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72-403: Lasseter aimed to finish the short film for the 1986 SIGGRAPH , an annual computer graphics conference attended by thousands of industry professionals. The film would come from his experiments with modeling his Luxo lamp. Lasseter worked to improve the story within the allotted two minutes. In animation, the film demonstrates the use of shadow maps within the rendering software. Lasseter applied

144-566: A Special Achievement Award ( Toy Story ). Lasseter has been nominated on four other occasions—in the category of Animated Feature , for both Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Cars , in the Original Screenplay category for Toy Story and in the Animated Short category for Luxo, Jr. (1986)—while the short Knick Knack (1989) was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time. In 2008, he

216-514: A 2D animated feature film directed by one of Lasseter's friends, Jerry Rees , and co-produced by Wilhite (who had, by then, left to start Hyperion Pictures ), and some of the staff of Pixar would be involved in the film alongside Lasseter. While putting together a crew for the planned feature, Lasseter had made some contacts in the computer industry, among them Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group . After being fired, and feeling glum knowing his employment with Disney

288-422: A beginning, a middle, and an end. Don't forget the story." Lasseter protested that the film would be too short for a story. "You can tell a story in ten seconds", Servais responded. Lasseter was convinced. He devised a simple plotline in which the two lamps would play a game of catch with an inflated ball; Luxo Jr. would then approach the ball, hop onto it, bounce until the ball popped under him, and show dejection as

360-689: A combination of both – that would be released theatrically. Lasseter said he sees this medium as an excellent way to train and discover new talent in the company as well as a testing ground for new techniques and ideas. In June 2007, Catmull and Lasseter were given control of Disneytoon Studios , a division of Walt Disney Animation Studios housed in a separate facility in Glendale. As president and chief creative officer, respectively, they have supervised three separate studios for Disney, each with its own production pipeline: Pixar, Disney Animation, and Disneytoon. While Disney Animation and Disneytoon are located in

432-546: A computer graphics engineer at Apple Computer . They married in 1988, and have four sons together in addition to Nancy's son from a previous relationship, born between 1979 or 1980 and 1997. The Lasseters own Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, California. The property includes a narrow gauge railroad named the Justi Creek Railway, which is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long, including

504-518: A delegation of animators to the Disney studio in 1981 and showed a clip from Miyazaki's first feature film, The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). Lasseter was so deeply moved that in 1985 he insisted on showing that clip and other examples of Miyazaki's work after dinner to a woman he had just met (who would become his wife). He visited Miyazaki during his first trip to Japan in 1987 and saw drawings for My Neighbor Totoro (1988). After Lasseter became

576-418: A further insight, however: that inanimate objects as characters held the potential for dramatic value as well. The film would come from Lasseter's experiments with modeling his Luxo lamp. He had felt an inspiration strike when fellow employee Tom Porter brought his infant son Spencer to work one day and Lasseter, playing with the child, became fascinated with his proportions. A baby's head was huge compared with

648-711: A good candidate for the film. Keane agreed, but first, they decided to do a short test film to see how it worked out and chose Where the Wild Things Are , a decision based on the fact that Disney had considered producing a feature based on the works of Maurice Sendak . Satisfied with the result, Lasseter, Keane and executive Thomas L. Wilhite went on with the project, especially Lasseter who dedicated himself to it, while Keane eventually went on to work with The Great Mouse Detective (1986). Lasseter and his colleagues unknowingly stepped on some of their direct superiors' toes by circumventing them in their enthusiasm to get

720-413: A history of alleged sexual misconduct toward employees. In June 2018, Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year when his contract expired; he took on a consulting role until then. Following his departure from Disney and Pixar, Lasseter was later hired by Skydance founder and CEO David Ellison to run the animation division Skydance Animation . John Alan Lasseter

792-462: A longtime professional colleague, approaching him, obviously readying a question. Lasseter braced for a question about the shadowing algorithm or some other recondite technical issue that he knew equally little about. Blinn instead asked whether the big lamp was the mother or the father. Although the memories of those involved are now hazy, Lasseter elsewhere referred to the parent lamp as the father. Lasseter then realized that he had succeeded in applying

