How do Pixar produce their films?

Pixar originally used Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations and developed their own program called Menv (Modeling Environment).

They then started to use PhotoRealistic RenderMan. This was a software Pixar produced, to render all of their in-house 3D animated movie productions.

What films do they produce?

Pixar produce animated featured and short films. They have produced 13 feature films, 12 of them being financially extremely successful, with the exception of Cars 2.

TOY STORY (1995) A BUG’S LIFE (1998) TOY STORY 2 (1999)

MONSTERS, INC. (2001) FINDING NEMO (2003)

THE INCREDIBLES (2004)

CARS (2006)RATATOUILE (2007)

WALL-E (2008)

UP (2009) TOY STORY 3 (2010)CARS 2 (2011) BRAVE (2012)

EARLY HISTORY OF PIXAR

1983John Lasseter is invited to join the graphics group at Lucasfilms’s Computer Division, and work on the short film The Adventures of Andre & Wally B.The following year he was hired as a full-time ‘Interface Designer’

1979Ed Catmull is recruited by George Lucas from the New York Institute of Technology to head Lucasfilms’s Computer Division, a group developing state-of-the-art computer technology for the film industry.He had a wish list: a digital film editing system, sound system, digital printer etc.

1984A partially completed version of The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. It is the first short film by the animation studio. It features ground breaking technology.

1986Steve Jobs purchases the graphics division from Lucas and establishes the independent company ‘Pixar’. At this time about 44 people are employed. The completed short film, Luxo Jr. was the first nominated animated film for and Oscar.

1987Red’s Dream is completed. It included rain effect, complex lighting pose, creating mood and atmosphere. A portion of the film is rendered entirely on Pixar Image computer. Directed by John Lassester.

1988Tin Toy is completed. A partially completed Tin Toy screened for SIGGRAPH. The film receives its official premiere later that year at Ottawa International Film Fest.

SIGGRAPH: (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques.) Is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics.

Ottawa International Film Festival: The Ottawa International Film Festival (OIFF) was founded in 2010 with the purpose of bringing local, national and international filmmakers together with film enthusiasts in Canada's National Capital Region.

1995Toy Story, was the first computer animated feature film, releases on November 22 1995. It made $192 million, domestically $362 million worldwide. Nominated Best Original Song,Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay. Pixar opens its initial public offering on November 28.

1989Knick Knack is completed.A work-in-progress version is screened at that years SIGGRAPH. It’s the first of the company’s animations produced in stereoscopic 3D. The first commercial version of RenderMan is released, goes on to become the industry standard software for computer graphics in film. Pixar begins making commercials.Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton join the company.

1991Disney and Pixar announce ‘to make and distribute at least one computer generated animated movie’

1996John Lasseter receives a Special Achievement Offer, for his ‘inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy Story Team’.

1997The Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studios announce an agreement to jointly produce five movies over 10 years.Pixar now employs 375 people.Geri’s Game is completed. Premieres at Laemmie’s Monica (Santa Monica) on November 24. It will be Pixar’s 2nd academy award winner for the Best Animated Short Film.

1998A Bug’s Life is released, November 25. It breaks all previous U.S Thanksgiving weekend box office records. It was nominated for the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score Oscar.

1999Toy Story 2 is released on November 24. It is the first film in history to be entirely created, mastered and exhibited digitally, and is the first animated sequel to gross more than its original. It will be nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar for ‘When She Loved Me’. Toy Story 2 breaks box office opening weekend records in the U.S, U.K, and Japan.

2000For The Birds is completed. (Shown before Monsters Inc and Cars).It premieres at the Annecy International Film Festival in France on June 5.It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.Pixar moves into its new building in Emeryville, CA, November 27.

2001Monsters Inc is released on November 2, accompanied. Reaches over $100 million in domestic box office in just 9 days, faster than any animated film in history. Received 2 academy award nominations. Pixar now has 600 employees, co-founder Ed Catmull is named Pixar’s President.

