Changes: Pixar Animation Studios

Revision as of 15:12, 18 October 2015

Template:Realworld Pixar Animation Studios is a computer animation studio, which was founded by George Lucas in 1979 as the Graphics Group (short for The Computer Graphics Group of the Lucasfilm Computer Division as its full, somewhat unwieldy, denomination was), occasionally also referred to as the Computer Graphics Project or Lucasfilm Graphics Group. At the time of its founding it comprised one third of the entire Computer Division of Lucasfilm Ltd. In 1981, the Graphics Group created the "Project Genesis" demonstration sequence, invariably referred to as the "Genesis Demo" by the production staff (American Cinematographer, October 1982, pp. 1038), seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and re-used in the subsequent two Star Trek films. It has the distinction of being the very first fully textured CGI effect featured in the motion picture industry, seen by the general public.

Some of the founding core staff, like Ed Catmull, were handpicked by Lucas himself, and all of them had backgrounds in the computer sciences. Lucas, according to the company's homepage, had set up the organization in order to develop a digital (nonlinear) film editing system, a digital sound editing system, a digital film printer, and further exploration of computer graphics. It was especially the latter aspect that drew in the computer scientists, but as one of the founding staffers, Alvy Ray Smith, discovered, "We thought he had hired us to do computer graphics because that's what we were really good at, but it was actually to build three machines.(...) George didn't know what he had." It wasn't until producer Robert Sallin came inquiring what could be done with a scripted scene, they referred to as the "Genesis Demo", that Smith knew this was the opportunity, he and his team had been waiting for. Sallin, as it turned out, had a far more modest effect in mind, that involved an aquarium with a rock turning into something living. Smith continued, "I said, "You guys know what you can and can't do with computer graphics?" And they said, "No." I said, "Well, I do, so let me go home overnight and think about this, and I'll come back with a proposal for something we can actually execute." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 5, p. 50) What Smith, who had worked for a short spell at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he had worked (with, among others, Rick Sternbach) on the real world Voyager flyby movies for NASA, came up with, together with Loren Carpenter, was the flyby scene. It was was quickly approved, and the team could get started on the sequence that was eventually featured, setting the company on its way to the fame and glory it has since then acquired.

Becoming Pixar

The Graphics Group became an independent company in 1986 with its purchase by former Apple Computers executive Steve Jobs. On this occasion the company was restructured and rechristened as "Pixar Animation Studios". After aligning with Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar became a prolific producer of highly successful computer-animated feature films, with such films as the Toy Story series, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles (featuring music by Michael Giacchino), Ratatouille (also composed by Giacchino), and WALL-E amongst them. During its years working with Disney, Pixar also provided software support for the production of Star Trek: Insurrection. In 2006, Disney acquired full ownership over Pixar, but continues to treat it as a separate company.

The name "Pixar" was derived from the name given to a piece of equipment to speed up computing time, the Graphics Group was developing at the time of The Wrath of Khan. (American Cinematographer, October 1982, p. 1050) The name was a by Smith invented Spanish verb, supposedly meaning, "to make pictures". [1]

Genesis demonstration team

Part of the Graphics Group Genesis Demo team — Part of the Genesis Demo team; (L-R) Carpenter, Reeves, Catmull, Smith and Cook

The following staffers were responsible for the final visualization of the "Genesis Demo",

Loren Carpenter - fractal mountains, atmosphere and shock wave
Ed Catmull - concept, motion blurring and supervising
Pat Cole - projectile and retina sequences
Rob Cook - texture-mapped sphere
Tom Duff - cratered sphere
Chris Evans - pull-away planet surface painting (using one of the very first paint computer software programs, developed in-house at Industrial Light & Magic)
Dr. Robert Langridge (subcontractor from Computer Graphics Laboratory, University of California, San Francisco) - initial molecular sequence
Robert D. Poor
Thomas Porter - stars, compositing and paint
William Reeves - fires
Alvy Ray Smith - concept and direction
Jim Veilleux - concept, visual effects supervisor

External links

Pixar - official website
Pixar at Wikipedia
Template:IMDb-link
The Pixar Blog (unofficial news source)
PixarPlanet/Upcoming Pixar fan forums and news
The Genesis Demo - on-line version of the American Cinematographer article

