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William Reeves (animator)
William "Bill" Reeves (born May 5, 1959) is a Canadian animator and technical director known for working with John Lasseter on the animated shorts '' Luxo Jr.'' and '' The Adventures of André and Wally B.'' After obtaining a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and completing a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, Reeves was hired by George Lucas as a member of Lucasfilm's Computer Division, Computer Graphics Group. He was one of the founding employees of Pixar when it was sold in 1986 to Steve Jobs. Reeves is the inventor of the first motion blur algorithm and methods to simulate particle motion in CGI. Bill Reeves created particle systems allowing for the realistic articulation of random elements like smoke and fire.Sito, Tom. Moving Innovation: a history of computer animation. Massachusetts. MIT Press. 2013. pgs. 158-59. Lasseter and Reeves received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (Oscar) in 1988 for their work on the film ''Tin Toy''. Thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Indigenous peoples have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, California, United States. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is another studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Pixar started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. Disney purchased Pixar in January 2006 at a valuation of $7.4+ billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock. Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company's own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. The studio's mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finding Nemo
''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was written by Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds from a story by Stanton. The film stars the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. It tells the story of an overprotective clownfish named Marlin who, along with a regal blue tang named Dory, searches for his missing son Nemo. Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself. Pre-production of the film began in early 1997. The inspiration for ''Finding Nemo'' sprang from multiple experiences, going back to Stanton's childhood, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. To ensure that the movements of the fish in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bug's Life
''A Bug's Life'' is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the second feature-length film produced by Pixar. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, the film involves a misfit ant, Flik, who is looking for "tough warriors" to save his colony from a protection racket run by Hopper's gang of grasshoppers. Unfortunately, the "warriors" he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs. The film was initially inspired by Aesop's fable ''The Ant and the Grasshopper''. Production began shortly after the release of ''Toy Story'' in 1995. The screenplay was penned by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft. The ants in the film were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar's animation unit employed technical innovations in computer animation. Randy Newman composed the music for the film. During production, a contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knick Knack
''Knick Knack'' is a 1989 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar that was written and directed by John Lasseter. The short is about a snow globe snowman who wants to join the other travel souvenirs in a summer-themed party. However, the glass dome that surrounds him prevents him from doing so, thus leading to his many attempts to break out of his snow globe. ''Knick Knack'' is Pixar's fourth short and the final short produced during the company's tenure as a hardware company. The short stands out from Lasseter's other early short films at Pixar in its reliance on pure comedy to drive the story. It was inspired by ''Tom and Jerry'', ''Looney Tunes'', and the work of animators Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. Lasseter and his wife, Nancy, collected snow globes and also enjoyed souvenirs from distant places and those elements made their way into the short as well. Singer Bobby McFerrin improvised the a cappella vocal jazz soundtrack to the film while watching a rough cut w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red's Dream
''Red's Dream'' is a 1987 American computer-animated short film written and directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar. The short film, which runs four minutes, stars Red, a unicycle. Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store on a rainy night, Red dreams of a fantasy where it becomes the star of a circus. ''Red's Dream'' was Pixar's second computer-animated short following ''Luxo Jr.'' in 1986, also directed by Lasseter. ''Red's Dream'' is more strongly character-driven than ''Luxo Jr.'', Pixar's previous short film. The short was designed to demonstrate new technical innovations in imagery. The short was created by employing the company's own Pixar Image Computer, but the computer's memory limitations led the animation group to abandon it for further projects. Space was growing tight at the company, and as a result, Lasseter and his team worked out of a hallway during production, where Lasseter sometimes slept for days on end. The short film premiered at the annual SIGGRA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Young Sherlock Holmes
''Young Sherlock Holmes'' (also known with the title card name of "''Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear''") is a 1985 American mystery adventure film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Chris Columbus, based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film depicts a young Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meeting and solving a mystery together at a boarding school. The film is notable for being the first full-length movie to feature a completely computer-generated character. This was a landmark moment in special effects history and influenced other future films such as ''Toy Story''. Plot A young John Watson transfers from his school in the country to London’s Brompton Academy, where Sherlock Holmes befriends him immediately. Holmes’ mentors there include Rupert Waxflatter, an eccentric retired professor to whom the school has given a large attic space for his inventions, which include a flying machine. Waxflatter's niece, Elizabeth, and Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Return Of The Jedi
''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who was also the executive producer. The sequel to '' Star Wars'' (1977) and ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), it is the third installment in the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, the third film to be produced, and the sixth chronological film in the "Skywalker Saga". The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew and Frank Oz. Set one year after ''The Empire Strikes Back'', the Galactic Empire is constructing a second Death Star to exterminate the Rebel Alliance. With intel that the Emperor will be onboard, the Rebel fleet launches a full-scale attack on the Death Star in hopes of both destroying it and the Emperor. Meanwhile, Rebel hero Luke Skywalker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wrath Of Khan
''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Nicholas Meyer and based on the television series ''Star Trek''. It is the second film in the ''Star Trek'' film series following '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979), and is a sequel to the original series episode "Space Seed" (1967). The plot features Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship USS ''Enterprise'' facing off against the genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the ''Enterprise'' must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The film is the beginning of a three-film story arc that continues with the film '' Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984) and concludes with the film '' Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986). After the lackluster critical response to the first film, series creator Gene Roddenberry w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wes Graham
James Wesley Graham, OC was a Canadian professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo. Graham was born on January 17, 1932, in Copper Cliff, Ontario. His interest in computing developed while studying math and physics at the University of Toronto. After working at IBM as a systems engineer, Graham accepted a position at the University of Waterloo in 1959 becoming one of the first computer science professors at the university. In 1962, Graham was named the director of Waterloo's Computing Centre when it was established as a separate entity from Department of Mathematics. In 1965, Waterloo undergraduate James G. Mitchell wrote a paper on how to create a teaching compiler for Fortran. Graham created a team for Mitchell to create the compiler, which was eventually known as WATFOR, and was eventually to be used by students at 420 postsecondary institutions around the world. WATFOR was followed by similar teaching compilers, like WATBOL, for teaching COBOL, and W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toy Story
''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story'' franchise, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. It was written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft. The film features music by Randy Newman, was produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and was executive-produced by Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull. The film features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, and Erik von Detten. Taking place in a world where toys come to life when humans are not present, the plot of ''Toy Story'' focuses on the relationship between a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1931–32, to the present. From 1932 until 1970, the category was known as Short Subjects, Cartoons; and from 1971 to 1973 as Short Subjects, Animated Films. The present title began with the 46th Awards in 1974. During the first 5 decades of the award's existence, awards were presented to the producers of the shorts. Current Academy rules, however, call for the award to be presented to "the individual person most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film." Moreover, " the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded." Only American films were nominated for the award until the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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