things that they had to their name, were a few projects for Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street, which is a far cry from what the company is today. Throughout these hardships, Pixar and Disney maintained a strong relationship, and they agreed to collaborate on three feature animation films, Toy Story being the first project. This deal was worth twenty-six million dollars. Despite the recent aid from Disney, Pixar continued to lose money, leaving Steve Jobs with the thought of selling the company. This idea washed away, when he learned that Toy Story was probably going to be a success, and that Disney was planning to release the film during Christmas time, in December of 1995.

Toy Story launched the success of Pixar, making more than three hundred and sixty-one million dollars worldwide. In fact, Toy Story was the first feature film to be produced that was made solely using computer animation, and even went on to be the first animated feature film to win an Oscar. Pixar was then worth enough money to develop a new studio in Emeryville, California, which opened in November of 2000.

Toy Story had brought such great success, that obviously there had to be a sequel. After Toy Story 2 was produced, there were disagreements between Disney and Pixar about the film’s future. Disney was considering the film part of the “three-film-deal,” but Pixar was not happy with this, and they refused. According to an online source, it was argued that “Pixar was responsible for creation and productions, which Disney handled marketing and distribution. Profits and production costs were split fifty-fifty, but Disney exclusively owned all story and sequel rights and also collected a distribution fee.” Pixar wanted full rights to the film, so they attempted to come to an agreement in 2004, but Pixar also wanted control over films that were already in production, which included The Incredibles, and Cars.

Steve Jobs and Disney Chairman were not seeing eye-to-eye, which led Jobs to threaten to actively seek other partners, outside of the Disney franchise. After years of disagreement, Disney had finally agreed to buy Pixar for over seven billion dollars, and the deal was completed in May of 2006. Steve Jobs still remained the majority shareholder of the company, and he was Disney’s largest individual shareholder. After the deal, additional conditions were established to make sure that Pixar remained a separate studio from Disney.

Pixar has come a long way from where it started, and without the passion of its employees and Steve Jobs, we may not be able to experience all that Pixar has to offer today. Pixar has the ability to tell a unique story, that captures both children and adults alike, and there is nothing else like Pixar, and its imaginary world of animation.

Check out a brief video of Pixar’s history here.

Steve Jobs Saves the Day

In the history of animation, there has never been a studio with an unbroken streak of hit movies like Pixar. From the movie that launched the infamous company, Toy Story, to the company’s latest milestone, Monsters University, Pixar has changed the face of animation. However, Pixar hasn’t become successful all on its own; Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, was a key player in the studio’s success.

Before Pixar got its name, it was a division of George Lucas’ LucasFilm. The company worked mainly with the development of imaging technology, but this was short-lived because LucasFilm lost interest in the form of animation. The company was on the verge of being sold, when Steve Jobs stepped in with a check for five million dollars. He purchased the company on January thirtieth, nineteen eighty-six. This had made him Disney’s largest shareholder and with that, one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.

(Pictured above from left to right: Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter)

Steve Jobs bought the company, because he says that he “was enthralled by the outfit’s computer technology.” John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were also brought on-board with Jobs. Lasseter was let go at Disney, because the company was not fond of the idea of computer animation at the time, and he has said from the beginning, that he “wanted to build an animation studio, and it’s a great tribute to [Jobs’] genius that he was flexible enough to put aside his original idea of being a computer company owner with Pixar [and to] turn it into the incredible artistic powerhouse it is.”

Lasseter and Catmull led the creative team at Pixar, while Jobs’ attention was given to the strategic direction of the company. His colleagues say, “He had the crucial insight that Pixar could one day be the equal of the Walt Disney Company in animation. He made this vision a reality by overseeing the IPO of Pixar stock in 1995; a week after Toy Story was released. He foresaw that if they had that capital, it would give them the independence to create a body of work and to become a brand that would become as powerful in entertainment as Disney.”

Steve Jobs obviously had serious influence over the company, and Pixar has gone on to create fourteen feature films that have generated $7.2 billion worldwide. He sold the studio to Disney in 2006, who ironically was so against computer animation in the first place.

Pixar’s ability to succeed again and again, is most attributed to the influence Steve Jobs had over the company. He was their saving grace, and without him, computer animation may not be what it is today.

Upon learning of Steve Jobs’ passing in October of 2011, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter praised him by saying, “Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend, and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer-animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply ‘make it great.’ He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity, and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA.”

ABC News did a spotlight on Steve Jobs: The Pixar Years, immediately following his death in 2011. Check out the video here.

Six Limbs and Four Eyes

The amount of time and creative power that goes into creating an animated film is astounding. The film takes an army of artists, but in addition to the creative process, technicians are often used in the process so that the animation feels real. Technicians are used to offer advice on everything in the film, from the surrounding environment, to the movement of the character’s features.

In the newly released Pixar film, Monsters University, technicians were used to solve problems such as how to properly light a scene, and how to make Sulley’s, one of the main characters, fur to come alive with the movements he makes. The movie took more than 4 years to make, and more than one hundred technology engineers were involved in the making of Monsters University.

The artistic detail that went into the movie was so sophisticated, that the movie took more than 29 hours to render, and the company had to double the size of its render farm, which is the room full of servers, that creates the viewing format for the movie. Part of the reason the movie took so long to render, was that there were more than twenty-five detailed characters in each shot, and on average, these characters had 6.2 limbs and 3.7 eyes. Every limb and eye is given its own movement as well, so given everything in the frame that is moving at a single time, the rendering time takes longer.

Simulation supervisor for the film, Christine Waggoner says, “Everything, from the movement of cloth and vegetation, is designed to look natural. Characters such as Sully, the big blue monster, have 5.4 million hairs in their fur, or five times as much as the original film. A dozen years ago, with the first Monsters Inc. film, the scenes were far less complex. This time, all of the programs for creating hair, fur, and other details had to be totally rewritten. A typical scene has anywhere from 300 to 500 lights.”

