The story of Pixar

computer history
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Did you know that Pixar started as a computer maker? Yes the Pixar that made Toy Story, and that later “reverse acquired”1 Disney animation division.

IEEE Spectrum tell us The Story Behind Pixar’s RenderMan CGI Software:

No desktop computer at the time was fast enough to process the algorithms being developed. Carpenter and Cook realized they eventually would have to build their own computer.

[…]

“At first it was a hardware company,” Smith says. “We turned a prototype of the Pixar image computer into a product.

They needed to build tools to create computer graphics for film production. Starting as a division of Lucasfilm Industrial Light and Magic, they spun off to Pixar, and Steve Jobs decided to fund them. The rest we know it: Toy Story showed what the tool, the software RenderMan, could do. SGI workstation and later PC became ubiquitous graphics workstation, rendering2 the custom hardware unnecessary, while the software was still at the front and center.

The story of Pixar is a mix of cutting edge science, technology and artistic endeavour. Pixar became the most successful animation studio.

  1. Reverse acquired as Disney bought Pixar, and Pixar took over Disney animation studio. Not disimilar to NeXT reverse acquiring Apple. Steve Jobs seems to have been good at this. ↩︎

  2. Pun intended. ↩︎