In 1979 little knees shook hands with George Lucas who shared the dream of
revolutionising the movie industry by making a full-featured film
100% through computer animation when neither the technology software
nor
Blueprints were even invented yet
Yet we animate some of your favorite childhood movies
Continuing to bring to life worlds you never imagined were possible. I
Was vice president of Industrial Light & Magic
Digitally creating the x-wings you see flying in Star Wars films. The challenge wasn't just creating it, but
Creating it on computers that had less technology than an Apple SmartWatch. It took nearly three years
But we hit our big milestone when we helped develop digital image
Compositing which combined multiple images together in a convincing and realistic way
but after seven years of research and development
We started costing more money than we made for George and we knew there was a hot chance he would sell the division
Among colleagues we all knew what we were
sacked
No backing no direction and no time
But just when I was going to tell my family that I was going to be unemployed
We met a man who just been ousted from his own company and was looking for crazy ambitious
individuals like
He loved the technology we built our vision to create something that many said wasn't possible
He like us was a pioneer and was the only person willing enough to invest in a company
That was losing more money than we were making
So we took our computers and a team of 40 tech prodigies and began working
Under our new leader
Steve Jobs
Out of the thousands we had created we sold less than
300 computers
Many called us failures saying the computer was too complicated and too expensive and that the animation was poor
Hearing those words
Broke me. It made me wonder if I had wasted my life on something completely
worthless and if I would ever amount to anything and
Just as I was believing, my life was nothing but failure
we
Unexpectedly received a call that made me remember why we were fighting so hard to change the world
It turned out that from that small 300 computers that we sold
Disney Animation Studios
Was one of the few that purchased one they too did not like our computers
But they loved our ideas and saw what we were capable of achieving
So instead of trying to create
computer animated films themselves and buying individual computers from us
They proposed an entirely new deal
So we got straight to it we designed and developed the tech we modeled characters we lit scenes
We calculated the trajectories of light rays
It was calculus mixed with caffeine and a side of too much pizza and Chinese takeout
It took days weeks and months
By the end of it I and my esteemed colleagues were more fried than the CPUs
But we had it ready our most seminal short film
Luxo jr. A
two-minute animated short film about a lamp and a ball
It was slow and it was rough
but it was the most beautiful creation we have ever created and
It would serve as our future mascot
It was an instant classic
Received well by audiences and even nominated for an Oscar. I
Felt like we did it but we couldn't celebrate because we were too busy worrying about finances
Steve thought after all this work people would line up in droves begging to buy our technology
But it turned out we spent so much time
That we were now on the verge of bankruptcy
Maybe people would have lined up but we didn't even have the money to open the doors to customers
imagine that we were running out of money while we sat on technology that might as well have been
magic
In any failure, there are two parts
There is the event itself with all the disappointment confusion and shame and then there is our reaction to it
It is this second part that we can control
So we took control
we tinkered on the side and learned to walk as Steve would say and
Finally with the money we made from those commercials. We were able to strike a deal with Disney
it was one promise one shot a
historic twenty six million dollar deal
We redirected all of our energies into this one movie for Disney we had to now
one wrong move and
It was back to square one
It was the biggest gamble of my life, but I believed in what we were doing
So what if we'd failed a lot of times if you aren't experiencing failure?
Then you are making a far worse mistake
you are being driven by the desire to avoid it and
so we got to work we locked the doors made a list of do's and
Don'ts we didn't want an I want song. We didn't want to fill in no happy villages
No, love story and when we were finally ready
We submitted a script to Disney a script that we thought would impress all those
stakeholders
It was a disaster so much so that production on the film had to be stopped immediately
They weren't mad. They were disappointed
they needed time to
Reconsider the script and probably the deal
in hindsight, we were lucky they didn't immediately demolish our offices and sell our computer as
junkyard scrap
So we held our breath
Our dream was hanging by a thread. I
prepared for the worst for the door to shut in our face for the last time until
finally
They approached us with one word
rewrite
a
second chance this time we decided we would write an entirely new film one that embodied what we
truly believed in
We weren't movie writers and we barely had experience in filmmaking having no idea where to even begin
But we knew one thing
This version wasn't going to be for those stakeholders or for Disney
it was going to be for us a
movie that spoke about friendship goodwill and acceptance which were all things we were going through a
Story that would bring people young and old
Together a story that would continue for generations
It was a Toy Story
They loved it and
Instantly we were given the green light to continue with production
We began hiring any creator willing to work for us which was many because we paid so little
but the people who did join
Understood that they were going to be a part of something larger than themselves
Because Toy Story
Isn't just our first
computer-generated film
it is a film that took nearly a decade to accomplish because we had to create our technology and
innovate
every day
it is a film that battled through bankruptcy and
Uncertainty it is a film about a studio that dared to make the impossible possible
When Toy Story released it surprised the world and
Had it failed. We wouldn't be here today creating our computer animated featured films
But it didn't and it was the biggest and best gamble of all of our lives
Disney was so impressed. They ended up signing multiple movie deals with us greeting the partnership you now know as
Pixar Animation and Disney Studios
Eventually Disney bought us for seven point four billion dollars in an all-stock deal
making the man who funded and supported our journey Steve Jobs the largest shareholder of
Disney
Throughout the years we created films that continue to be loved by millions around the world
Films like Finding Nemo a movie about a loving father who chases after his son only to learn
That he needs to let go
Monsters Inc. A film that teaches us to give people a chance
despite our differences
Or ratatouille a film about a rat who can cook because not everyone can become a great artist
But a great artist can come from anywhere
It wasn't just me it was a team effort with people who had grit and passion for what they loved
my name is Edwin Catmull and
I am one of the many people who Pixar dared to dream with nothing
But our imaginations and the vision to take moviegoers on an entirely new journey
to infinity and beyond
You