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864-669: A new character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (often abbreviated as 'CalArts') and decided to follow his dream of becoming an animator. His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and, after graduating from Whittier High School in 1975, he enrolled as the second student ( Jerry Rees was the first) in the CalArts Character Animation program created by Disney animators Jack Hannah and T. Hee . Lasseter

936-423: A new level of visually stunning depth that had not been possible before. He knew adding dimension to animation had been a longtime dream of animators, going back to Walt Disney . Later, he and Glen Keane talked about how great it would be to make an animated feature where the background was computer-generated, and then showed Keane the book The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas Disch , which he thought would be

1008-430: A number of years included "grabbing, kissing, [and] making comments about physical attributes". The alleged sexual misconduct became so well-known that, according to Variety , at various times, Pixar had "minders who were tasked with reining in his impulses". In June 2018, Disney announced that Lasseter was leaving the company at the end of the year, taking a consulting role until then. On January 9, 2019, Lasseter

1080-477: A project that resulted in their first computer-animated short: The Adventures of André & Wally B. , meant to prove it was possible to do character animation on a computer. After his work on the Where the Wild Things Are -test, Lasseter assumed hand-drawn characters in a CGI environment was the only way, but Catmull insisted it could be done, it was just that nobody had given it an attempt before. Because Catmull

1152-518: A screening of Disney's 1963 film The Sword in the Stone at the Wardman Theater, he knew early in his youth that he wanted to become an animator. He then read Preston Blair 's book about animation, and made flipbooks based on Blair's walk cycles. One of his friends had a Super 8 camera that shot single frames, which was used to shoot some of his earlier animation efforts. Lasseter heard of

1224-544: A sequence titled "The Emperor and the Nightingale" (based on The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen ) for a Disney project called Musicana . Musicana was never released but eventually led to the development of Fantasia 2000 (1999). However, after 101 Dalmatians (1961), which in Lasseter's opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, he felt that the studio had lost momentum and

1296-554: A settlement." In his role at Skydance, Lasseter serves as producer on all feature films and executive producer on all series, along with Skydance Media CEO David Ellison . Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California , with his wife Nancy, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University , whom he met at a computer graphics conference in San Francisco in 1985. Nancy majored in computer graphics applications, and previously worked as

1368-402: A small yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star on the front roll-up to him. He eyes the ball curiously and pushes it away, but the ball comes back to him. He pushes it away again, but it rolls past him as Luxo Jr., his happy and excited son, hops over and plays with the ball. Luxo Jr. then balances himself on top of the ball and bounces on it excessively, causing it to deflate. Luxo Jr. flips

1440-768: A successful director and producer at Pixar, he went on to serve as executive producer on several of Miyazaki's films for their release in the United States and oversaw the translation and dubbing of their English language soundtracks. In addition, the forest spirit Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro makes an appearance as a plush toy in Toy Story 3 (2010). Lasseter is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served nine consecutive years on its board of governors from 2005 to 2014 when he had to relinquish his seat due to term limits. His last position on

1512-452: A train station and water tower Lasseter purchased from former Disney animator Ward Kimball . Their residence has a swimming pool with a lazy river that runs through a cave. Lasseter owns a collection of more than 1,000 Hawaiian shirts and wears one every day. Lasseter also collects classic cars , such as a black 1952 Jaguar XK120 . On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University , where he delivered

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1584-677: Is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the head of animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios , Walt Disney Animation Studios , and Disneytoon Studios , as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering . Lasseter began his career as an animator with The Walt Disney Company . After being fired from Disney for promoting computer animation , he joined Lucasfilm , where he worked on then-groundbreaking usage of CGI animation. The Graphics Group of

1656-551: Is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM , starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference is usually held in North America though is not limited in location possibilities; SIGGRAPH Asia, a second conference held annually, has been held since 2008 in countries throughout Asia . The conference incorporates both academic presentations as well as an industry trade show. Other events at

1728-568: Is an uncredited edit of three compositions on Brian Bennett 's album Counterpoint In Rhythm : "Finesse", "Quicksilver", and "Chateau Latour". In 2014, Luxo Jr. was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . In a dark room, a large illuminated balanced-arm desk lamp named Luxo Sr. sees

