Pixar Presentation

Rosana Arraes Gianoni

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"Arts challenges technology, technology inspires the art"

John Lasseter

Campinas

2014

"Life is motion. They go together. It's not a surprise that early human beings almost always tried to capture a sense of motion in their art. Motion picture animation is the modern expression of this quest for life in art." Don Hahn

From toys, bugs, monsters, fish and superheroes to cars, rats and robots, Pixar's talented creative and technical teams have given audiences of all ages some of the most beloved characters in film. Pairing these unique, relatable characters with compelling stories and immersive, believable worlds, Pixar continually delivers on its promise to truly entertain audiences all over the world.

In the Beginning

        

        Pixar began in 1979 as a company called Graphics Group. Graphics Group was owned by George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, and was used to create special effects for movies. It was later that year that Lucas met an enthusiastic computer scientist, named Ed Catmull. Both Lucas and Catmull believed that computers were the future of movie-making, especially in animated movies and special effects. In 1986, Lucas sold the company to Steve Jobs and it was when the company adopted its name, Pixar.

        In order to make inspiring films, Pixar employees need an inspiring place to work. Forget boring office spaces, Pixar employees are free to decorate their offices however they wish!

         In 2006, Disney acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion, marking a new and exciting era in computer generated animation.

        Pixar has produced fourteen feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), and its most recent being Monsters University (2013). All of the films have received both critical and financial success, with the notable exception being Cars 2, which, while commercially successful, received substantially less praise than Pixar's other productions. All fourteen films have debuted with Cinema Score ratings of at least "A-", indicating a very positive reception with audiences. The studio has also produced several short films. As of December 2013, its feature films have made over $8.5 billion worldwide, with an average worldwide gross of $607 million per film. Both Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and all of Pixar's films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films, with Toy Story 3 being the 2nd all-time highest, just behind Disney's Frozen, grossing over $1 billion worldwide.

Making Movies

        There is a little bit of magic in each and every Pixar film, from the carefully observed characters and touching stories to the realistic settings and painstaking animation. And it takes a dedicated and talented team of writers, artists, animators and technicians to put together each film. Pixar embraces the fantastical - where monsters have jobs and toys have lovable hearts - and makes it entirely believable. Although computers play a huge part in the movie-making process, the computer is just a tool and the real magic comes from the people who work at Pixar and the talent and dedication they bring to the films.

        The creativity is the key to making a great animation movie. Animators are not only hired for their artistic talents, they must also have great acting abilities. Pixar believes that if you can act out a character's emotion it will come across in the animation.

        Like most animation studios, Pixar started out by making short movies. The form allowed the company to develop both talent and technology. At Pixar, an animator didn't just draw a story, he create softwares to tell it better. The shorts allowed the team to create their own computer system, the RenderMan. Nowadays, Pixar uses animated shorts to trial different computer techniques before using them on feature-length films.

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Steps to How to Make Movies

        Making Pixar movie is a labor of love. It takes about five years to complete a film, from start to finish, and roughly 250-300 crew members. Usually the studio will be working on at least four or five other feature-length projects at the same time, plus many other short films and new ideas. Pixar is constantly evolving creatively, technically and commercially, making a steady stream of hit movies that fans of all ages love to watch over and over again.

        

STEP 1: The Idea

When a Pixar employee has an idea for a movie they have to pitch it to a panel of Pixar experts. As soon as the idea is given the green light a first draft of the script is written.

STEP 2: Storyboards

Story artists work to create rough storyboards (sketches of moments from the film) to go along with the script.

STEP 3: Voice Recording

Actors are invited into the studio to record the movie script. Sometimes scratch voices are used for early recordings.

STEP 4: Art Attack!

The Pixar art department researches the background behind the movie to create an authentic fell for the film. The artists then paint pictures, draw sketches and create collages to help bring the film to the life in the imaginations of the team who will later go on to produce the final models and animation.

STEP 5: Super Sculpting and Modeling

From the artists' drawings, models of the characters and sets are created and then scanned into the computer. The computer then gives the model, which are computer-generated hinges that allow for animation (movement) to be possible.

STEP 6: Set up

After the sets have been built using 3D computer graphics, they have to be dressed. Everything from chairs and tables to wallpaper and books need to be created and placed in the correct position.

STEP 7: Make Things Move