PixarAnimation Studios

Bryn Hughes

Brief History

It was founded in 1979 as Graphics Group but on February 3rd, 1986 changed the companies name to Pixar. The founders of the company where Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith and Steve Jobs (incorporation as Pixar). Their headquarters are based in Emeryville, California, United States. The industry is CGI animation and motion pictures software.

Key Films / Creations - UP• UP was released on the 29th May 2009. It was directed by Pete Docter,

produced by Jonas Rivera, edited by Kevin Nolting and starred Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai and Bob Peterson. by tying thousands of balloons to his home, 78-year-old Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years younger, inadvertently becomes a stowaway. Animating the balloons, May said that the animation department at Pixar never even considered hand-animating the balloons. But even standard computer animation wouldn't be up to the task, because of the N-squared complexity involved in the thousands of interdependent balloons. Instead, the studio's computer whizzes figured out a way to turn the problem over to a programmed physical simulator, which, employing Newtonian physics, was able to address the animation problem.

Key Films / Creations – WALL-EWALL-E was released on 23rd June 2008, it was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, edited by Stephen Schaffer and starred Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver and MacIn Talk. Disney and Pixar join forces for this computer-animated tale about a wide-eyed robot who travels to the deepest reaches of outer space in search of a newfound friend. The year is 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. For hundreds of years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been taking out the trash, and collecting precious knick-knacks in order to stave off the boredom of his dreary routine. Little does WALL-E realize that he has recently stumbled onto a secret that could save planet Earth, and once again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind. “Life is nothing but imperfection and the computer likes perfection, so we spent probably 90% of our time putting in all of the imperfections, whether it's in the design of something or just the unconscious stuff. How the camera lens works in [a real] housing is never perfect, and we tried to put those imperfections [into the virtual camera] so that everything looks like you're in familiar [live-action] territory”.

Key Films / Creations – A Bug’s Life

• A Bug’s Life was released on 25th November 1998, it was directed by John Lasseter, produced by Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher, edited by Lee Unkrich and starred Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hayden Panettiere. A misfit ant, looking for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe.

Key Films / Creations – Toy Story• Toy Story was released on 22nd November 1995, directed by John Lasseter, produced by Ralph

Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold, edited by Robert Gordon and Lee Unkrich, starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and Erik von Detten. Toy Story was the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer. If this seems to be a sterile, mechanical means of moviemaking, be assured that the film is as chock-full of heart and warmth as any Disney cartoon feature. The star of the proceedings is Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy belonging to a wide-eyed youngster named Andy. Whenever Andy's out of the room, Woody revels in his status as the boy's number one toy. His supremacy is challenged by a high-tech, space-ranger action figure. From the first frame of the original Toy Story, 15 years ago, the marriage of eerily realistic computer animation and old-fashioned, emotionally plausible storytelling was a bountiful one. Add to that the studio's sparkling wit, manifested in gags or allusions often accessible only to older viewers, as well as a wealth of incidental detail that positively demands repeated study, and it's no wonder that Pixar's movies can withstand tens, even hundreds, of viewings by any age group. Take it from me: my family's copies of titles by rival outfits such as DreamWorks Animation (Shrek, Madagascar) or Blue Sky Studios (the Ice Age trilogy) have mysteriously vanished to the back of the DVD collection, while The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Up remain on constant rotation.

Key CharactersJohn Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, film

director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation

Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney

Imagineering. Lasseter's first job was with The Walt Disney Company, where he

became an animator. Next, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-

groundbreaking use of CGI animation. After the Graphics Group of the Computer

Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986, Lasseter

oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer and he

directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Cars 2.He has won two

Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy), as well as a Special

Achievement Award (for Toy Story).

Links / sources• http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E• http://movies.amctv.com/movie/379342/WALL-E/overview• http://kottke.org/08/07/walle-animation-techniques• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bug%27s_Life• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story• http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/toy-story/• http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/30/toy-story-3-pi

xar-animation• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lasseter