Movies - Pixar

	Movies - Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios () is an award-winning computer generated imagery (CGI) animation firm based in Emeryville, California (USA).

Though best known for its production of computer-animated feature films, Pixar also develops and markets high-end 3D computer graphics technology. Most notably, Pixar is the developer of the industry-standard rendering software RenderMan, which is used to generate high-quality, photorealistic images.

On January 24, 2006, Disney agreed to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion through the stock market, ensuring that Steve Jobs will be the largest individual shareholder of Disney. Disney are expected to complete the merger with Pixar in July 2006.
History
Early history
Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). After years of remarkable research success, and key milestones in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes
, the group was purchased in 1986 by current Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs after he had been kicked out of Apple (the company he founded with Steve Wozniak) and was looking for something to do with his money. He paid US$5 million to George Lucas and put US$5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected George Lucas' desire to stop the cash flow losses associated with his 7 year research projects associated with new entertainment technology tools, as well as his company's new focus on creating entertainment product rather than tools. A contributing factor was cash flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce concurrent with the sudden drop off in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi. The newly independent company was headed by Dr. Edwin Catmull, President and CEO, and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Executive Vice President and Director. Jobs served as Chairman of the Board.

Initially, Pixar was a high-end hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system which was primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. One of the leading buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious Ink and Paint part of the 2D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well. In a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter — who had long been creating short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr.
, to show off the device's capabilities — premiered his creations at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry's largest convention, to great fanfare.
Business in transition
As poor sales of Pixar's computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter's animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and LifeSavers. During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. Pixar was a key technical participant in the development of Disney's CAPS, a computer-assisted animation post-production software system. In 1991, after substantial layoffs in the company's computer department, Pixar made a $26,000,000 deal with Walt Disney Studios to produce computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story
. Pixar was re-incorporated on December 9, 1995.
Disney and Pixar
All of Pixar's major features thus far have been made in collaboration with Walt Disney Pictures. All aspects of production, including writing, development, animation production, and post-production, have been handled in-house by Pixar, while production costs have been split between the two companies. Disney has handled all aspects of distribution and has borne all costs related to distribution and promotion. In 1997, after the release of Pixar's first feature-length film, Toy Story
, the two companies signed a 10-year, 5-picture deal evenly splitting production costs and profits on subsequent movies. Reflecting the media giant's clout at the time the agreement was signed, Disney alone retained rights to the films and characters. In addition, Disney collects 10 to 15 percent of each film's revenue as a distribution fee.

Pixar and Disney have had ongoing disagreements since the production of Toy Story 2
. Originally intended as a straight-to-video release (and thus not part of Pixar's five picture deal), the film was upgraded to a theatrical release during production. Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the five picture agreement, but Disney refused.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Pixar ]

Some related entries: The Pink Panther | Srđan Dragojević | Steven Lisberger | Spike | Saerom | The Girl Next Door | Želary | The Boys in the Band | Nueve reinas | Nathalie Vadim | Cinema of Korea
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Pixar; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Pixar

History

Early history

Business in transition

Disney and Pixar

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay