Meet the Little-Known Genius Who Helped Make Pixar Possible

Photo caption: Alvy Ray Smith, who cofounded Pixar, was a leading figure in the early days of digital cinema. He’s written a new book, The Biography of a Pixel, that traces the ideas and science that led to computer-generated animation over the last few centuries. Photo credit: Cayce Clifford. Article by Steven Levy. Wired – August 31, 2021.

Alvy Ray Smith helped invent computer animation as we know it—then got royally shafted by Steve Jobs. Now he’s got a vision for where the pixel will take us next.

In 2007 a new documentary called The Pixar Story screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It covered the wild antics of the studio’s founders as they crafted a new kind of movie—a fully computer-animated picture bursting with riotous colors and textures, ultra-­vivid characters, and plotlines subversively seeded with mind-expanding wisdom. […]

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