The Development History of Pixar Animation Studio

From 65438 to 0984, john lasseter left Disney, where he worked for many years, and joined the Industrial Light and Magic Company under Lucasfilm. In the same year, john lasseter began to create his first 3D short film, The Adventures of Andre. Wally B.

1986, the computer animation department of Industrial Light and Magic Company, a subsidiary of Lucas Film Company, was acquired by Steve Jobs for100000 dollars, and it officially became an independent production company-Pixar. Ed catmull has been the vice president of film animation department of Lucas since 1979, and he was appointed as the co-founder and technical director of Pixar. At this time, Pixar has 44 employees.

1987, Pixar's short film Luxo Jr was nominated for the Oscar for best animated short film, and won the Golden Gate Award, the first computer image film jury award of the San Francisco International Film Festival. This short film is also the first animated short film made by Pixar. The protagonist in the film is jumping lights, which later became the symbol of Pixar. It can remind us of many meanings: tireless work, practical style, inspiration from both sides and unconventional personality. ...

1988, the short film "Red Dream" won the computer comprehensive image award at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the gold award at the Austrian International Electronic Film Festival.

1989, the program RenderMan independently developed by Pixar was officially launched. In the same year, Pixar filmed the first advertisement for pure Connor juice: "Wake up". Tin Toy won the Oscar for Best Animation Short Film, the first prize of the 3rd Los Angeles International Animation Festival and the Blue Ribbon Award of the American Film Association. This is the first animated short film that won an Oscar, and it is also the creative source of Toy Story. The film observes their owners from the perspective of toys: children, in their view, these children are simply demons!

From 65438 to 0990, Pixar moved to a single-story office building in Pautric, California. Here, Pixar created several groups of advertisements, including "Dance Card" of California Lottery, "New Polo" of Volkswagen and "Baby" of life insurance company. The animated short film "Gadgets" won the Best Short Film Award at Seattle International Film Festival and the Best Animation Award at Barcelona Badalona Film Festival.

In May this year, Pixar took a historic step and became a partner of entertainment giant Disney. From Snow White in 1937 to Treasure Planet in 2002, Disney has always been the overlord in the animation field, creating one classic cartoon after another. These films are all hand-painted, but sooner or later, computers will be integrated into the field of animation creation. Therefore, Pixar signed an agreement with Disney to produce three computer animated feature films, which will be distributed by Disney. In the same year, Pixar's program for Sesame Street won the Best Film Award in the London Computer Animation Competition.

From 65438 to 0992, the computer-aided manufacturing system (CAPS) developed by Pixar R&D team won the Academy Award for Science and Engineering.

1993, after shooting 9 groups of advertisements, Pixar produced the corporate logo for IBM. RenderMan's program development team won the Science and Engineering Award of the American Academy of Sciences.

1994, Paramount Film Company produced the company logo.

1995, Pixar shares listed. In the same year, on122 (Thanksgiving Day), Pixar was also the world's first fully computer-generated animated feature film Toy Story, which was released in the United States (released by Disney). This movie set a new record for animated films with a box office of $654.38+$920 million, became the American box office champion of $654.38+$0.995, set a global box office record of $360 million, and won an Oscar for special achievement for director john lasseter. The great success of this film also contributed to one thing. Steve Jobs, the boss of Pixar, was invited back by Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, because he was worth $6,543.8 billion at this time, and begged the veteran to reorganize the mountains and rivers. Jobs readily agreed that the iPod was a masterpiece after Jobs returned to Apple. John lasseter decided to shoot Toy Story 2, because this role has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Toy Story is called the third leap after Mickey Mouse gave animation sound and Snow White gave animation color to animation 3D!

In 1996, john lasseter won the Oscar for Special Achievement, Toy Story was nominated for Best Original Score (Musical Comedy), Best Theme Song and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, and was also nominated for Best Film and Best Theme Song in Musical Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards in the same year.

1997, Pixar and Disney reached a further agreement and decided to jointly produce five animated feature films. In June this year, Pixar expanded its scale, with 375 employees and two floors of office space. In the same year, Pixar released the short film Gary's Game, which significantly improved the skin and clothing materials of the animated characters.

1On October 25th, the second computer animated feature film "The Life of a Bug" jointly produced by Disney and Pixar was released. The Bug Crisis grossed $65.438+63 billion in North America and $362 million in the world, surpassing DreamWorks' Ant Warrior and becoming the box office champion of that year. In the same year, Gerry's game won the Oscar for best animated short film, and Pixar's muppet 3D animation system and digital drawing technology won the Oscar for science and engineering.

