Pixar Animation Studios, or more commonly known as Pixar is an American Animation Studio located in Emeryville, San Francisco, California. The company is owned by the Walt Disney Company. A common misconception is that Disney and Pixar are the same company. This is in fact incorrect. Disney is a company that owns lots of studios including Disney Animations, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. The company was started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer graphics division. This was when chief executive John Lasseter was employed. (read the industry inspirations for the full story). Lasseter left Lucasfilm to set up his own 3D animation company in 1979 alongside friend and funder Steve Jobs, creator of Apple technology. Together they created a computer that allowed for 3D animation and named it Pixar(seen below).
In 2006, Disney purchased Pixar for a whopping $7.4 Billion USD. To the left you see the computer that started the company. The Pixar Apple computer. This computer ran the infamous software used to create the first 3D animation films on the planet. This software is called Render Man. Pixar uses Render Man to render their in-house 3D animated productions and is also available as a product licensed to third parties. In 2015, a free version of Render Man became available to the public and students.
This technology has produced 22 feature films and a wide variety of short films and promo trailers across the years. Render Man has constantly improved (as seen in my "3D Animation History" section. The studios feature films, as of July 2019, has earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office, with an average of $680 million per film. 15 of these 22 are in the list for Top 50 Grossing Animated Films of all time. The studio has earned 21 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes and 11 Grammy Awards. 10 of the 22 films have won the Academy Award for Best Animation and 15 have been nominated. On the 6th of September 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival.
This technology has produced 22 feature films and a wide variety of short films and promo trailers across the years. Render Man has constantly improved (as seen in my "3D Animation History" section. The studios feature films, as of July 2019, has earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office, with an average of $680 million per film. 15 of these 22 are in the list for Top 50 Grossing Animated Films of all time. The studio has earned 21 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes and 11 Grammy Awards. 10 of the 22 films have won the Academy Award for Best Animation and 15 have been nominated. On the 6th of September 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival.
Pixar Traditions through Easter Eggs
While the term Easter egg has been used for years in reference to an Easter Egg hunt, the term only really means a hidden object. Now, it has come to be more commonly used to hide a message, image, or feature hidden in a video game, film, or other type of media. The term was created around 1979 by a man by the name of Steve Wright, who then was Director of Software Development at the Atari Consumer Division, it was used to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game Adventure.
Pixar have become famous for their Easter Egg hunts and have so many dedicated YouTube channels on finding all these for us! The company includes so many in each film and some that even tie all the films together. One man by the name of John Negroni, created a book titled "The Pixar Theory". This theory is currently in rewriting stages but in short explains how all the Pixar films occur in one consecutive time line. This was stemmed from characters appearing in multiple films, address', cars, houses and other Easter Eggs too. This then creates a timeline of events we as an audience have to put together and work out which way round the films fit into said timeline. For me this is incredibly fun and to think one day I could be in full knowledge whether or not there is a Pixar Universe and its not in fact a theory, let alone continue to create this universe is mind blowing and an absolute dream come true!
Pixar have become famous for their Easter Egg hunts and have so many dedicated YouTube channels on finding all these for us! The company includes so many in each film and some that even tie all the films together. One man by the name of John Negroni, created a book titled "The Pixar Theory". This theory is currently in rewriting stages but in short explains how all the Pixar films occur in one consecutive time line. This was stemmed from characters appearing in multiple films, address', cars, houses and other Easter Eggs too. This then creates a timeline of events we as an audience have to put together and work out which way round the films fit into said timeline. For me this is incredibly fun and to think one day I could be in full knowledge whether or not there is a Pixar Universe and its not in fact a theory, let alone continue to create this universe is mind blowing and an absolute dream come true!
Another reason I adore Pixar is there consistency and relationship with the audience. Each film Pixar include 5 things to spot, which has now become a Pixar tradition of sorts. The first being John Ratzenberger. As of 2020, every Pixar feature film has included a character voiced by John Ratzenberger, Pixar paid tribute to the actor in the end credits of Cars recreating scenes from three of their earlier films, replacing all of the characters with vehicles. After the third scene, Mack (his character in Cars) realizes that the same actor has been voicing characters in every film. John is seen to be Pixar's "Good-Luck Charm".