Annecy International Animated Film Festival: takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France.

2002Mike’s New Car, the first ever short featuring characters from another Pixar film, premieres September 17.Received an Academy Award nomination.

‘A Bug’s Land’ attraction opens on October 7 at Disney California.

2003Finding Nemo released on May 30, accompanied by a version of Knick Knack.Finding Nemo breaks opening weekend box office records for an animated feature.Boundin’ premieres and nominated for Academy Award.

2004The Incredibles is released on November 5. Its first weekend box office over $70 million breaks all Pixar records. Winner of 2 awards. Finding Nemo becomes the best selling DVD of all time. ‘Turtle Talk with Crush’ opens at Disney Resort’s.

2005World Premiere of One Man Band takes place at the Annecy International Film Festival. One Man Band will be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Academy Award. Pixar’s first external exhibition of original artwork, Pixar: 20 years of Animation. Opens at New York Museum of Modern Art on December 14.

2006Pixar celebrates its 20th anniversary.Cars is released on June 9, and received an Academy Award nomination. Disney announces its agreement to purchase Pixar.Ed Catmull is named President and John Lasseter is named Chief Creative Officer of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

2006Lifted premieres at Laemmies Colorado on September 11, nominated for Best Animated Short Film Oscar.

2007Ratatouille released on June 29. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.‘Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage’ opens at Disneyland Resorts.

2008Wall-E released on June 27.Nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.Presto premieres at Annecy International Film Festival and nominated for an award.

First set of Cars Toons completed.Wall-E producer, Jim Morris is named General Manager of Pixar.

2009Pixar starts a satellite studio in Canada, that focuses on shorts featuring beloved characters.

Up is the first animated feature to open the Cannes Film Festival. And was released on May 29, with the short Partly Cloudy. Up is nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score.

2010Toy Story 3 released on June 18. It became the highest grossing film of all time, and the first to reach the billion dollar mark. Toy Story 3 was nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song.

Day and Night debuts at Annecy International Film Festival, nominated for Best Animated Short film Academy Award.

2010John Lasseter is honoured with the Producers Guild of America’s 2010 Award in Motion Pictures, making him the first producer of animated films to receive this award.

2011Pixar celebrates its 25th Anniversary and completes construction of a new building on its Emeryville campus. Car’s 2 is released on June 24. Also, Toy Story Toon, Hawaiian Vacation is released.La Luna premieres and nominated for an Academy Award.

Production Budget: $30,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $191,796,233International Box Office: $172,749,283Worldwide Box Office: $364,530,148Opening Weekend: $29,140,617Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

MARKETINGMarketing for the film included $20 million spent by Disney for advertising as well as advertisers such as: Burger King, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Payless ShoeSource paying $125 million in tied promotions for the film.In February 1995, a Toronto-based company with a factory based in China, Thinkaway Toys, became interested. Although Thinkaway was a small player in the industry, mainly producing toy banks in the form of film characters, it was able to scoop up the worldwide master license for Toy Story toys simply because no one else wanted it. Walt Disney World in Orlando held a daily Toy Story parade at Disney-MGM Studios.

MERCHANDISE AND SOFTWAREToy Story had a large promotion prior to its release, leading to numerous tie-ins with the film including images on food packaging. A variety of merchandise was released during the film's theatrical run and its initial VHS release including toys, clothing, and shoes, among other things. When action figures for Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody were created, they were initially ignored by retailers. However, after over 250,000 figures were sold for each character prior to the film's release, demand continued to expand, eventually reaching over 25 million units sold by 2007. Also, Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story and Disney's Activity Center: Toy Story were released for Windows and Mac. Disneys Animated Storybook: Toy Story was the best selling software title of 1996 selling over 500,000 copies.

