Computer Animation/Computer Generated Imagery - Wikibooks, open books for an open world Computer Animation/Computer Generated Imagery Jump to: navigation , search Computer Generated Imagery[ edit ] Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the application of the field of computer graphics (or more specifically 3D computer graphics) to special effects. CGI is used in movies, television programs and commercials, and in printed media. Real-time computer graphics, such as those in video games, are rarely referred to as CGI. CGI is used because it is often cheaper than physical methods, such as constructing elaborate miniatures for effects shots or hiring a great deal of extras for crowd scenes, and because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other method. It can also allow a single artist to produce content without the use of actors or other contributors to the project. 2D CGI was first used in movies in 1973's Westworld, though the first use of 3D imagery was in its sequel, Futureworld (1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke.

The first two films to make heavy investments in CGI, Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984), were commercial failures, causing most directors to relegate CGI to images that were supposed to look like they were created by a computer. Photorealistic CGI did not win over the motion picture industry until 1989, when The Abyss won the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Industrial Light and Magic produced photorealistic CGI visual effects, including a seawater creature lovingly dubbed the water weenie, for the film. 2D CGI increasingly appeared in "traditional" animated films, where it supplemented the use of hand-illustrated cels. Its uses ranged from digital tweening motion between frames, to eye-catching quasi-3D effects such as the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. In 1995, the first fully computer-generated feature film, Pixar's Toy Story, was a resounding commercial success. Additional digital animation studios such as Blue Sky Studios (Fox) and Pacific Data Images (Dreamworks SKG) went into production, and existing animation companies such as Disney began to make a transition from traditional animation to CGI.

Between 1995 and 2005 the average effects budget for a wide-release feature film skyrocketed from $5 million to $40 million. According to one studio executive, as of 2005, more than half of feature films have significant effects. In the early 2000s, computer-generated imagery became the dominant form of special effects. The technology progressed to the point that it became possible to include virtual stunt doubles that were nearly indistinguishable from the actors they replaced. Computer-generated extras also became used extensively in crowd scenes. The timeline of CGI in movies shows a detailed list of pioneering uses of computer-generated imagery in film and television. CGI for films is usually rendered at about 1.4–6 megapixels. Toy Story, for example, was rendered at 1536 × 922. The time to render one frame is typically around 2–3 hours, with ten times that for the most complex scenes. This time hasn't changed much in the last decade, as image quality progressed at the same rate as improvements in hardware.

Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH, an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, attended each year by tens of thousands of computer professionals. Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game engines to render non-interactive movies. This art form is called machinima. Pixar Luxo Jr. is completed. The short film, John Lasseter’s directorial debut, is unveiled in August at SIGGRAPH and then screened for general audiences at Los Angeles-area theaters in November. Luxo Jr. will be the first three-dimensional computer animated film to be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar®. 1986 1987 Red’s Dream is completed. Its rain effect and complexity of lighting pose new technological challenges for the team and allow a study in creating mood and atmosphere. A portion of the film is rendered entirely on the Pixar Image Computer. Also directed by John Lasseter, the short film has its premiere in July at SIGGRAPH. 1987 1988 Tin Toy is completed.

A partially completed version is screened for SIGGRAPH audiences in August, and the film receives its official premiere later that year at the Ottawa International Film Fest. Tin Toy will be the first computer animated film to receive an Academy Award® when it is named Best Animated Short Film of 1988. Pixar’s new animation system, Menv (short for "modeling environment"), comes online. 2000 2001 Monsters, Inc. is released in theaters on November 2, accompanied by For the Birds. Monsters, Inc. reaches over $100 million in domestic box-office in just 9 days—faster than any animated film in history. It will receive two Academy Award® nominations, including Best Song; Randy Newman will take home the Oscar® for "If I Didn't Have You," from the Monsters, Inc. soundtrack. Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter and Ed Catmull receive an Academy Award of Merit® for Significant Advances in the Field of Motion Picture Rendering. Pixar now numbers over 600 employees. Co-founder Ed Catmull is named Pixar's President.