1800-633: Is now complete, so your employment with the Disney Studios is now terminated." Wilhite, who was part of Disney's live-action group and therefore had no obligations to the animation studio, was able to arrange to keep Lasseter around temporarily until the Wild Things test project was complete in January 1984, but with the understanding there would be no further work for Lasseter at Disney Animation. The Brave Little Toaster would later become

1872-401: Is regarded as a breakthrough in the animation industry as a whole, changing traditionalists' interpretation of computer animation. The short was the first work of animation to use procedural animation , the software written by Eben Ostby . It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film , becoming the first CGI film nominated for an Academy Award. The soundtrack music

1944-470: The Church of Christ church his family regularly attended. As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television. While in high school, he read The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas . The book covered the history of Disney animation and explored the making of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty , which made Lasseter realize he wanted to do animation himself. When he saw

2016-447: The Where the Wild Things Are project into motion. The project was canceled while being pitched to two of Lasseter's supervisors, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios, Ron W. Miller , due to lack of perceived cost benefits for the mix of traditional and computer animation. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter was summoned by Hansen to his office. As Lasseter recalled, Hansen told him, "Well, John, your project

2088-710: The 1970s, peaking around the turn of the century. A second conference, SIGGRAPH Asia, started in 2008. SIGGRAPH sponsored a number of conferences related to the field of computer graphics, including the ACM SIGGRAPH/ Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation, the ACM SIGGRAPH Conference on Motion, Interaction and Games (formerly known as Motion in Games). John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter ( / ˈ l æ s ə t ər / LASS -ə-tər ; born January 12, 1957)

2160-654: 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. He personally directed Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011), and executive-produced all other Pixar films through 2018. From 2006 to 2018, Lasseter also oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios' (and its division Disneytoon Studios') films and associated projects as executive producer. His works have grossed more than US$ 19 billion, making him one of

2232-464: The Disney touch of thought and emotion to his characters. " Luxo Jr. sent shock waves through the entire industry – to all of the corners for computer and traditional animation. At that time, most traditional artists were afraid of the computer. They did not realize that the computer was merely a different tool in the artist's kit but instead perceived it as a type of automation that might endanger their jobs. Luckily, this attitude changed dramatically in

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2304-835: The Golden Nica in the "Computer Animation/Film/ VFX” category of the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz in 1987. The short was later released in theaters with Toy Story 2 in 1999, subsequently appearing on its VHS and DVD releases in 2000. In this version, the short is preceded by the message, "In 1986 Pixar Animation Studios produced its first film. This is why we have a hopping lamp in our logo." It also saw release on home video as part of Tiny Toy Stories in 1996 and Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 in 2007. SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH ( Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques )

2376-678: The Los Angeles area, Pixar is located over 350 miles (563 kilometers) northwest in the Bay Area, where Catmull and Lasseter both live. Accordingly, they appointed a general manager for each studio to manage day-to-day business affairs, then established a routine of spending at least two days per week (usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays) in Southern California. Lasseter is a close friend and admirer of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki , whom he first met when TMS Entertainment sent

2448-634: The Walt Disney Company at Disneyland in Anaheim during summer breaks and got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper, where he learned the basics of comedy and comic timing to entertain captive audiences on the ride. Upon graduating in 1979, Lasseter immediately obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney Productions mostly due to his success with his student project, Lady and the Lamp . The studio had reviewed approximately 10,000 portfolios in

2520-593: The average acceptance rate between 2015 and 2019 of 27%. The submitted papers are peer-reviewed under a process that was historically single-blind , but was changed in 2018 to double-blind . The papers accepted for presentation at SIGGRAPH are printed since 2003 in a special issue of the ACM Transactions on Graphics journal. Prior to 1992, SIGGRAPH papers were printed as part of the Computer Graphics publication; between 1993 and 2001, there

2592-535: The board was as first vice president. Lasseter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood in 2011, located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard. In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging allegations of workplace sexual misconduct that he described as "missteps" with employees in a memo to staff. The alleged sexual misconduct toward multiple employees over

2664-468: The characters were faceless and wordless, Lasseter shaped such subtleties as the speed of the child's hops and the way it carried its head to convey in an instant when the child was feeling joy and when it was feeling sad. At every moment, the parent and child seemed to have a definite frame of mind. On the cinematic level, it demonstrates a simple and entertaining story, including effectively expressive individual characters. Catmull and Lasseter worked around

2736-452: The classic animation principles popularized by Disney's Nine Old Men to convey the lamps' emotions. Catmull and Lasseter worked around the clock, and Lasseter even took a sleeping bag into work and slept under his desk, ready to work early the next morning. Ultimately, the film took four and a half months to be completed. The short film debuted at SIGGRAPH. Before the film finished playing, the audience had already risen in applause. Luxo Jr.