A113- A113 is an Easter Egg used all across the film industry but mainly in animation. The sequence refers to the class room number that Pixar's executive team and many many employees trained in at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). The number appears at least once in every movie, some in more plain sight than others but can also be seen in many other animations such as the Simpsons, Dr Seuss, Disney and even my own projects, so keep an eye out!
The Pizza Planet Truck- First appearing in 1995s Toy Story this truck has been in every Pixar feature bar The Incredibles (although it does feature in the video game adaptation). This iconic truck (named Todd in the Cars franchise) is an iconic icon for Pixar. The truck driven my a Pizza Planet driver has been seen in many forms and shapes across the years- tattoos, rocks and the van itself. To me, the van is what ties the Pixar theory together. This single easter egg.
Luxo Ball- As will be explained in the next section, Luxo Jr is the company mascot for Pixar. The short film sees a little Luxo lamp playing with the ball you see on the left. This ball is now infamously known as the Pixar Ball or the Luxo ball. This ball has appeared in most of Pixar's films but was for some reason left out of a few movies from 2006-2011. The ball has become a vary rare item to have in your collection as it is exclusive to the Disney Parks or the Pixar Studios but the pattern is far more easily obtained. The pattern is featured on many things like flags, cars, stickers and even the basketball court at the Pixar Studios.
An Easter Egg to the next feature film- As well as past films, Pixar include easter eggs to their next upcoming film. This can be a reference in plain sight like in Coco or it can be harder to spot like the Duke Caboom action figure in Incredibles 2. These easter eggs can be very difficult to find and give the audience a challenge in finishing these. This is one of the things I also want to do, as well as bring audience emotion I want to bring them enjoyment and challenges to make sure everyone is happy with the film and gets enjoyment from it.
I love spotting easter eggs and doing so brings myself and others joy when watching movies. Easter Eggs are another reason I would love to work for Pixar, I can create easter eggs of my own and know where to find them. The easter egg hunting community is so fun and id love to be the person to supply that fun to the world! Yes other studios do it but my word Pixar do it well!
Features at Pixar
Luxo Jr
Luxo Jr. is a desk lamp character used as the mascot of Pixar. He is the protagonist of the short film Luxo Jr. The lamp appears at the start of everything produced by Pixar and is seen bouncing on the letter "I" in Pixar. Chief Executive John Lasseter created Luxo Jr after his own lamp but in 2009 the company Luxo sued Disney/Pixar for selling Luxo Jr. branded merchandise. In animation, the short film demonstrates the use of shadow mapping in their rendering software. Creator John Lasseter applied the classic animation principles taught and demonstrated by Disney's Nine Old Men to give the lamps' emotion. Lasseter worked day and night, and even took a sleeping bag into work and slept under his desk, ready to work early the next morning. In total it took about four and a half months to do.
Since the short films release the lamp and ball, now known as the "Pixar Ball" are company icons. The lamp, as mentioned, can be seen in all the Pixar introductions and the ball has become a very famous Easter Egg to spot in all the films to date, whether it be in the pattern form or an actual ball as mentioned above.
Since the short films release the lamp and ball, now known as the "Pixar Ball" are company icons. The lamp, as mentioned, can be seen in all the Pixar introductions and the ball has become a very famous Easter Egg to spot in all the films to date, whether it be in the pattern form or an actual ball as mentioned above.
One of Pixar's most famous design aspects is the huge characters and models placed around the studios. Large replica memorabilia is put around the campus including posters and paintings themed to the nearest theatre release they are working on. Some films are crazier than other- eg. Toy Story 3 where they added huge replica Barbie house in the atrium!
The company uses concept art that gets swapped out on rotation and try to fill the buildings with relevant theming for the animators to get inspiration and references from. |