History

Pixar, besides Disney, is the biggest animation studio in the world and it has created the best animations this world has ever seen. Of course, life wasn't always a dream and even Pixar had to work hard to earn its place at top of the leaderboard.

Lucasfilm Ltd founded a small group of a few men, including Dr. Ed Catmull who is now president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, in 1979 as Graphics Group, one third of its computer division. Some of  their first works here were seen in the films such as Star Wars Trilogy. The group spent the next few years creating computer equipment and graphics for Lucasfilms, including the imaging computer dubber 'The Pixar' which contributed not only to graphics animation, but to medical science and weather satellites. In 1984, John Lasseter, friends with Ed Catmull and employee of Walt Disney Studios, spent a month at Lucasfilms as a working visit. This led to him making the decision to leave Disney and join the small group.    

In 1986, Pixar became more of an independent studio when Steve Jobs purchased the group for $10'000'000 after picking himself up from financial issues. The small group were excited their new boss was someone who had a laidback reputation and someone who could help achieve their goals of creating high tech fun, they were slightly let down when Jobs told his new crew to put aside their animation dreams and focus on selling points with technical graphics. 

The next few months, the company focussed on small projects, but didn't reach top success for a while which made Jobs uneasy and almost regretful on his purchase of Pixar. He later told 'Fortune' Magazine: 

'If I knew in 1986 how much it was going to cost to keep Pixar going, I doubt if I would've bought the company. The problem was, for many years the cost of the computers required to make animation we could sell was tremendously high.' 

Fortunately for Jobs, Pixar came up with the idea of a few software ideas, which they used to create a range of products. In the same year of making his purchase, Pixar created its first (of many) Oscar nominated piece; Luxo Jr. Not long after, in 1987, they created 'Red's Dream' which was followed by the development of 'Renderman,' which allowed the team to produce amazing realistic images that look almost like real photographs. Lassester was thankful for its work when he wrote and directed 'Tin Toy' and used its engine to produce images for it, resulting in the first computer generated animation. The short animation won Pixar its first Academy Award in 1988.    

The next few years were up and down for Pixar as they just couldn't raise sales high enough and were forced to let people go, but in 1991 one, something changed. With the help of Disney, Pixar made its name to the world in the form of an animated feature length film named 'Toy Story'. The success led to Pixar signing a contract with Disney and becoming responsible for its future 3 animated films with Disney providing all funding for all costs. however Disney still kept most of the profit from the films, but Pixar managed to take a piece of the gross revenues from the box offices and any video sales.    

Following the success of their first film, Pixar went on to make many more incredible films with Disney. Pixar is now known worldwide by people of all ages and brings joy to everyone all year round.