2808-408: The clock, and Lasseter even took a sleeping bag into work and slept under his desk, ready to work early the next morning. As soon as the lamp moved, people started going crazy. And then the ball came in, and they were going nuts. Poor Gary Rydstrom, his wonderful sound work was never heard at that screening because the crowd was just literally screaming their heads off. —Craig Good, reflecting on

2880-407: The company's graphics experts were in production during the time in which Luxo Jr. was conceived. Bill Reeves , who was interested in algorithms to re-create the turbulence of ocean waves, made Flags and Waves , with waves reflecting a sunset and lapping against the shore. Eben Ostby, a Brown architecture major turned graphics programmer, made Beach Chair , starring a chair that walked across

2952-596: The company. A factor contributing to Lucas' sale was an increase in cash flow difficulties following his 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi . The newly independent company was headed by Dr. Edwin Catmull as president and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith as Executive Vice President. They were joined on the Board of Directors by Steve Jobs who

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3024-446: The computer scientists about filmmaking, animation, and art. The short turned out to be more revolutionary than Lasseter first had visualized before he came to Lucasfilm. His original idea had been to create only the backgrounds on computers, but in the final short everything was computer-animated, including the characters. After the short CGI film was presented at SIGGRAPH in the summer of 1984, Lasseter returned to Los Angeles with

3096-485: The conference include educational courses and panel discussions on recent topics in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference proceedings, which are published in the ACM Transactions on Graphics, has one of the highest impact factors among academic publications in the field of computer graphics. The paper acceptance rate for SIGGRAPH has historically been between 17% and 29%, with

3168-416: The deflated ball onto its side and looks up at Luxo Sr., who gently admonishes his son. Luxo Jr. then hops offscreen in shame but is later seen playing with a beach ball . Luxo Sr. looks at the camera, then shakes his head in embarrassment. The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm , had been associating with Industrial Light & Magic on computer-generated graphics in

3240-501: The early '80s with the use of personal computers in the home. The release of our Luxo Jr. [...] reinforced this opinion turnaround within the professional community." – Edwin Catmull, Computer Animation: A Whole New World, 1998. Luxo Jr. was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1987 at the 59th Academy Awards , becoming the first CGI-animated short film to be nominated for an Academy Award. It won

3312-523: The early 1980s. In 1984, the group produced an animated short film titled The Adventures of André & Wally B. , which premiered at the annual SIGGRAPH conference to great fanfare. The group, which numbered 40 individuals, was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 with investment by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer . Jobs paid $ 5 million to George Lucas for technology rights and put them and $ 5 million cash as capital into

3384-478: The film, not a single frame, had been rendered on a Pixar Image Computer", wrote David Price in his book The Pixar Touch . The audience was captivated by the far more realistic look than The Adventures of André and Wally B. . More significant than its photorealism , however, was its emotional realism. "It was perhaps the first computer-animated film that enabled viewers to forget they were watching computer animation", wrote Price. Afterward, Lasseter saw Jim Blinn ,

3456-432: The film. Apart from the film's hoped-for promotional value, Catmull and Smith rationalized the project as a test of "self-shadowing" in the rendering software- that is, the ability of objects to shed light and shadows on themselves. Before self-shadowing, CGI shadows were made by adding a flattened and darkened version of the shadowed object. On the technical level, the film demonstrates the use of shadow maps to simulate

3528-519: The first fully computer-generated photorealistic animated character, a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. This effect was the first CGI character to be scanned and painted directly onto film using a laser. Lasseter and Catmull's collaboration, which has since lasted over thirty years, would ultimately result in Toy Story (1995), which was the first-ever computer-animated feature film . Additionally, Lasseter created THX 's robot mascot Tex. He made his first appearance in 1996 with

