Pixar Animation Studios was founded in 1979 as the Graphics Group but changed its name to Pixar in 1986. Key films created by Pixar include Toy Story, A Bug's Life, UP, WALL-E, and Cars. John Lasseter is the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios and has directed several Pixar films including Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Cars.

1. Pixar
Animation Studios
Bryn Hughes

2. Brief History
It was founded in 1979 as Graphics Group but
on February 3rd, 1986 changed the companies
name to Pixar. The founders of the company
where Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith and Steve
Jobs (incorporation as Pixar). Their
headquarters are based in
Emeryville, California, United States. The
industry is CGI animation and motion pictures
software.

3. Key Films / Creations - UP
• UP was released on the 29th May 2009. It was directed by Pete
Docter, produced by Jonas Rivera, edited by Kevin Nolting and
starred Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai and Bob
Peterson. by tying thousands of balloons to his home, 78-year-old
Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South
America. Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years
younger, inadvertently becomes a stowaway. Animating the
balloons, May said that the animation department at Pixar never
even considered hand-animating the balloons. But even standard
computer animation wouldn't be up to the task, because of the N-
squared complexity involved in the thousands of interdependent
balloons. Instead, the studio's computer whizzes figured out a way
to turn the problem over to a programmed physical
simulator, which, employing Newtonian physics, was able to
address the animation problem.

4. Key Films / Creations – WALL-E
WALL-E was released on 23rd June 2008, it was directed by Andrew
Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, edited by Stephen Schaffer and starred
Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy
Najimy, Sigourney Weaver and MacIn Talk. Disney and Pixar join forces for
this computer-animated tale about a wide-eyed robot who travels to the
deepest reaches of outer space in search of a newfound friend. The year is
2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. For hundreds of
years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been taking
out the trash, and collecting precious knick-knacks in order to stave off the
boredom of his dreary routine. Little does WALL-E realize that he has
recently stumbled onto a secret that could save planet Earth, and once
again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind. “Life is nothing but
imperfection and the computer likes perfection, so we spent probably 90%
of our time putting in all of the imperfections, whether it's in the design of
something or just the unconscious stuff. How the camera lens works in [a
real] housing is never perfect, and we tried to put those imperfections
[into the virtual camera] so that everything looks like you're in familiar
[live-action] territory”.

5. Key Films / Creations – A Bug’s Life
• A Bug’s Life was released on 25th November
1998, it was directed by John
Lasseter, produced by Darla K. Anderson and
Kevin Reher, edited by Lee Unkrich and starred
Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
and Hayden Panettiere. A misfit ant, looking
for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy
grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that
turn out to be an inept circus troupe.

6. Key Films / Creations – Toy Story
• Toy Story was released on 22nd November 1995, directed by John
Lasseter, produced by Ralph Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold, edited by Robert
Gordon and Lee Unkrich, starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim
Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, John Morris, Laurie
Metcalf and Erik von Detten. Toy Story was the first feature-length film animated
entirely by computer. If this seems to be a sterile, mechanical means of
moviemaking, be assured that the film is as chock-full of heart and warmth as any
Disney cartoon feature. The star of the proceedings is Woody, a pull-string cowboy
toy belonging to a wide-eyed youngster named Andy. Whenever Andy's out of the
room, Woody revels in his status as the boy's number one toy. His supremacy is
challenged by a high-tech, space-ranger action figure. From the first frame of the
original Toy Story, 15 years ago, the marriage of eerily realistic computer animation
and old-fashioned, emotionally plausible storytelling was a bountiful one. Add to
that the studio's sparkling wit, manifested in gags or allusions often accessible only
to older viewers, as well as a wealth of incidental detail that positively demands
repeated study, and it's no wonder that Pixar's movies can withstand tens, even
hundreds, of viewings by any age group. Take it from me: my family's copies of
titles by rival outfits such as DreamWorks Animation (Shrek, Madagascar) or Blue
Sky Studios (the Ice Age trilogy) have mysteriously vanished to the back of the DVD
collection, while The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Up remain on constant rotation.

7. Key Characters
John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator,
film director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney
Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative
Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering. Lasseter's first job was with
The Walt Disney Company, where he became an animator. Next, he
joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use
of CGI animation. After the Graphics Group of the Computer
Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in
1986, Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as
executive producer and he directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story
2, Cars, and Cars 2.He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated
Short Film (for Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (for
Toy Story).

8. Links / sources
• http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E
• http://movies.amctv.com/movie/379342/WALL-E/overview
• http://kottke.org/08/07/walle-animation-techniques
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bug%27s_Life
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story
• http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/toy-story/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/30/toy-story-3-
pixar-animation
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lasseter