The Pixar Story Page #3

We had made this computer controlled,

motion-control camera,

but I really wanted

to get to the next level.

I had a lot of ideas

that couldn't be conquered

in the traditional film technology.

NARRATOR:
George Lucas brought

Ed Catmull aboard

to form a new computer division

at Lucasfilm

to invent digital production tools,

including a new digital-editing system

called EditDroid,

a digital sound system,

a laser scanner

and a powerful graphics computer.

Ed recruited the most talented team

of computer scientists

to create the futuristic tools for Lucas.

ROB COOK:
Everybody who did it

got there in some really odd way.

People came from architecture,

from physics,

from art, from computer science,

from everywhere,

and somehow ended up

in this new area.

At that time

there was almost no graphics,

it was a pretty small thing.

And we were inventing

the techniques we were using.

We had no computers.

My wife remembers those days

because I came home at night, right?

You know? I didn't have any computer

to stay and hack on

or anything like that,

so I'd come home at regular hours

and she woes the days

when we started getting computers

and I would get carried away.

LUCAS:
They really were kind of

the outlaw outfit, the rebel group,

and so that was kind of fun

because, you know,

we were doing all these things

that nobody really

understood the value of.

COOK:
There was a big

breakthrough to start

doing things that were more artistic.

Vol Llbre, Loren Carpenter's film

in 1980, was a huge deal,

and not just because

it illustrated his academic technique,

but it was a huge deal

because it was a work of art.

CARPENTER:
I've always been

interested in what's possible,

and, what's beyond

the boundary of what's known.

When I came to Lucasfilm,

these people were all very good,

and it was refreshing and exhilarating.

COOK:
Even in those days,

everybody's dream

was to make a feature-length movie

with computers.

At least all of us,

that was what we wanted to do.

Even though it seemed impossible

at the time.

If you wanna make

a picture of the world,

you somehow have to get

all that data in the computer.

All the geometry, no matter what,

whether it's hairs or skin or whatever,

is broken down

into millions of little triangles

that are so small they would just be

a speck on the screen.

NARRATOR:
The group soon realized

it would take not thousands,

but millions of triangles

to create the photo-realistic images

that compose

the animated films we see today.

CATMULL:
It was an absurd number.

But it was meant to be

an absurd number,

because if you throw

some big numbers at something

and then you have to be able

to handle them,

then it makes you think

about the problem in different ways.

Right then and there, that changed

our whole, you know, kind of mindset

about the sort of problem

that we were trying to solve.

NARRATOR:
The group got the chance

to prove their abilities

when Lucas' special-effects division,

lndustrial Light and Magic,

could not achieve a shot

using conventional film means.

Summary, please.

STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN

Alvy Ray Smith led the group

to create a spectacular sequence

using all their talents

and advanced techniques.

The camera's spinning and spiraling

and jerking and panning.

It's going through amazing motions,

completely impossible

for a gravity-bound, real camera.

PORTER:
I think Ed and Alvy realized,

in order to get in the game,

we've got to put characters up

on the screen,

and that meant character animation,

and that changed everything

right there.

I had gone to this computer graphics

conference at the Queen Mary.

I'll never forget it. We walk in

and I was just so depressed,

'cause, like, all these dreams

for the last two or three years

kind of were shattered.

And Ed Catmull

was a speaker at this conference,

and he comes up

and he was so excited,

"How's Toaster going?

How's Brave Little Toaster going?"

You know, all that stuff, and I go,

"Well, to be honest, they shelved it."

He told me that he was leaving Disney.

He didn't tell me the circumstances,

but that he was leaving Disney.

And we spent a long time

talking about what we wanted to do,

and what the possibilities were,

because this is the first time

we really had a chance

of getting a real animator.

We couldn't get them at Lucasfilm.

NARRATOR:
John was hired

on the spot

into Lucasfilm's

Bay Area computer division,

under the inconspicuous title

of "interface designer."

I came in there and immediately

I was intimidated by all the people

that were around me.

I mean, there were PhDs

everywhere around me.

Our group was in love with animation,

and we knew a lot about animation.

We couldn't animate very well,

but we understood it.

LASSETER:
And the first thing they did

is they really challenged me

with the idea of,

"Let's try to do a little film

"with characters that are done

with a computer."

I was inspired looking at the limitations

of what I had to work with,

and then I went back

and looked at the early Mickey Mouse.

It's geometric shapes.

How more geometric can you get

than Mickey Mouse?

So I just started drawing,

and I created this little character.

His name is "Andr."

(BUZZING)

(SQUEAKING)

(LAUGHS)

NARRATOR:
John inspired the

technical team to create new software

that would enable him to animate

the squash and stretch movements

he learned from traditional animation.

The results were new flexibility,

motion blur

and character action never before

achieved through the computer.

LASSETER:
I loved working with these

guys, and I kept challenging them.

And then I was so inspired

by all the work that they were doing.

So it's become this way of working

that the art challenges technology,

technology inspires the art.

NARRATOR:
John and computer

scientist Bill Reeves

put their animation skills to the test

while working with Lucas'

traditional special effects division, ILM,

to bring a stained-glass man to life

through the computer.

It was really amazing,

the meeting of these two completely

different backgrounds coming together.

(WHlMPERING)

MUREN:
You could just design

the thing exactly

the way that your mind conceived it,

not only shape-wise

but also lighting-wise, or anything.

NARRATOR:
The visual effects were

nominated for an Academy Award,

and many Hollywood

special effects wizards

had no idea how it was done.

LUCAS:
There were areas they could

go to that they couldn't even consider

in traditional special effects.

Ed's group really equaled change.

NARRATOR:
To improve speed

and resolution,

Ed's team developed

the Pixar lmage Computer,

the most powerful graphics computer

of its day.

lts software transformed

high-resolution imagery into 3-D,

and was used in medical imaging

and satellite photo analysis.

But after years of trying to sell

their high-end computer software

to limited markets,

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