3600-457: The first light cycle sequences for an upcoming film entitled Tron (1982), featuring state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI), that he saw the huge potential of this new technology in animation. Up to that time, the studio had used a multiplane camera to add depth to its animation. Lasseter realized that computers could be used to make films with three-dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add

3672-455: The hope of directing The Brave Little Toaster at Hyperion Pictures. He soon learned that funding had fallen through and called Catmull with the bad news. Catmull called back with a job offer, and Lasseter joined Lucasfilm as a full-time employee in October 1984 and moved to the Bay Area. After that, he worked with ILM on the special effects on Young Sherlock Holmes , where he made

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3744-496: The late 1970s in search of talent, then selected only about 150 candidates as apprentices, of which only about 45 were kept on permanently. In the fall of 1979, Disney animator Mel Shaw told the Los Angeles Times that "John's got an instinctive feel for character and movement and shows every indication of blossoming here at our studios ... In time, he'll make a fine contribution." At that same time, Lasseter worked on

3816-418: The most financially successful filmmakers of all time. Of the ten animated films that have grossed over US$ 1 billion, five of them were executive produced by Lasseter: Toy Story 3 (2010)—the first animated film to surpass $ 1 billion—and Frozen (2013)—the third-highest-grossing animated film of all time—as well as Zootopia (2016), Finding Dory (2016), and Incredibles 2 (2018). Frozen also held

3888-478: The next 10 years, Pixar evolved from a computer company that did animation work on the side into an animation studio. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. As well as Toy Story , he also personally directed A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011). He has won two Academy Awards , for Animated Short Film ( Tin Toy ), as well as

3960-420: The only company he had ever wanted to work for, Lasseter could not find the strength to tell Catmull that he had been fired. Catmull later telephoned Smith that day and mentioned that Lasseter was not working at Disney. Smith told Catmull to put down the phone and hire Lasseter right now. Lasseter agreed instantly to work freelance with Catmull and his colleagues and joined them for a week of December 1983 on

4032-539: The original theatrical release of Independence Day . Since then, Tex has appeared in some THX trailers. Due to George Lucas 's financially crippling divorce, he was forced to sell off Lucasfilm Computer Graphics, by this time renamed the Pixar Graphics Group, founded by Smith and Catmull, with Lasseter as one of the founding employees. It was spun off as a separate corporation with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as its majority shareholder in 1986. Over

4104-495: The parent lamp looked on. Finally, Luxo Jr. would reappear feeling excited with a new, larger ball. Among the films shown at SIGGRAPH in 1985, Lasseter particularly admired a piece of character animation called Tony de Peltrie , which came from a group at the University of Montreal ; it featured a strikingly expressive human character, an aging piano player who entertained while inwardly reflecting on better days, which inspired

4176-559: The preceding year, its last year under Lucas's wing, apart from a stained-glass knight sequence they produced for Young Sherlock Holmes . Catmull was determined that Pixar would have a film to show at its first SIGGRAPH as an independent company in August 1986. Luxo Jr. was produced by Pixar employee John Lasseter as a demonstration of the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities. Two other short animations produced by two of

4248-634: The rest of its body, Lasseter realized. It struck Lasseter as humorous and he began to wonder what a young lamp would look like. He fiddled with the dimensions of all the parts of his Luxo model—all but the bulb since lightbulbs come from a store and don't grow, he reasoned—and he emerged with a second character, Luxo Jr. Lasseter initially intended Luxo Jr. as a plotless character study. When he showed some early tests at an animation festival in Brussels , Belgium , respected Belgian animator Raoul Servais exhorted him, "No matter how short it is, it should have

4320-418: The sand and nervously approached the water, dipped its front legs in just far enough to test the temperature, then scurried along. Reeves and Ostby also assisted Lasseter with model making and rendering on the short film. Lasseter's student film at CalArts , The Lady and the Lamp , applied Walt Disney 's observation that giving lifelike qualities to inanimate objects held comic potential. Luxo Jr. displayed

4392-615: The shifting light and shadow given by the animated lamps. The lights and the color surfaces of all the objects are calculated, each using a RenderMan surface shader , not surface textures . The articulation of "limbs" is carefully coordinated, and power cords trail believably behind the moving lamps. Because time and money were tight, Lasseter reduced the setting to its simplest elements. The background would be plain black and there would be no camera movement. His energies would rather be focused instead on working out techniques based on classic animation principles to convey emotion. Even though