USA CANADA AUSTRALIA BRAZIL SOUTH KOREACOLOMBIAURUGUAYHONG KONGSINGAPORE

FRANCEHUNGARYFINLANDPORTUGALNETHERLANDSGREECEPOLANDCZECH REPUBLIC

SLOVAKIA TURKEYPHILIPINNESESTONIA IRELANDITALYUKJAPANBELGIUM

SWEDEN ARGENTINASPAINNORWAY GERMANYDENMARK SWITZERLANDIRELAND

WHERE TOY STORY (1995)WAS DISTRIBUTED

Production Budget: $90,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $245,852,179Foreign Total Gross: $239,163,000 Worldwide Box Office: $485,015,179Opening Weekend: $57,388,839Distributor: Buena VistaGenre of film: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

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ESTONIAKUWAITRUSSIAISRAELHUNGARYSLOVENIAKAZAKHSTANTURKEY

WHERE TOY STORY 2 WAS DISTRIBUTED

TOY STORY 3 MARKETINGThey placed the first trailer of Toy Story 3 before the ‘Up’ movie, also a film produced by Pixar, this regained previous viewers and Pixar audience members attention. Also, as ‘Up’ and ‘Toy Story’ are largely targeted towards children, as the Toy Story films have been produced throughout the decade, Toy Story 3 appealed to the original viewers and younger children.

Due to the extent numbers of people using the internet, Disney/Pixar posted many trailers online as they knew this would create a large internet campaign. The actors began to upload voice clips of themselves talking about the film on the internet.Disney posted extremely subtle and vague trailers, hardly

containing any footage from the film itself. This created many people to wonder what the film was going to be about. Trailers, pop up adverts, video games, accessories, merchandise, games were all used to expand the campaign. By this point, Pixar knew they had a very large and reliable fan base and therefore allowed more details about the film to be released.

A Toy Story 3 PS3 game was released before the film, in order for the networking community to discuss and for the public to be more involved.

Budget: $200,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $415,004,880Foreign Total Gross: $648,167,031Worldwide: $1,063,171,911Opening Weekend: $110,370,189Genre: Animation, Adventure, ComedyDistributor: Buena Vista

ARGENTINAAUSTRALIAAUSTRIA BELGIUMBLOVIABRAZILBULGARIACHILECOLOMBIACROATIACZECH REPUBLICDENMARKEAST AFRICAESTONIA

EGYPTFINLANDFRANCEGERMANYGHANAGREECEHONG KONGHUNGARYICELANDINDONESIAISRAEL

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SPAINSWEDENTAIWANTURKEYUKRAINEUNITED ARAB EMIRATESUSAUKURUGUAYVENEZUALA

WHERE TOY STORY 3 WAS DISTRIBUTED

Toy Story and its sequels have inspired multiple attractions at the theme parks of:-Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom-Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters at Disneyland-Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters at Disneylands Disney Quest-Toy Story Mania at Disneys Hollywood Studios-Toy Story Playland ar Disneyland Paris-Toy Story Greetings

Production budget: $120,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $162,798,565Foreign Total Gross: $200,600,000Worldwide Box office: $363,398,565Opening Weekend: $33,258,052Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, AdventureDistributed to: 39 countries

Theme Park Attractions:-A Bug’s Land is a section of Disney California Adventure, entirely dedicated to A Bug’s Life. One of the main attractions is the 3D Show ‘It’s Tough To Be A Bug’, which is also in Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney’s Animal Kingdom. -The Disney California Adventure attraction World of Color features a segment focused on A Bug’s Life.

Target Audience:- A bug’s Life was largely targeted towards the younger age range due to age certificate being a U. Also, the merchandise for the film included video games, toys, accessories etc. mainly aimed for a child. However, the film was targeted to all ages as many Pixar/Disney fans are a variety of different ages.

Production budget: $115,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $255,873,250Foreign Total Gross: $269,493,347Worldwide Box office: $543,856,597Opening Weekend: $62,577,067 (In North America) Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure

Video Games:- A series of video games, including a multi-platform video game were created based on the film. A game titled Monsters, Inc. Run was released on the App Store for iPhone, iPod, iPad on December 13,2012.