2001 2002 Mike's New Car, the first-ever Pixar short featuring characters from another Pixar film, premieres on September 17. It is featured as part of the Monster, Inc. DVD and VHS release. The short will receive an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Short Film. "a bug's land" attraction opens on October 7 at Disney California Adventure Park. 2002 2003 Finding Nemo is released in theaters on May 30, accompanied by a remastered version of Knick Knack. Finding Nemo breaks opening weekend box-office records domestically for an animated feature. Finding Nemo will be nominated for four Academy Awards® and win the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature. Boundin' premieres and will be nominated for the Academy Award® as Best Animated Short Film. Brave is released in theaters on June 22, accompanied bythe short La Luna. Brave is nominated and wins the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film . Partysaurus Rex, Time Travel Mater, and The Legend of Mor'du are all released.

2012 2013 Monsters University is released in theaters on June 21, accompanied by the short The Blue Umbrella. ABC Televised special Toy Story Of Terror and Tales From Radiator Springs (Hiccups, Spinning, Bugged), are all released. 2013 Toy Story That Time Forgot, Pixar's Holiday TV special, aired on December 2, 2014 on ABC. 2014 2015 After premiering at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in May, Inside Out was released in North America on June 19, 2015, accompanied by the short film LAVA. Inside Out went on to receive several awards, including an Academy Award®, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice Award, Annie Award, and Satellite Award for Best Animated Feature. 2015-1 2015 (cont.) The Good Dinosaur premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 17, 2015. It was accompanied by the short film Sanjay's Super Team.

2015-2 2016 Finding Dory premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8, 2016, and was released in the United States on June 17, 2016. Finding Dory is ranked as the highest-grossing animated debut of all time. It was accompanied by the Short Film Piper. 2016 Films That Revolutionized Computer Graphics Films That Revolutionized Computer Graphics Search the site Films That Revolutionized Computer Graphics Part 1 - Tron to Titanic by Justin Slick Updated October 20, 2016 These days, spectacular computer generated effects sequences are commonplace in everything from big-budget films to television, games, and even commercial advertising. But that wasn’t always the case—before 3D computer graphics became the norm, the world was a slightly duller place. Aliens were made of plastic instead of pixels. Superman needed wires in order to fly. Animations were created with pencils and paintbrushes. We liked the old way—there are some astonishing examples of “practical” visual effects in the history of film. Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner.

Heck, even Independence Day used physical models for a lot of shots. But we like the new way even more. Blockbusters look better than ever thanks to a talented army of 3D modelers, animators, render technicians, and warehouses full of the computers that do all the math. Here’s our list of ten films that revolutionized the way we think about visual effects in film. From Tron to , each and every one of these films took what we thought was possible and gave us something more. 1 Tron (1982) Walt Disney Productions / Buena Vista Distribution Tron wasn't an incredibly successful film, nor was it even a particularly great one. There are far better examples of science fiction to come out of the early 80s—heck, in 1982 alone Tron was competing with genre classics Blade Runner and E.T. But it is notable, and it has the grand distinction of being the first film to feature computer generated visual effects to any notable degree. Tron's centerpiece is an unbelievably unique depiction of the "grid," a computer-generated softwarescape representing the inner workings of an operating system.

The film hasn't aged particularly well, especially compared to the Los Angeles skyline created for Blade Runner (which looks masterful even to this day). But when you consider the fact that there's almost an entire decade between this film and the next one on the list, the dated visuals are easily forgiven. Any fan 3D computer graphics should see Tron at least once, if only for a glimpse at the industry's humble beginnings. Interestingly, Tron was disqualified from competition for 1982's Visual Effects Oscar because computer aided effects were considered cheating. Love it or hate it, you can't argue it wasn't innovative. Firsts: First notable use of computer graphics in a feature film. Paved the way for: The Last Starfighter (1984), Transformers: The Movie (1986), and of course (2010). 2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Copyright © 1991 TriStar Terminator 2 is one of the landmark films that helped open the floodgates, eventually allowing the 3d computer graphics industry to become what it is today.

Judgment Day featured the first computer-generated main character ever to appear in a film, the formidable T-1000. But James Cameron's team didn't stop there. Not only did the digital Terminator appear—it morphed, it regenerated body parts, and it even turned into a mercury-like liquid metal that seeped through little cracks and assured the film's protagonists that they weren't safe anywhere. Terminator was legendary. It's easily the first or second best film by one of Hollywood's greatest innovators, and what's even better is that unlike Tron, this movie still looks pretty darn good. In terms of modern visual effects, there's everything that happened before Terminator 2, and everything that happened after it. Firsts: First extensive use of computer graphics on a main character. Paved the way for: Pretty much everything that followed. 3 Jurassic Park (1993) Copyright © 1993 Universal Pictures Although Jurassic Park's visual effects were largely animatronic, for approximately 14 minutes audiences were treated to the first ever appearance by photorealistic, fully computer-generated creatures in a feature film—and what a 14 minutes they were!