The technical aspects of the animation process are complex and time consuming, but in the end, that makes all the difference in the realm of animated feature films.

Saschka Unseld, director for the Pixar short The Blue Umbrella on Monsters University; Jean Claude Kalache, director of photography; and Christine Waggoner, simulation supervisor; give insight into some of the processes used in the making of Monsters University, as well as its digital short The Blue Umbrella in this video from The Atlantic.

Graffiti Or Art?

As I was lost in the world of BuzzFeed, I came across a page of animated GIFs of Banksy’s graffiti, as if it had come alive. Maybe this is the design student in me talking, but they are really interesting. The GIFs give new meaning to graffiti, in this case because it’s not just another spray-painted wall.

Banksy is a New York-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter with a little known identity. His street art is often combined, using dark humor and a graffiti stenciling technique, that is distinctive enough that it is easily distinguishable from other street artists. Because his style of stenciling is so easily recognizable, people have come to admire his work for the past decade or so. According to an online source, “Banksy’s work was made up of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.”

Banksy’s main form of art is graffiti, aka vandalism, but even in light of this, his work is still publicly created and displayed on walls, bridges, alleyways, etc. He even goes as far as creating prop pieces for them. Banksy does occasionally sell his work on the streets of New York, but he never does it himself, as to hide his identity.

This past October, a booth was set up on Fifth Avenue, NY, and tourists were able to buy spray-art canvases for just a measly sixty dollars each (which is a steal because the booth of 25 prints was worth an estimated thirty-one thousand dollars). However, because Banksy does not show himself, an elderly gentleman manned the booth all day. It took almost five hours to make a sale, perhaps because people did not realize they were Banksy pieces. The next day, he posted a video on his website that stated, “Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100% authentic original signed Banksy canvases. For $60 each.”

Imagine the looks on people’s faces when they realized just how much the canvases were actually worth. I bet the people who invested in one or two were more than excited.

Even though Banksy’s identity remains a secret, he has certainly contributed to the art world, and has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile pieces of art.

Banksy has stated that “We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling.” 

In the picture above, Police confiscated Banksy’s balloons. 

Am I Dreaming?

Aside from being notoriously famous for their animation design, Pixar has one of the coolest work environments ever; and I’m talking right up there with Google.

In a creative environment, it is important to have some sort of outlet for designers, producers, directors, animators, etc., to walk away from staring at the computer all day. Some of the best inspiration comes to you, when you actually stop thinking about your work. For example, according to an article from The New York Times, “The idea for Post-it Notes came about when Arthur Fry, an engineer at 3M, was daydreaming in church, thinking how annoying it was that the bookmarks he’d placed in his hymnal so frequently fell out.” 

It is important to “do your homework,” but it is equally as important to step away from it. According to an online journal, “The human mind is the ultimate creativity machine. Fuel it with the right stimuli, position it in the right environment, and leave it alone for some time to function as it has been designed. When this perfect brew occurs, the output is often stunning, jaw-dropping, and unbelievable.”

As I found myself lost in YouTube videos of various tours of Pixar studios (because I refuse to grow up), I couldn’t help but think to myself about how awesome it would be, to even step foot in those doors. Everything surrounding it is so explorative and imaginary, that it feels like you are living in the world of the Pixar characters. There are even huge metallic Pixar characters along the floors of the hallways. This magical children’s emporium, and I am referring to adult children too, is a place where I would imagine pixie dust falling through the roof, glistening in streamers of light. Surrounded by such a uniquely awesome environment, how can you not feel like a kid? It would be a dream come true to feel like you never have to grow up.

I have a touch of what my Mom would call “Peter-Pan Syndrome,” aka refusing to grow up. It must run in the family because she has it too…

One of the lucky ones, aka a journalist, who actually got to tour the facility, Chris Bell, says “In a blaze of primary colours, goggle-eyed slapstick and aching pathos, they’ve managed to corner the market in state-of-the-art children’s entertainment that just happens to hit the adult sweet spot too. And created a true worldwide destination employer – one which thousands of skilled animators, lighting experts and programmers across the world apply for a job every year.”

Who wouldn’t want to work here? You can see the models for the Pixar’s Philippine campus here.

You Have to Start Somewhere

How many times have you sat down to start a project, and just dozed in and out of focus because you didn’t know how, or where to begin? Sometimes it is easier to get inspiration from other things on the internet, or to brainstorm a list of words that are associated with what you are trying to do. I know I’ve done it. Brainstorming or sketching is generally the beginning stages to any creative (or not-so-creative for that matter) process. However, in terms of animation, the goal is to tell a story.

The creative geniuses behind Pixar say, “Our films require us to design worlds, and characters to fill them, and stories to take place in those worlds. We are world builders, who must first imagine everything in the world, and how it differs from the world we all know and why it differs and how much. We are character creators and must imagine characters that live beyond the frame and framework of the film, dimensional characters with desires and wishes and will. We are storytellers who must find an engaging way to bring the story’s problem to life on the screen, presented as action, not description.”

The amount of information, thought, teamwork, dedication, etc. that goes into some of these animated films is astonishing. Not only are you designing your own little world, but it can be any world you want. Maybe that’s why Pixar is so successful in what they do, because no two worlds are alike.

John Lasseter, the Co-Founder of Pixar says, “From the beginning, I kept saying it’s not the technology that’s going to entertain audiences, it’s the story. When you go and see a really great live-action film, you don’t walk out and say ‘that new Panavision camera was staggering, it made the film so good’. The computer is a tool, and it’s in the service of the story.”

I was feeling a little experimental so I created a GIF of Mike, from Monsters, Inc.