1999165438+1October 24th, the world's first all-digital movie Toy Story 2 was released, which broke the box office records in the United States, Britain, Japan and other places. The content and characters of this third computer animated feature film jointly produced by Disney and Pixar continue the story of Toy Story. With the success of Toy Story 2 at the box office of $245 million, directors such as john lasseter, Spielberg and James Cameron joined in. Also known as the top ten most profitable directors in Hollywood. In the same year, Bug Crisis won the Grammy Award for Best Film/TV Performance Score and the Oscar nomination for Best Music and Comedy Score, and PixarVision won the Oscar for Technical Achievement.

In 2000, Pixar moved to a new office building in Emeryville, California. In the same year, Toy Story 2 won the Golden Globe Award for Best Film in Musical Comedy and Best Original Song; Grammy Award for Best Movie/TV Song and Best Children's Music Album; Oscar for best original song.

The fourth computer animated feature film "Monster Company" jointly produced by Disney and Pixar was released. Within 10 days, it broke through the 1 0 billion dollar mark, becoming the fastest animated film to break through 1 0 billion dollar in film history and the second highest-paid animated film in the world at that time (second only to Disney's The Lion King 1994). In the same year, Executive Vice President john lasseter signed a full-time contract with Pixar for 10 years. Pixar has expanded its establishment again, with 600 employees. RenderMan's image design system won an Oscar for technology, and john lasseter received an honorary degree from the Motion Picture Association of America.

In 2002, Pixar won the honor again. In recognition of his achievements in redeveloping new media and technologies, the American Film Association awarded him the Pioneer Award.

Finding Nemo, released on May 30th, 2003, is the fifth computer animated feature film co-produced by Disney and Pixar. Pixar's record-breaking speed is really amazing. In just eight days, the box office broke through 1 billion dollars, refreshing the box office myth of Monster Company. Two weeks after its release, its box office has reached 65.438+0.43 billion yuan, and finally broke the highest box office record of "The Lion King" of $328.5 million with a national box office of $340 million, and won the highest box office cartoon in American history. Pixar is challenging a new height, that is, it no longer relies on physical simulation technology to attract audiences, but goes beyond the original stage of computer animation, and returns to the production mode based on content sublimation and plot inner meaning, combining magical computer technology with traditional human nature concepts to create touching animation stories. With the excellent performance of Finding Nemo, Pixar is considering amending its agreement with Disney. If Disney, which is in charge of distribution, can't meet their requirements, Pixar will look for other partners.

On June 5th, 2004, Pixar set the highest box office record in film history with Finding Nemo. After that, by going up one flight of stairs challenged the ultra-high animation technology featuring real people. What's more, Superman is the first "action movie" in Pixar's history, and it is also the first time that Pixar has challenged a superhero with a computer.

In the same year, the commercial contradiction between the emerging animation empire Pixar and the old traditional media empire Disney began to intensify. In 2003, the two sides began to discuss the renewal of the contract, and Disney continued to release the animation produced by the latter. However, the negotiation broke down on June 5438+ 10, 2004, mainly because michael eisner, then CEO of Disney, and Jobs disagreed (the former called the role of computer animation "pitiful" and the latter called the sequel made by Disney "shameful"), and the price problem was not solved. In 2004, Jobs asked Disney to share all the copyrights of this film, but Disney refused. Therefore, the cooperation between the two parties will be terminated after the release of the car in June 2006. After breaking up (especially after Isner resigned), Disney has been trying to restore its relationship with Pixar. When Robert Iger succeeded former CEO Isner in June, 2005, he announced that revitalizing Disney's animation strength would be his top priority.

On June 23rd, 2006, the board of directors of Disney Company, the second largest media giant in the United States, authorized CEO Robert Iger to buy Pixar Animation Company at a price of $59 per share, with a total bid of $7 billion, equivalent to 13% of Disney shares. As a result, Steve Jobs, the owner of Pixar, owned 6.05% of Disney shares and became the largest individual shareholder of Disney. Pixar's shareholders' meeting on May 5 finally approved the acquisition for $7.4 billion.

On June 9, 2006, the car that was delayed for more than half a year was finally released. The film is directed by john lasseter and Lee Anchorage. Thanks to the new "ray tracing" technology, Pixar's movies can only be reached by going up a flight of stairs.

On June 29th, 2007, The Ratatouille, directed by Brad Bird, the director of Superman Special Forces, was released in the United States. After the film was released, it was very popular, earning $47.2 million over the three-day weekend, beating Bruce Willis's Free Live or Die Hard Rowen and winning the title of weekend champion.

On June 9th, 20 15, Pixar's animation masterpiece Jurassic World was finally released in Inside Out after two years' absence. Although the first battle was defeated, it still achieved gratifying results of $90.44 million.