Even eighteen years later I still get chills thinking about those two Velociraptors stalking the children through an abandoned kitchen—it was simultaneously terrifying and mesmerizing watching the two dinosaurs do things that one of Stan Winston's animatronics could never have accomplished. In the end, Winston's T-Rex made lunch out of the two Raptors, but the master of practical effects was so impressed by the computer graphics employed on Jurassic Park that he went on to co-found effects studio Digital Domain with James Cameron. Like Terminator 2, Jurassic Park was a turning point in computer graphics because it began to open directors' eyes to the possibilities of CG, causing many filmmakers to re-explore projects that had been previously believed impossible to film. Firsts: First fully animated photoreal creatures in a feature film. Paved the way for: Jumanji (1995), Dragonheart (1996), Babe (1995) which deserves an honorable mention in its own right. 4 Toy Story (1995) Copyright © 1995 Pixar Animation Studios This one might be the most impactful film on the entire list.

Think about the animation industry before and after Toy Story—is there any chance things would be the way they are today if this film hadn't existed? 3D computer animation certainly would have caught on eventually, but John Lasseter & Co. stormed onto the scene with one of the most beloved films of the last decade, wowing audiences and showing the world what was possible with the aid of computer animation. Toy Story's incredible success spurred an eventual frenzy of 3D animation that never really tapered off. The format remains as popular today as it was ten years ago, and doesn't appear to be losing steam. It would have been enough for Toy Story to have rested on it's technical laurels, but that's not the Pixar way. Starting a streak of critical and commercial successes, Toy Story cemented Pixar as one of the premier storytellers in the industry and was the first step in establishing the most spotless track records ever put forth by a modern studio. Firsts: First film to be fully animated with 3D computer graphics. Paved the way for: Antz (1998), A Bug's Life (1998) (2001), the entire Pixar/Dreamworks canon.

5 Titanic (1997) Copyright © 1997 Paramount Pictures I almost left Titanic off the list for fear of giving James Cameron too much time in the spotlight. I was thinking The Perfect Storm would have been an interesting pick because the photoreal fluid simulations it featured were pretty cutting-edge for the time. But then I remembered the last half hour of Titanic. The deck heaves, the ship bolts upright, tossing hundreds of computer generated passengers into the icy Atlantic. Hundreds more, most of them digitally rendered, cling to the railings as we're treated to an aerial view looking down the length of the ill-fated vessel as it sinks toward the sea. That scene wasn't just cutting edge—it was iconic. More people saw Titanic than any other film in history, and even though its box office record has been put to rest, Titanic's first-run ticket sales haven't even been approached. The Perfect Storm may have featured a more advanced ocean simulation, but there was CG water in Titanic too—three years earlier, mind you. Firsts: First film to feature a significant number of CG "extras"—many wide shots contained dozens or even hundreds of digital actors, breaking new ground in crowd simulation.

Paved the way for: The Perfect Storm (2000) Check out the final five after the jump: 10 Films that Revolutionized Computer Graphics - Part 2 Continue Reading How Pixar founders made the world's first 3D computer graphics | Daily Mail Online comments These days we take CGI for granted, with almost every modern movie and video game full of spectacular effects and animation. Now footage has been discovered that shows where it all began. Archive film showing possibly the first example of digital rendering, made by Pixar co-founders Ed Catmull and Fred Parke in 1972, was stumbled upon by the son of Robert B Ingebretsen, who also set up the world-famous U.S. studio. It has been at the very forefront of 3D animation technology, having produced spectacular films such as Toy Story, The Incredibles and Up, which portray animals and humans in amazing detail.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO You've got to hand it to them: The year may have been 1972, but this digital image by the Pixar founders still looked impressive Fingers of fun: The finished hand proved just how pioneering Ed Catmull and Fred Parke were Pixar’s first foray into computer graphics was, however, a simple hand. And the realism is incredible considering that it’s 40 years old. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Little did Catmull and Parke realise that their technology would become the foundation for all special effects in huge Hollywood movies and countless video games. Star Wars, Superman and Tron were among the first films to use the technique they invented, while the hand animation itself got a cameo role in 1976’s Futureworld, alongside a computer generated face. Secrets revealed: The film shows how the computer built the image using polygon points placed on Ed Catmull's left hand Ingebretsen’s son, Robby, found the movie in the form of an 8mm reel of tape while rummaging around in his family’s archives. He then digitised it and spliced it together into a short documentary.

