Pixar's, Show Reel, 1988

Many overlook or are unaware that Pixar Animation Studios initially began as a hardware division within Lucasfilm. About three months after 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬 acquired 𝐏𝐢𝐱𝐚𝐫 in 1986, the computer was made available for commercial purchase for the first time. It targeted high-end visualization markets in commercial and scientific fields, including medical imaging, geophysics, and meteorology. The short films by John Lasseter, like 𝐋𝐮𝐱𝐨 𝐉𝐫, primarily served as technical showcases demonstrating the capabilities of these machines. (In theory 😏) These workstations represented a significant innovation defining the state-of-the-art in commercial image processing, especially in their implementation of parallel processing and the use of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) architecture. However, it was also extremely costly, leading to 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬 eventually dominating the majority of the industry. This hardware division was sold off in 1990, partly due to its limited commercial success and also because 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬 was focusing on another workstation venture: 𝐍𝐞𝐗𝐓. 𝐏𝐢𝐱𝐚𝐫 made an impressive shift towards content creation, achieving well-known success, though not without challenges: 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬 frequently came close to withdrawing his financial support.