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Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio based in Emeryville, California, United States, and is notable for its eight Academy Awards. It is best known for its CGI-animated feature films, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille, which are created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard Renderman image rendering API, used to generate high-quality images.

The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 from majority shareholder Steve Jobs—who had previously acquired it from Lucasfilm—through an all-stock transaction worth US$7.4 billion.

History

[edit] Early history

Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). At NYIT, the researchers worked on an experimental film called The Works. When the group moved to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called Motion Doctor, which allowed traditional cel animators to use computer animation with minimal training.

Eventually, the team began working on film sequences, produced by Lucasfilm, or worked collectively with Industrial Light and Magic on special effects. After years of research, and key milestones in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes, the group was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer (the company he founded with Steve Wozniak). He paid $5 million to George Lucas and put $5 million as capital into the company, and the Computer Division was renamed Pixar, a fake Spanish word that means “to make pictures”, “to make pixels”. to make A contributing factor to the sale was an increase in cash flow difficulties following Lucas’ 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden drop off in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi and the disastrous box office performance of Howard the Duck. The newly independent company was headed by Dr. Edwin Catmull, President and CEO, and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Executive Vice President and Director. Jobs served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar.

Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. One of the leading buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious Ink and Paint part of the 2D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well. In a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter—who had long been creating short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr., to show off the device’s capabilities—premiered his creations at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry’s largest convention, to great fanfare.

As poor sales of Pixar’s computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter’s animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and LifeSavers. During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. In 1991, after substantial layoffs in the company’s computer department, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story. Pixar was re-incorporated on December 9, 1995.

Disney

Pixar and Disney had disagreements after the production of Toy Story 2. Originally intended as a straight-to-video release (and thus not part of Pixar’s three picture deal), the film was eventually upgraded to a theatrical release during production. Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the three picture agreement, but Disney refused. Pixar’s first five feature films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion, equivalent to the highest per-film average gross in the industry. Though profitable for both, Pixar later complained that the arrangement was not equitable. Pixar was responsible for creation and production, while Disney handled marketing and distribution. Profits and production costs were split 50-50, but Disney exclusively owned all story and sequel rights and also collected a distribution fee. The lack of story and sequel rights were perhaps the most onerous to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.

The two companies attempted to reach a new agreement in early 2004. The new deal would be only for distribution, as Pixar intended to control production and own the resulting film properties themselves. The company also wanted to finance their films on their own and collect 100 percent of the profits, paying Disney only the 10 to 15 percent distribution fee. More importantly, as part of any distribution agreement with Disney, Pixar demanded control over films already in production under their old agreement, including The Incredibles and Cars. These conditions were unacceptable to Disney, but Pixar would not concede.

Disagreements between Steve Jobs and Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner made the negotiations more difficult than they otherwise might have been. They broke down completely in mid-2004, with Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney. However, Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors, since other partners saw Pixar’s terms as too demanding. After a lengthy hiatus, negotiations between the two companies resumed following the departure of Eisner from Disney in September of 2005. In preparation for potential fallout between Pixar and Disney, Jobs announced in late 2004 that Pixar would no longer release movies at the Disney-dictated November timeframe, but during the more lucrative early summer months. This would also allow Pixar to release DVDs for their major releases during the Christmas shopping season. An added benefit of delaying Cars was to extend the timeframe remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract to see how things would play out between the two companies.

Pending the Disney acquisition of Pixar, the two companies created a distribution deal for the intended 2007 release of Ratatouille, in case the acquisition fell through, to ensure that this one film would still be released through Disney’s distribution channels. (In contrast to the earlier Disney/Pixar deal Ratatouille was to remain a Pixar property and Disney would have received only a distribution fee.) The completion of Disney’s Pixar acquisition, however, nullified this distribution arrangement.

Acquired by Disney

Disney announced on January 24, 2006 that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Following Pixar shareholder approval, the acquisition was completed May 5, 2006. The transaction catapulted Steve Jobs, who was the majority shareholder of Pixar with 50.1%, to Disney’s largest individual shareholder with 7% and a new seat on its board of directors. Jobs’ new Disney holdings outpace holdings belonging to ex-CEO Michael Eisner, the previous top shareholder who still held 1.7%, and Disney Director Emeritus Roy E. Disney who held almost 1% of the corporation’s shares. Roy Disney’s criticisms of Eisner included the soured Pixar relationship and accelerated Eisner’s ouster.

