Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar (/pksr/), is an American computer animation film

studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films
created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industrystandard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate highquality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division
of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve
Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.[1] The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a
valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney's largest single
shareholder at the time. Luxo Jr., a character from a 1986 Pixar short film of the same name, is the
mascot of the studio.
Pixar has produced 15 feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995. Most of the films have
received both critical and financial success, with a notable exception being Cars 2 (2011), which,
while commercially successful, received substantially less praise than Pixar's other productions. [3] All
15 films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least "A", indicating a positive reception with
audiences.[4] The studio has also produced several short films. As of December 2013, its feature films
have made over $8.6 billion worldwide,[5] with an average worldwide gross of $616 million per film.
[6]

Both Finding Nemo(2003) and Toy Story 3 (2010) are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all

time, and 13 of Pixar's films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films. The latter is the
second all-time highest, behind Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen, which grossed $1.27 billion
in its initial release in comparison to Toy Story 3's $1.064 billion.
The studio has earned 15 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards,
among many other awards and acknowledgments. Since the award's inauguration in 2001, most of
Pixar's films have been nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature. Seven have
won, including Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3, as well as The
Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), and Brave (2012). Monsters,
Inc. (2001) and Cars (2006) are the only films that were nominated for the award, but did not win
it. Up and Toy Story 3 were also the second and third animated films to be nominated for
the Academy Award for Best Picture (the first being Disney's Beauty and the Beast). On September
6, 2009, executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were
presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the biennial Venice Film Festival. The
award was presented by Lucasfilm founder George Lucas.

Traditions[edit]
While some of Pixar's first animators were former cel animators, including John Lasseter, they also
came from stop motion animation and/or computer animation or were fresh college graduates.[7] A

large number of animators that make up the animation department at Pixar were hired around the
time Pixar released A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. Although Toy Story was a successful film, it was
Pixar's only feature film at the time. The majority of the animation industry was, and still is, located in
Los Angeles, California, while Pixar is located 350 miles (560 km) north in the San Francisco Bay
Area. Also, traditional 2-D animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.
With the dearth of Los Angeles-based animators willing to move their families so far north, give up
traditional animation, and try computer animation, Pixar's new hires at this time either came directly
from college, or had worked outside feature animation. For those who had traditional animation
skills, the Pixar animation software (Marionette) is designed so that traditional animators would
require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive. [7]
In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,[43] Lasseter said that Pixar films follow the
same theme of self-improvement as the company itself has: with the help of friends or family, a
character ventures out into the real world and learns to appreciate his friends and family. At the core,
Lasseter said, "it's gotta be about the growth of the main character, and how he changes." [43]
As of 2015, every Pixar feature film produced for Disney has included a character voiced
by Cheers actor John Ratzenberger. Pixar paid tribute to their "good luck charm" in the end credits
of Cars by parodying scenes from three of their earlier films, replacing all of the characters with
motor vehicles. After the third scene, Mack (the character he voices inCars) realizes that the same
actor has been voicing characters in every film and angrily demands to know, "What kind of a cutrate production is this?"
Due to the traditions that have occurred within the film, such as anthropomorphic animals and Easter
egg crossovers between movies that have been spotted by fans, in 2013 a blog post by the
name The Pixar Theory was published making the argument that all of the characters within the
Pixar universe were related.[44][
The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) is a proprietary collection of software,
scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed
by The Walt Disney Company together with Pixar in the late-1980s. Its purpose was to computerize
the ink and paint and post-production processes oftraditionally animated feature films produced
by Walt Disney Animation Studios.

CAPS in film production[edit]

CAPS was the first digital ink and paint system used in animated feature films, designed to replace
the expensive process of transferring animated drawings to cels using India
inkor xerographic technology, and painting the reverse sides of the cels with gouache paint. Using
the CAPS, enclosed areas and lines could be easily colored in the digital computer environment

using an unlimited palette. Transparent shading, blended colors and other sophisticated techniques
could be extensively used that were not previously available.
The completed digital cels were composited over scanned background paintings and camera or pan
movements were programmed into a computer exposure sheet simulating the actions of old style
animation cameras. Additionally, complex multiplane shots giving a sense of depth were possible.
Unlike the analog multiplane camera, the CAPS multiplane cameras were not limited by artwork
size. Extensive camera movements never before seen were incorporated into the films. The final
version of the sequence was composited and recorded onto film. Since the animation elements exist
digitally, it was easy to integrate other types of film and video elements, including threedimensionalcomputer animation.

Evolution of the system[edit]

The first usage of the CAPS process was Mickey standing on Epcot's Spaceship Earth for "The
Magical World of Disney" titles. The system's first feature film use was in the production of The Little
Mermaid in 1989; however, the use of the system was limited to the farewell rainbow sequence near
the end. The rest of the film used traditional painted cels.[1] Subsequent films were made completely
using CAPS; the first of these, The Rescuers Down Under, was the first 100% digital feature film
ever produced. Later films, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The
Hunchback of Notre Dame took more advantage of CAPS' 2D/3D integration. The system has not
been used since 2006's The Little Matchgirl.[2]

Special edition editing[edit]

For the Special Edition IMAX and DVD versions of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King,
and Mulan, new renders of the original elements were done and recorded to alternate master
formats. In addition, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King had newly animated sequences added
to their special editions, and both of the IMAX editions andAladdin had significant
cleanup/restoration done on the original digital sequence elements to enhance detail, correct
mistakes, and solidify clean-up animation and drawing.