First it shows the finished hand rotating in 3D space, then explains how they based the shape on a model of Catmull’s left hand. Buzz Lightyears ahead: Pixar's digital rendering techniques had much improved by 2000, when it released the critically acclaimed Toy Story This was marked with ‘polygon points ‘ for the computer to turn into a wire-frame image. The gaps were then shaded in. The finished sequence lasts just 20 seconds. Robby said: 'It's really neat. Even if it’s not the first digital 3D rendered movie - it may be - it’s definitely one of the oldest, the first you can attribute to the genealogy of Pixar and the oldest 3D graphics you’ll find on the internet.' It would take Pixar another 33 years before it made the world’s first animated movie – Toy Story, but along the way CGI effects improved in leaps and bounds, with Jurassic Park in 1993 being a memorable watershed in realism. Today animators and programmers produce photo-realistic images, but they’re given a helping hand by slightly more powerful computers than were available in 1972.

Even super-computers back then only had around 800MB of storage capacity, which even today’s mobile phones surpass. Timeline of Animated Film History Timeline of Animated Film History Timeline of Animated Film History The Evolution of Animated Film By David Nusair Updated July 04, 2016. Though one could be forgiven for assuming that the animation revolution began in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , the genre has actually existed almost as long as its live-action counterpart. This timeline charts animation's humble beginnings all the way through to its pervasive use within the realm of special effects: 1906 J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is released. It is a three-minute short in which Blackton creates animating drawings of faces and people against a plain blackboard. 1908 The first short comprised solely of animated images, Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie, receives its premiere in Paris. 1908 Humpty Dumpty Circus marks the first use of stop-motion animation on film.

1914 Earl Hurd invents the process of cel animation, which would revolutionize and dominate the industry for much of the 20th century. 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur is widely considered the first animated short to feature a distinguishable character, as cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay brings a walking, dancing dinosaur to life. continue reading below our video Great Singers Gone too Soon 1917 The first feature-length animated film, Quirino Cristiani's El apostol, is released. Unfortunately, he only known copy was destroyed in a fire. 1919 Felix the Cat makes his debut and becomes the first famous animated cartoon character. 1920 The first color cartoon, John Randolph Bray's The Debut of Thomas Cat, is released. 1922 Walt Disney animates his first animated short, Little Red Riding Hood. Though initially thought lost, a copy was found and restored in 1998. 1928 Mickey Mouse makes his debut. Though the first Mickey Mouse cartoon is technically the six-minute short Plane Crazy, the first Mickey Mouse short to be distributed is Steamboat Willie, which is also the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound.

1929 Disney's iconic line of animated shorts, Silly Symphonies, kicks off its prolific run with The Skeleton Dance. 1930 Betty Boop debuts as a woman/dog hybrid in the short Dizzy Dishes. 1930 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes makes its debut with Sinkin' in the Bathtub. 1931 Quirino Cristiani's Peludopolis, which tells the story of a military coup against a corrupt president, boasts the first instance of sound within a feature-length animated film. There are no surviving copies of the movie in existence. 1932 The first full-color, three-strip Technicolor animated short, Flowers and Trees, is released. The film wins Disney the first-everAcademy Award for Animated Short Film 1933 King Kong, which features several stop-motion animated characters, is released. 1933 After starring in an extremely successful comic strip, Popeye makes his cartoon debut alongside Betty Boop in the seven-minute short Popeye the Sailor. 1933 Ub Iwerks invents the multiplane camera, which allows animators to create a three-dimensional effect within two-dimensional cartoons.

1935 The Russian film The New Gulliver becomes the first full-length feature to employ stop-motion animation for the bulk of its running time. 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature and the first such production to emerge out of the United States, is released. It becomes a huge box office success and Disney was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for the achievement. 1938 Bugs Bunny makes his debut in Porky's Hare Hunt, though the character wasn't named until 1941. 1940 Tom the cat launches his unending pursuit of Jerry the mouse in the Oscar-nominated short Puss Gets the Boot. 1940 Woody Woodpecker arrives on the scene with a small role in the Andy Panda cartoon Knock, Knock. 1941 The first full-length animated musical, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, is released. 1946 Disney's first live-action film, Song of the South, is released and boasts several animated interludes. Because of its depiction of the African-American character Uncle Remus, the film has never been released on home media in the United States.