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 '''Pixar Animation Studios''' is a computer animation studio, which was founded by {{w|George Lucas}} in 1979 as the '''Graphics Group''' (short for '''The Computer Graphics Group of the Lucasfilm Computer Division''' as its full, somewhat unwieldy, denomination was), occasionally also referred to as the '''Computer Graphics Project''' or '''Lucasfilm Graphics Group'''. At the time of its founding it comprised one third of the entire Computer Division of Lucasfilm Ltd. In 1981, the Graphics Group created the "[[Project Genesis]]" demonstration sequence, invariably referred to as the "Genesis Demo" by the production staff (''[[American Cinematographer]]'', October 1982, pp. 1038), seen in {{film|2}}, and re-used in the subsequent two ''Star Trek'' films. It has the distinction of being the very first fully textured [[CGI]] effect featured in the motion picture industry, seen by the general public.
-Some of the founding core staff, like [[Ed Catmull]], were handpicked by Lucas himself, and all of them had backgrounds in the computer sciences. Lucas, according to the company's homepage, had set up the organization in order to develop a digital (nonlinear) film editing system, a digital sound editing system, a digital film printer, and further exploration of computer graphics. It was especially the latter aspect that drew in the computer scientists, but as one of the founding staffers, [[Alvy Ray Smith]], recalled, "''We thought he had hired us to do computer graphics because that's what we were really good at, but it was actually to build three machines.(...) George didn't know what he had.''" It wasn't until producer [[Robert Sallin]] came inquiring what could be done with a scripted scene, they referred to as the "Genesis Demo". Sallin had a far more modest effect in mind, that involved an aquarium with a rock turning into something living. Smith knew this was the opportunity, he and his team had been waiting for, "''I said, "You guys know what you can and can't do with computer graphics?" And they said, "No." I said, "Well, I do, so let me go home overnight and think about this, and I'll come back with a proposal for something we can actually execute.''" ({{STTM|3|5}}, p. 50) What Smith, who had worked for a short spell at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he had worked on the real world Voyager flyby movies for NASA, came up with was the flyby scene. It was was quickly approved, and the team could get started on the sequence that was eventually featured, setting the company on its way to the fame and glory it has since then acquired.
+Some of the founding core staff, like [[Ed Catmull]], were handpicked by Lucas himself, and all of them had backgrounds in the computer sciences. Lucas, according to the company's homepage, had set up the organization in order to develop a digital (nonlinear) film editing system, a digital sound editing system, a digital film printer, and further exploration of computer graphics. It was especially the latter aspect that drew in the computer scientists, but as one of the founding staffers, [[Alvy Ray Smith]], discovered, "''We thought he had hired us to do computer graphics because that's what we were really good at, but it was actually to build three machines.(...) George didn't know what he had.''" It wasn't until producer [[Robert Sallin]] came inquiring what could be done with a scripted scene, they referred to as the "Genesis Demo", that Smith knew this was the opportunity, he and his team had been waiting for. Sallin, as it turned out, had a far more modest effect in mind, that involved an aquarium with a rock turning into something living. Smith continued, "''I said, "You guys know what you can and can't do with computer graphics?" And they said, "No." I said, "Well, I do, so let me go home overnight and think about this, and I'll come back with a proposal for something we can actually execute.''" ({{STTM|3|5}}, p. 50) What Smith, who had worked for a short spell at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he had worked (with, among others, [[Rick Sternbach]]) on the real world Voyager flyby movies for NASA, came up with, together with [[Loren Carpenter]], was the flyby scene. It was was quickly approved, and the team could get started on the sequence that was eventually featured, setting the company on its way to the fame and glory it has since then acquired.
+==Becoming Pixar==
-It became an independent company in 1986 with its purchase by former [[Macintosh|Apple Computers]] executive Steve Jobs. On this occasion the company was restructured and rechristened as "Pixar Animation Studios". After aligning with Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar became a prolific producer of highly successful computer-animated feature films, with such films as the ''{{w|Toy Story}}'' series, ''{{w|Monsters, Inc.}}'', ''{{w|The Incredibles}}'' (featuring music by [[Michael Giacchino]]), ''{{w|Ratatouille}}'' (also composed by Giacchino), and ''{{w|WALL-E}}'' amongst them. During its years working with Disney, Pixar also provided software support for the production of {{film|9}}. In 2006, Disney acquired Pixar but continues to treat it as a separate company.
+The Graphics Group became an independent company in 1986 with its purchase by former [[Macintosh|Apple Computers]] executive Steve Jobs. On this occasion the company was restructured and rechristened as "Pixar Animation Studios". After aligning with Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar became a prolific producer of highly successful computer-animated feature films, with such films as the {{wt|Toy Story}} series, {{wt|Monsters, Inc.}}, {{wt|The Incredibles}} (featuring music by [[Michael Giacchino]]), {{wt|Ratatouille}} (also composed by Giacchino), and {{wt|WALL-E}} amongst them. During its years working with Disney, Pixar also provided software support for the production of {{film|9}}. In 2006, Disney acquired full ownership over Pixar, but continues to treat it as a separate company.
 The name "Pixar" was derived from the name given to a piece of equipment to speed up computing time, the Graphics Group was developing at the time of ''The Wrath of Khan''. (''[[American Cinematographer]]'', October 1982, p. 1050) The name was a by Smith invented Spanish verb, supposedly meaning, "to make pictures". [http://alvyray.com/Bio/default.htm]
 ==Genesis demonstration team==
-[[File:Part of the Graphics Group Genesis Demo team.jpg|thumb|Part of the Genesis Demo team; (L-R) Carpenter, Reeves, Catmull, Smith and Cook)]]
+[[File:Part of the Graphics Group Genesis Demo team.jpg|thumb|Part of the Genesis Demo team; (L-R) Carpenter, Reeves, Catmull, Smith and Cook]]
 The following staffers were responsible for the final visualization of the "Genesis Demo",
 *[[Loren Carpenter]] - fractal mountains, atmosphere and shock wave
@@ Line 25: / Line 26: @@
 ==Further reading==
-*"Behind the Genesis Effect", David Hutchison, ''[[Starlog (magazine)|Starlog]]'' issue 64, November 1982, pp. 17-21
+*"The Genesis Demo", Alvy Ray Smith, ''[[American Cinematographer]]'', October 1982, pp. 1038-1039, 1048-1050
-*"The Genesis Demo", Alvy Ray Smith, ''[[American Cinematographer]]'', October 1982, pp. 1038-1039, 1048-1050
+*"Behind the Genesis Effect", David Hutchison, ''{{dis|Starlog|magazine}}'' issue 64, November 1982, pp. 17-21
-*"New Worlds Aborning", David Hutchinson and Jim Veilleux, ''[[Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects]]'', Vol. 4, 1984, pp. 62-71.
+*"New Worlds Aborning", David Hutchison and Jim Veilleux, ''[[Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects]]'', Vol. 4, 1984, pp. 62-71.
 *"Behind the Scenes: The Genesis Demo", {{STTM|3|5}}, September 2002, pp. 50-53