25 years of Pixar's archives in photos
OAKLAND, Calif.--If one thing is clear in the film business, it's that there has never been a studio as reliably successful as Pixar Animation Studios. Over 25 years, Pixar has turned out 11 feature films, and every single one of them has been a commercial and critical hit.
Over those 25 years, Pixar has built up a gigantic archive of storyboards, sketches, models, videos, and much more; since 2005, an exhibit featuring hundreds of individual elements of that archive has been traveling the world, delighting thousands of people from New York to England to Japan to Australia, and beyond.
Now the exhibit, titled Pixar: 25 Years of Animation, has come back to the Emeryville, Calif., studio's backyard. It is currently appearing at the Oakland Museum of California, and currently features 500 pieces, including some from Pixar's latest smash hit, Toy Story 3.
But the show naturally also has all kinds of treats from each of the studio's previous 10 films: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Pixar's award-winning short films, and, of course, Finding Nemo.
This is a pastel painting by Ralph Eggleston from 2003's Finding Nemo entitled Sequence Pastel: First day.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
The Pixar story, at least in the popular imagination, began in 1995 with the release of Toy Story, the first feature film ever done entirely with computer animation.
This is a pencil drawing of Buzz Lightyear, one of that film's stars, done by Bob Pauley. It is also the signature image for the museum exhibition.
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This is a cast urethane resin model of an early Buzz Lightyear, made for Toy Story by Bud Luckey. The exhibit features models like this from all of Pixar's 11 feature films, including characters like Woody from Toy Story, Linguine and Remy from Ratatouille, Gill from Finding Nemo, Mike from Monsters, Inc., and so on.
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This is a storyboard for the original Toy Story, from 1995. It was drawn in pencil and ink by Joe Ranft.
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This is a pencil drawing of a very early depiction of Woody, the main character in all three Toy Story films. It was drawn for Toy Story by Jeffrey Pidgeon.
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An early drawing of Buzz Lightyear, for Toy Story, done in mixed media by Bud Luckey, with color by Ralph Eggleston.
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A mixed media drawing of the plan for Mr Potato Head for Toy Story in 1995, by Bob Pauley.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
These are three images of the main stars of the Toy Story franchise, done for the original 1995 film: Woody and Buzz. In the upper left is Woody and Buzz, done in pencil by Bob Pauley. On the right is the Woody model packet drawing done by Bud Luckey and Bob Pauley in mixed media. And on the lower left is Buzz, by Bob Pauley, done in mixed media.
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This is Luxo Jr. and the ball, which any Pixar fan should recognize as the studio's corporate mascots. This model was created in 2010 in plaster, styrene, and metal springs, by Neftali Alvarez, with printing by Carol Wang.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This is Flick Model Packet Drawing, done by Bob Pauley for 1998's A Bug's Life, featuring that film's main character, Flik.
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This is a schematic of the harvester that Flik built in A Bug's Life. The drawing was done in mixed media by Bob Pauley.
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In A Bug's Life, the ant colony at the heart of the story found itself having to make seasonal offerings of seeds and other goodies to a group of evil grasshoppers. This image of the offering stone was done in acrylic by Tia Kratter, with layout by Nat McLaughlin.
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This is a mixed media painting of Jessie, from 1999's Toy Story 2, by Jill Culton.
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This image of Jessie, from Toy Story 2, was done by Jill Culton in pencil.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Parapalegics demonstrating the use of eLegs at a press conference in San Francisco said they never thought they would experience walking movements again. This is Joe Ranft's famous The Storyboarding Process as Told in Storyboards, which depicts the humorous side of the process used at Pixar to create storyboards for its films.
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For 2001's Monsters, Inc., Tia Kratter--with maquette by Jerome Ranft--created Sullivan Fur Pattern Studies, depicting several possible colors for the fur of Sully, one of the film's two main characters.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This pencil drawing of the wonderful door vault, from Monsters, Inc., was created by Glenn Kim.
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Another image of the Monsters, Inc., door vault by Glenn Kim, this time in mixed media.
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This is Scarefloor, by Dominique Louis, with layout by Harley Jessup for Monsters, Inc. It was done in pastel.
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This great image of Monsters, Inc., Orientation was done by Ricky Nierva, in marker and ink.
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This is Anglerfish, done in oil for 2003's Finding Nemo by Randy Berrett.
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For Finding Nemo, famous artist Peter de Seve created this pencil study of Crush the turtle.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
For 2004's The Incredibles, Teddy Newton created this collage, called The Jumper. Newton is one of Pixar's rising stars: He was the director of Day and Night, the short film that accompanied 2010's Toy Story 3.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
For 2006's Cars, Bob Pauley created this mixed media image of Lightning McQueen, that film's main character.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This is Race Car Color Study,by Tia Kratter, done in mixed media for 2006's Cars.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Bob Pauley created this marker and pencil drawing, Mater of the truck of the same name for Cars.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Based on the stunning natural formation Monument Valley in Arizona and Utah, this is Ornament Valley, done in acrylic for Cars by Tia Kratter.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This is Luigi's Tire Shop, done in marker and pen for Cars by Jay Shuster.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
For 2007's Ratatouille, Robert Kondo created this digital painting of Remy in the Kitchen, featuring that film's main character and chef, Remy the rat.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This is a rough concept of Remy on the Skylight, created in mixed media by Harley Jessup for Ratatouille.
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This is the evolution of Remy on the Skylight, advancing from the previous image to this digital painting by Dominique Louis, with layout by Harley Jessup.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Harley Jessup created this digital painting of Django Plans the Heist, depicting a crucial scene in 2007's Ratatouille.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This model of the ever-charming Wall-E, from the 2008 film of the same name, was done in plaster with a brass rod by various Pixar artists.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
For Wall-E, Jason Deamer created this ink and marker drawing, Eve Firing Gun, depicting Eve, the film's female robotic lead, and Wall-E's paramour, shooting at something that startled her.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Peter Sohn and Max Brace created this digital painting of The Plant storyboard for Wall-E.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
According to the exhibit, a colorscript "is artwork that visually supports the emotional content of an entire story through general color, lighting, and mood. It depicts the whole story in a chronological format that allows one to see the basic color structure to be applied to the entire film. The colorscript is one of the first opportunities to see the story as a whole. It is a low-resolution view that reveals the full emotional arc of the film. Colorscripts work because detail is removed and ideas are presented in their most concise form".
This is the colorscript for Wall-E, a digital painting done by Ralph Eggleston.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Fans of Wall-E will always remember the incinerator, depicted here in Incinerator, a haunting digital painting by Noah Klocek.
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This is Balloonman Carl, done in pencil and marker for 2009's Up, by that film's director, Pete Docter.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This is a cast urethane resin model of Russell, one of the two main characters in 2009's Up.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
This Up storyboard is a digital painting done by Ronnie del Carmen, Josh Cooley, Rob Gibbs, Justin Hunt, Bill Presing, and Nick Sung.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Fans of Toy Story 3--and there are many, given that the 2010 film surpassed US$1 billion in worldwide box office--will instantly recognize this image from the movie's opening sequence. It is Hamm Ship, done in pencil by Kristian Norelius.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Robert Kondo created this pencil drawing of the Western Opening sequence in Toy Story 3.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
For Toy Story 3, Danny Arriaga created this pencil drawing of Lotso Poses,featuring the film's evil Lots-o-Huggin' Bear.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
Many fans of Toy Story 3 recognized the fact that its climax featured one of the most existential moments in all of Pixar's films. Here, Robert Kondo captures an early moment in that sequence, the beat board for End of the Line, done in a digital painting.
Photo and caption: Daniel Terdiman/CNET
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