1949 Prolific stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen makes his debut with the creation of the title character in Mighty Joe Young. 1972 Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat is released as the first X-rated animated feature in cinematic history. 1973 Computer-generated images are used for the very first time in a brief shot within Westworld. 1975 Revolutionary special-effects company Industrial Light & Magic is founded by George Lucas. 1982 Tron marks the first time that computer-generated images are used extensively in a film. 1986 Pixar's first short, Luxo Jr., is released. It is the first computer-animated short to receive an Academy Award nomination. 1991 Beauty and the Beast becomes the first fully animated film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. 1993 Jurassic Park becomes the first live-action film to feature photorealistic computer-animated creatures. 1995 The first computer-animated film, Toy Story , is released to theaters. The achievement is honored with a Special Achievement Academy Award .

1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace marks the first film to use computer-generated imagery extensively and pervasively, in terms of its sets, special effects, and supporting characters. 2002 The Academy creates a Best Animated Feature category, with Shrek the first movie to win the Oscar. 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers features the first photorealistic motion captured character for a film, with Andy Serkis portraying Gollum. 2004 The Polar Express becomes the first fully-animated film to use motion capture technology to render all of its characters. 2005 Chicken Little becomes the first computer animated film to be released in 3D. 2009 James Cameron's groundbreaking Avatar is the first film to feature a fully CG 3D photorealistic world, Production begins on Toy Story - Jan 19, 1993 - HISTORY.com Production begins on Toy Story Share this: Production begins on Toy Story Author Production begins on Toy Story URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1993, production begins on Toy Story, the first full-length feature film created by the pioneering Pixar Animation Studios.

Originally a branch of the filmmaker George Lucas’s visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Pixar first put itself on the map with special effects produced for films such as Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), which featured the first fully three-dimensional digital or computer-generated image (CGI). In 1986, Pixar became an independent company after it was purchased by Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer. The fledgling company’s inaugural product was the Pixar Image Computer, which the former Disney animator John Lasseter soon used to produce an animated short film, Luxo Jr. The film won Best Animated Short at the 1986 Academy Awards, raising Pixar’s profile considerably. Lasseter won another Oscar in 1989 for Tin Toy, an animated short featuring a mechanical drummer named Tinny maneuvering around in a baby’s playroom. (Tinny later became the basis for Buzz Lightyear, the spaceman toy who was one of Toy Story’s main characters.) In 1991, based on the success of Pixar’s short films, the company signed a $26 million deal with the Walt Disney Company to develop, produce and distribute up to three animated feature films.

The Little Mermaid (1989) had become Disney’s most successful film to date, and the company was ready to take more chances on innovative animation techniques. Approached by Lasseter about a possible Christmas program, Disney’s chief of film production, Jeffrey Katzenberg, instead responded with the three-picture deal. Toy Story was the first Pixar-Disney collaboration, and the first feature-length animated film that was completely computer generated. Its plot revolved around the rivalry between the cowboy Woody, previously the favorite toy of a little boy named Andy, and Buzz Lightyear, a shiny new astronaut toy that Andy receives for a birthday present. Multiple Oscar-winner Tom Hanks lent his famous voice to Woody, while Tim Allen of TV’s Home Improvement was Buzz. Though Pixar’s long development process included drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs, the final work for the film was all done on computers. The sophisticated animation created a vivid three-dimensional world full of color and movement, where toys–including such childhood classics as toy soldiers, Mr. Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch–come to life.

Released in November 1995, Toy Story received universally positive reviews, and would eventually gross more than $192 million at the domestic box office and $358 million worldwide. Lasseter received a special Academy Award for leading the Pixar team, and the movie became the first animated feature ever to score an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Toy Story’s tremendous success, and that of later films such as Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, earned Pixar the reputation of Hollywood’s preeminent animation studio. In 2006, in an effort to continue (and strengthen) the bond between the two companies, Disney bought Pixar–for which Jobs had paid $10 million in 1986–for a staggering $7.4 billion. Related Videos Pixar - Cinemablography Pixar Pixar: Bringing the Pixel to Life By Derick Esch, Jake Dore, Ryan Fargo, and Sam Dougherty Pixar Animation Studios has a short history compared to most other Hollywood motion picture studios. Despite its short existence, Pixar has established itself as an industry leader in CGI and completely digital animated feature films.

