Pixar Pixar Animation Studios is a computer animation studio , which was founded by 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 , 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 . " " ( ) 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 . A later addition to the Group , Jerry Jeffres , by then " one of our resident think - tank people " , according his ILM Animation Supervisor Charles Mullen , provided the follow - up movie with one small , nearly unnoticed CGI effect , that of the holographic World War I combat computer game seen being played by two 23rd century denizens in the San Francisco bar . Almost as a side project , Jeffres created the sequence on a small Hewart - Packard personal computer and developed a custom program for the wire - frame animation . ( " Cinefex " , issue 18 , p . 60 ) While Mullen has , neither Jeffres nor the Group has received credit for the contribution . Ultimately known as ILM Computer Graphics , the group provided subsequently the signature " slingshot / time travel " effects sequence in as well , and were credited as such – contrary to " The Wrath of Khan " where it were the individual staffers who received official credits , being lumped under mother company Industrial Light & Magic ( ILM ) . It was the group ' s last major project as part of ILM , the subsidiary of Lucasfilm , before becoming Pixar . ( " " , p . 113 ) The sequence , especially the what Supervisor George Joblove has coined the " dream sequence " , ( " Computer Aided Design T363 " ) was technically as groundbreaking as the " Genesis Demo " effect had been previously , but while much of the executive staff was still the same , neither they nor any of their team actually creating the effect recieved individual credits this time around . As Pixar , and years later during its years working with Disney , the company also provided software support for the production of in 1998 , for which it received an official credit . 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 " . ILM itself incidentally , proceeded to form a new in - house digital effects department from the remnants of the Computer Division , this time purely for the express purpose of producing these effects for their movie projects by utilizing digital techniques and technology developed by third parties , of which Pixar was now one , instead of trying to be an inventor of these technologies themselves – in essence reversing the original intent founder Lucas had for the group initially . After aligning with Walt Disney Pictures , Pixar became a prolific producer of highly successful computer - animated feature films , with such films as the series , , ( featuring music by Michael Giacchino ) , ( also composed by Giacchino ) , and amongst them and earning the company and its staffers a plethora of Academy Award s . Like its mother company , Pixar has in the process attained a solid reputation as one of the foremost , if not the foremost , animation studios in existence . In 2006 , Disney formalized the nearly two decades long close working relationship it had with Pixar , and acquired full ownership over Pixar – implicitly conceding that Pixar had by then completely eclipsed Disney , once a formidable animation studio itself – , 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 " . When Disney acquired Lucasfilm ( including subsidiary ILM ) from its founder in 2012 , " mother and child " were reunited under one roof for the first time since their separation back in 1986 . Genesis demonstration team . The following staffers were responsible for the final visualization of the " Genesis Demo " , Slingshot effect team . The following staffers were responsible for the final visualization of the " Slingshot effect , " † Some of these staffers were featured in the below - mentioned 1987 documentary .