A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIXAR

1979

• Ed Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar, is hired by George Lucas to head the Lucasfilm Computer Division. The division begins work to deliver a digital video editing system, a digital audio system, and a digital film printer.

• The group that would eventually become Pixar collaborates at Lucasfilm to write REYES (Renders Everything You Ever Saw), an algorithm for rendering a scene. REYES eventually evolves into RenderMan, the dominant standard for digital work in Hollywood.

1984

• Disney-trained animator John Lasseter joins the Lucasfilm Computer Division. His first computer-animated work for Pixar, The Adventures of André & Wally B., premieres at SIGGRAPH.

• The Pixar Image Computer, designed to handle all techniques necessary to recreate analog photographic effects in digital form, is introduced. It is of great interest in the medical, graphic arts, and intelligence industries.

1986

• The computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. is purchased by Steve Jobs and established as an independent company, christened ‘Pixar’. Ed Catmull is named chief technical officer of Pixar. At this time Pixar has 40 employees.

• Pixar develops hardware and software for Disney called