We’ve decided to take a deeper look at the impact that Pixar has had on the industrial and economic history of animated film. The roots of Pixar Animation Studios can be traced back to Industrial Light and Magic, founded by George Lucas in 1975, which was responsible for creating the special effects needed for the Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) films. Pioneering the design and use of motion control cameras and optical compositing, the company worked closely with the Graphics Group, which was part of the computer division of Lucasfilm. Dr. Edwin Catmull worked for the Graphics Group as the Chief Technology Officer, and he is credited as the inventor of the alpha channel and particle effects, both of which revolutionized the computer animation technology at the time. Initially, the Graphics Group was mainly interested in producing animated backgrounds to be used in other films, but in 1984 the short film The Adventures of André and Wally B. (Alvy Ray Smith) was released as the company's first fully animated film. After being purchased by Steve Jobs for 5 million dollars in 1986, the Graphics Group was renamed Pixar Animation Studios and began to focus its efforts on perfecting the computer animation process.

The Adventures of André and Wally B. While Pixar initially struggled to stay financially successful, its best source of income was from a grouping of 79 television commercials produced for companies such as Tropicana, Listerine, and Lifesavers. These commercials were completely digital creations, and they served as practice for the animators while the company prepared to tackle their first full-length computer animated film. Also serving as practice were multiple shorts which Pixar created. In their future films, homages to these initial projects can be seen hidden within the picture or directly incorporated into the story (PixarTalk). Pixar Lifesavers Commercial Pixar Listerine Commercial In 1991, Disney approached Pixar with a contract worth 26 million dollars to produce 3 animated feature films. Despite the possibility of great financial success from this partnership, as late as 1994 Jobs considered selling the animation company to competitors such as Microsoft. Had this happened, Pixar and the films it produced most likely would have looked drastically different than they do today.

However, Jobs decided to stick with the company, and when Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) was released, the company suddenly flourished financially, and it officially went public on November 29, 1995. With Jobs' leadership and financial guidance, and John Lasseter's technically savvy and creative vision, Pixar developed their own in-house animation software, RenderMan and Marionette, and became the industry leader in CGI and animated feature films. In November of 1995, Pixar released Toy Story on a budget of 30 million dollars. Surprisingly, it nearly broke even in the first weekend by grossing over 29 million dollars. This movie was the first fully synthetic feature film to break down the barrier separating what is film with what is animation. It launched Pixar Animation Studios to an entirely new standard, grossing over 191 million in the United States alone. Its total worldwide gross was almost double that, at over 361 million dollars (The Numbers).

At first, Pixar’s next film, A Bug’s Life (John Lasseter, 1998), was nowhere near as successful for the opening weekend, only grossing 291 thousand dollars. However, the worldwide gross exceeded Toy Story’s by about one million. Pixar then created Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999), which somehow only earned 300 thousand dollars at the box office during its first weekend. Its budget was set at 90 million dollars, which was three times as much money spent on Toy Story and twice as much as A Bug’s Life. The U.S. gross was more than 245 million dollars while the worldwide gross landed at over 484 million dollars. From then on, Pixar would not spend less than 70 million on their budget for a feature length film. Why were these films so successful? At the time, Pixar was the only major studio besides Disney that had been successfully producing animated feature films, and therefore, dominated the market. Pixar had developed a formula for animation and storytelling that drew in their audiences. Their marketing strategies, combined with large budgets, produced success for each one of these films.

Currently, Pixar’s average budget on a film is around 120 million dollars. However, their recent films, including Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) and Cars 2 (John Lasseter, 2011) had budgets of 200 million dollars. Their average U.S. gross is over 235 million dollars, roughly half of the average worldwide gross of over 556 million. The largest grossing film from Pixar is Toy Story 3, with close to 415 million dollars in U.S. gross and over 1 billion dollars in worldwide gross. Worldwide, Pixar’s total gross since 1995 is over 7 billon dollars, though their total budget reaches less than 1.5 billion dollars. In an unprecedented accomplishment, every feature film that Pixar has produced has made money rather than lost money. “Since Snow White (William Cottrell, 1937) was released, every major studio has tried to break into the animation business, and until now Disney was the only studio that had ever made a feature animated film that was a blockbuster.