As part of the deal, Lasseter, Pixar Executive Vice President and co-founder, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company’s theme parks. Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Disney Studios, reporting to Bob Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment. Steve Jobs position as Pixar’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was also removed, and instead he took a place on the Disney board of directors.

Lasseter and Catmull’s oversight of both the Disney and Pixar studios did not mean that the two studios were merging, however. In fact, additional conditions were laid out as part of the deal to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity, a concern that analysts had about the Disney deal. Some of those conditions were that Pixar HR policies would remain intact, including the lack of employment contracts. Also, the Pixar name was guaranteed to continue, and the studio would remain in its current Emeryville, California location with the “Pixar” sign. Finally, branding of films made post-merger would be “Disney•Pixar” (beginning with Cars).

Today, Edwin Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and John Lasseter serves as the studios’ Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to Robert Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority on all new films, also reports to Iger as well as consulting with Roy E. Disney.

Feature films

Traditions

While some of Pixar’s first animators were former cel animators, including John Lasseter, they also came from stop motion animation, computer animation, or had recently graduated from college. A large number of animators that make up the animation department at Pixar were hired around the time Pixar released A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2. At the time, while Toy Story was a successful film, Pixar had only made one feature film. The majority of the animation industry is located in Los Angeles, California, while Pixar is 300 miles (480 km) north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Also, traditional 2-D animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films. Not many Los Angeles-based animators were willing to move their families 300 miles (480 km) north, give up traditional animation, and try computer animation. Partly because of this, animators hired at Pixar around this time either came directly from college, or had worked outside of feature animation. For those who had traditional animation skills, the Pixar animation software (Marionette) is designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum of training before becoming productive. According to an interview with John Lasseter with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley, Pixar films follow the same theme of self improvement. With the help of friends or family, a character ventures out into the real world and learns to appreciate his friends and family. At the core, according to John Lasseter, “it’s gotta be about the growth of the main character, and how he changes.”

Pixar has created extra content for each of their films since A Bug’s Life that is not part of the main story. For their early theatrical releases, this content was in the form of “movie outtakes” and appeared as part of the movie’s credits. For each of their films since Monsters, Inc. (Finding Nemo excluded), this content was a short made exclusively for the DVD release of the film. Every Pixar film has included cameo appearances of characters or objects from Pixar’s other movies or short films, as well as characters voiced by John Ratzenberger. Ratzenberger has been called “Pixar’s good luck charm” since he has played a role in each Pixar feature.

Locations

Pizza Planet is a fictional pizza restaurant that appears in Toy Story. It is a large, sci-fi themed restaurant with arcade games. There is a reference to Pizza Planet in every Pixar film to date, either the restaurant itself or the Pizza Planet delivery truck which is stolen by the toys in Toy Story 2 and has a ride hitched on it by Buzz and Woody in Toy Story. It can also be seen in A Bug’s Life, in the scene where one insect tells another not to touch the motorhome light, and Monsters, Inc., when Randall is getting beat up with the shovel, it can be seen on the far left. The company runs a fleet of beat up Toyota Hilux pickup trucks, as seen in Toy Story 1 and 2 (though in Toy Story 2, the truck model is called a “Gyoza”). In Finding Nemo, while Gill is explaining his plan to escape from the office, a yellow Pizza Planet truck drives by.^[27] In the movie Cars, there is a Pizza Planet truck in the end at the stadium. Pizza Planet restaurants at Walt Disney World’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Paris are named after the site in the film and are designed to resemble it as much as possible.

Dinoco is a fictional oil company that first appeared in Toy Story as a small gas station and later had more prominent visibility in Cars. The company’s logo is a dinosaur (a reference to Sinclair Oil, which uses a very similar dinosaur logo). In Cars, the company’s signature color is a pale blue shade referred to as “Dinoco blue” that was originally created for Richard Petty’s racecar. Dinoco is a sponsor of the Piston cup, and is the main sponsor of The King, a veteran racer on the verge of retirement. The company’s lavish sponsorship is highly sought after by the main character Lightning McQueen and rival Chick Hicks. The Dinoco brand has also been featured in much Cars-related merchandise.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org