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4464-498: The short's debut at SIGGRAPH Luxo Jr. , alongside Flags and Waves and Beach Chair , debuted at SIGGRAPH in the Dallas Convention Center Arena , where the audience of six thousand immediately recognized the short film as a breakthrough. Before Luxo Jr. finished playing at SIGGRAPH, the crowd had already risen in applause. "Pixar's marketing department did not go out of its way to point out that none of

4536-519: The title of the highest-grossing animated film of all time until 2019, and was the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time at the end of its theatrical run. He has won two Academy Awards , for Best Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy ), as well as a Special Achievement Award (for Toy Story ). In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical from Pixar and Disney Animation after acknowledging what he called "missteps" in his behavior with employees. According to various news outlets, Lasseter had

4608-542: Was a dedicated SIGGRAPH Conference Proceedings series of publications. SIGGRAPH has several awards programs to recognize contributions to computer graphics. The most prestigious is the Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics. It has been awarded every two years since 1983 to recognize an individual's lifetime achievement in computer graphics. The SIGGRAPH conference experienced significant growth starting in

4680-741: Was born on January 12, 1957, in Hollywood , California . His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley; 1918–2005), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School , and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter (1924–2011), was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. Lasseter is a fraternal twin ; his sister Johanna Lasseter-Curtis, who became a baker based in the Lake Tahoe area, is six minutes older. Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California . His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation. He often drew cartoons during services at

4752-429: Was chairman. Pixar's small animation department—consisting of Lasseter, plus the part-time supporting efforts of several graphics scientists—was never meant to generate any revenue as far as Jobs was concerned. Catmull and Smith justified its existence on the basis that more films that were shown at SIGGRAPH like The Adventures of André and Wally B. would promote the company's computers. The group had no film at SIGGRAPH

4824-649: Was hired to head Skydance Animation , a new animation division of Skydance Media formed in 2017. In a statement, Lasseter said "I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader." An investigation conducted prior to his hiring found that no previous claims of sexual assault, propositioning or harassment had been filed against Lasseter, and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for

4896-931: Was honored with the Winsor McCay Award , the lifetime achievement award for animators. Disney announced that it would be purchasing Pixar in January 2006, and Lasseter was named the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation, the latter of which he renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios . Lasseter was also named principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering , where he helped design attractions for Disney Parks . He oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios' films and associated projects as executive producer. He reported directly to Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger , bypassing Disney's studio and theme park executives. He also received green-light power on films with Roy E. Disney 's consent. In December 2006, Lasseter announced that Disney Animation would start producing animated shorts – 2D, CGI, or

4968-499: Was not allowed to hire animators, he was given the title "Interface Designer"; "Nobody knew what that was but they didn't question it in budget meetings". Lasseter spent a lot of time at Lucasfilm in the San Francisco Bay Area in the spring of 1984, where he worked together closely with Catmull and his team of computer science researchers. Lasseter learned how to use some of their software, and in turn, he taught

5040-467: Was often repeating itself. Between 1980 and 1981, he coincidentally came across some video tapes from one of the then new computer-graphics conferences, who showed some of the very beginnings of computer animation, primarily floating spheres and such, which he experienced as a revelation. But it was not until shortly after, when he was invited by his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer , while working on Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), to come and see

5112-490: Was taught by three members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators— Eric Larson , Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston —and his classmates included future animators and directors like Brad Bird , John Musker , Henry Selick , Tim Burton , and Chris Buck . During his time there, he produced two animated shorts— Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980)—which each won the student Academy Award for Animation. While at CalArts, Lasseter first started working for

5184-681: Was to end shortly, Lasseter visited a computer graphics conference in November 1983 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach , where he met and talked to Catmull again. Catmull inquired about The Brave Little Toaster , which Lasseter explained had been shelved. From his experience at Lucasfilm, Catmull assumed Lasseter was simply between projects since Hollywood studios have traditionally laid off employees when they lack enough productions to keep them busy. Still devastated at being forced out of

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