Walt Disneys World On Ice:- Feld Entertainment toured a Monsters, Inc. edition of their ‘Walt Disney’s World on Ice Skating tour from 2003-2007.

Theme Park Attractions: -2006 Monsters Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue! Opened at Disneyland Resort, California. -2007 Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor opened at Walt Disney World Resorts Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.-2009 Monsters Inc. Ride & Go seek opened at Tokyo Disney Resorts in Japan.

Production budget: $94,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $339,714,978Foreign Total Gross: $540,900,000Worldwide Box office: $921,616,174Opening Weekend: $70,251,710Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure

3D-re release:- Disney and Pixar re-released Finding Nemo in 3D on September 14, 2012, with a conversion cost estimated below $5 million. For the opening weekend of its 3D re-release in North America, Finding Nemo grossed $16.7 million, debuting at the No. 2 spotTheme Park Attractions:-2007 Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage-2005 Turtle Talk with Crush – 2004 The Seas with Nemo & Friends -2007 Finding Nemo The Musical -2012 Disneys Art of Animation -2007 Crush’s Coaster

Video Game:-A video game based on the film was released in 2003, for PC, Xbox, PS2, GameCube and GBA.

Production budget: $92,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $261,411,092Foreign Total Gross: $370,001,000Worldwide Box office: $631,442,092Opening Weekend: $70,467,623Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure

Merchandising:-Dark Horse Comics released comic books based on the film-Kellogg’s released an Incredibles-themed cereal and Pop-Tarts and fruit snacks.-Pringles included potato chips featuring superheroes and quotes from the film-Hasbro produced a series of action figures and toys based on the film-In Europe, Kinder chocolate eggs contained a plastic toy from the film-In Belgium, car manufacturer Opel sold special The Incredibles editions of their cars-In UK, Telewest promoted blueyonder internet services with branding from the film

Video Games:-A video game based on the film was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo, Game Boy, PC, Apple and mobiles.-A second game, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer was released.-A third game, The Incredibles: When Danger Calls –Another game, Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure released in 2012 for Xbox 360.

Production budget: $150,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $206,445,654Foreign Total Gross: $417,277,164Worldwide Box office: $623,722,818Opening Weekend: $47,000,000Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure

Video Game:A video game adaptation of the film was released for all major consoles and handhelds in 2007. A Nintendo DS exclusive game, Ratatouille: Food Frenzy, released in October 2007. Ratatouille is also among the films represented in Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure, released in March 2012 for Xbox 360.

Production budget: $180,000,000Domestic Total Gross: $223,808,164Foreign Total Gross: $297,503,696Worldwide Box office: $521,311,860Opening Weekend: $63,087,526Distributor: Buena VistaGenre: Animation, Adventure

Marketing and Advertising:-Pixar is marketing WALL-E without the help of Disney because of the companies previous disagreement over the marketing of Ratatouille. There are numerous traditional advertisements for the film, including bus stop wraps, and promotional posters and billboards (strong in Russia and Poland). Comic book artist Eric Tan created 1950s style post cards to help promote the film. However, The WALL-E campaign relies heavily on viral marketing.-Pixar created a fake promotional website: buynlarge.com. The website looks completely real, with its made up copy and products – it even has fake advertisements. Pixar released promotions that lead people to the Buy N Large (BNL) site to learn about robots similar to those in the film. The strongest viral component of the WALL-E campaign is a series of featurettes showing WALL-E encountering everyday items and discovering them with a playful curiosity. These items include a ball, a hula hoop and headphones.-Before the first trailer for WALL-E was even released, a promotional video for the $199 WALL-E Robot was put online. The robot, scheduled to come out that summer, has a remote control that is responsible for directing the robots 10 motors. The robot also has numerous respond sensors. Life-size WALL-E’s will also roam Disney amusement parks starting that summer.