Pixar’s first technical paper that founded the Renderman rendering engine had it’s 25th anniversary this year. Prior to their famous “Toy Story”, they had been creating animated short for 10 years, not as a standalone business but as a way to demonstrate their powerful computers.
At the time, John Lasseter was an “interface designer” for the new computer company. And at the time, Pixar basically just sold specially designed computers for animation. The company’s sales were flagging, though, so it needed a way to show off what Pixar’s computers were capable of doing. In stepped Lasseter, who’d been trained by Disney Animation Studio before transitioning into 3D animation. He provided their first true short (previous works had been interesting but still ultimately tech demos), which premiered at the SIGGRAPH computer industry conference to a standing ovation.
See some of the early works, including “Luxo Jr” and “Tin Toy”, over at Paste Magazine.
via Salute Your Shorts: Pixar, Part 1 – The Early Years :: Features Film & TV :: Articles :: Paste.
