PIXAR

George Lucas recruits Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology to head Lucasfilm’s Computer Division, a group charged with developing state-of-the-art computer technology for the film industry. Lucas’s wish list: a digital (nonlinear) film editing system, a digital (nonlinear) sound editing system, a laser film printer, and further exploration of computer graphics. The following year, he is joined by Alvy Ray Smith, who is hired as Director of Computer Graphics Research.