No other studio could compete. Disney had just released Pocahontas, and suddenly it felt like it was a generation behind.

Now a part of Disney, Pixar was born out of Lucasfilm's computer graphics division and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who initially intended the company to be a hardware maker of the Pixar Image ...

Pixar created its Renderman animation system in the 1980s and even made its own Pixar Image Computer hardware in 1987. It made four films, including its debut film Toy Story, with Silicon Graphics ...

Its Pixar Image Computer compiled vast amounts of data to form 3-D images and cost more than $120,000, plus at least $60,000 for the software and accompanying accessories such as tape drives.

The Pixar Image Computer was cutting edge tech in the late ‘80s and it cost $135,000 a pop. Users also had to buy a $35,000 workstation from Sun Microsystems or Silicon Graphics to use the thing.

Philips was interested in the technology behind the Pixar Image Computer, which could read huge amounts of data from imaging machines like CT scanners or MRIs.

Back in 1987, John Knoll, who would become the co-creator of Adobe Photoshop (along with his brother Thomas), was tinkering with a new piece of hardware—the Pixar Image Computer—when he ...

A new hope While the Pixar Image Computer was technically stunning, it wasn’t a commercial success, and it didn’t represent the company’s passion.

Pixar’s animated films feature magical characters like Sully, the furry 1,000-pound beast from Monsters University. Building those computer-animated characters takes years of work, but studio ...

Now a part of Disney, Pixar was born out of Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who initially intended the company to be a hardware maker of the Pixar Image ...