Pixar has now become the second studio to do that” (Rethink Reviews). Toy Story was the first computer generated, full-length, feature film. The creative force of John Lasseter working with the financial genius, Steve Jobs, made a type of film that stood out over the Disney films of that time. Disney had been producing movies such as Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, 1995) and A Goofy Movie (Kevin Lima, 1995), as well as The Lion King (Roger Allers, 1994) (Disney Movies Guide). John Lasseter stated that Pixar is focused on the story and the characters like any other film, yet isn’t the same as any other animation studio. The difference between Toy Story and other animations from Disney at the time is the introduction of technology. The animators have artistic backgrounds, but are replacing art supplies with technology. The futuristic transition allows the animators to work quickly and efficiently, creating these imitation, “plastic-like” animations while we lose more human elements of hand drawn art. The addition of the Pixar computer allows the artist to enter a digital realm, allowing them to create three-dimensional drawings.

It saves time, requires fewer artists, and is edited while it is still in the middle of production. The financial success of Toy Story by following Pixar’s own method of production has become a formula that has produced 11 successful films and hopefully many more in the future. Pixar did a remarkable job in terms of advancing the technology used in the production of animated films and shorts. The release of Toy Story in 1995 marked a critical moment in the history of film. It was the first film to be made without the use of any traditional opto-chemical photographic process. Instead, the entire film was produced digitally. The film also switches over from the conventional practice of the acting body and drawing hand to the use of generated pixel and computing processor. Pixar is without a doubt a very successful company, and it has a history of accomplishments to prove it. The company has received numerous awards for both feature length films as well as shorts since their beginning in 1979. This success carried on throughout the decades, especially after their merger with Disney.

Since the merger, several of their feature length films received more than fifty nominations for a variety of awards, including Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007), WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), and Up (Pete Docter, 2009). Since 2006, all of their movies have won at least one Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe. The box office totals of Pixar's five most recent feature length films top totals of 500 million dollars each, with Toy Story 3 amassing a huge 1 billion dollars in worldwide gross. The quality of Pixar's work brought success to more than the company itself, as it impacted current presentation and format in modern cinema. There are now other animation studios competing with Pixar, and a wide acceptance of animation in modern films. Pixar has brought change to what audiences enjoy, and the film industry has adapted to the times. Most apparent in its influences from Pixar is DreamWorks Animation. Their string of animated movies like the Shrek (Andrew Adamson, 2001) series, Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne, 2008), and others has proved majorly successful for Paramount and DreamWorks.

This has created a bit of a rivalry with Pixar, and continued to push animation into the mainstream. Where there used to be cartoons and many classic animated films from Disney, we now see CGI as the dominant form of animation. What's striking is that these developments go far past animated movies, and affect the majority of movies today. We now see movies like Star Wars featuring fully animated creatures interacting with people, and countless movies with CGI for the subtlest of purposes. Pixar seems to have pushed the industry in this direction of technology exploration and even beyond that. Its influence is massive. While it is interesting how the precedents set by Pixar helped to establish technology driven films like Avatar (James Cameron, 2009), the highest grossing film of all time, there is something bad about the overuse of this technology in film. Incredible CGI works great for CGI movies, but when it is utilized in blockbuster after blockbuster, the viewer loses the immersion of everything being seen through the camera. Whether Hollywood is really abusing this latest trend is hard to say, but there’s no doubt that Pixar helped set up this CGI infatuation in film. As Wired Magazine notes, “Each Pixar film has pushed the threshold of photorealism...” (Austin P.

3), and while the technology clearly works in favor of Pixar and many other films, it may not be the best direction for the rest of the industry. As films and technology continue to change, older films that used CGI become less and less convincing (The Mummy, Star Wars Episode 1, etc.). Older movies with well-made props and effects can be more convincing than many animated works, which suggests that the industry may want to consider taking animation with a grain of salt and using it for the projects that truly benefit from it. Pixar's 26 Academy Awards and continually profitable films speak for the success that they have discovered through innovation. This has changed presentation throughout the film industry, which continues to benefit from the new heights reached by the studio. It will be interesting to see where Hollywood uses technology in the future and what will become profitable and convincing in the use of computer-generated effects. Works Cited

Question: What was the first fully computer generated film?
Answer: Toy Story