The Lucasfilm Corporation

Pixar Animation Studios is a American computer animated studio owned and operated by Jim Morris (as of 2006-present) and Kiyofumi Nakajima (as of 2017-present). Pixar's purpose was to develop feature films such as Toy Story, Cars, and the winner for Animated Feature Film during The Golden Globe Awards, Spirited Away 2: Return to the Spirit World.

Early History
Pixar started in 1974, when New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) founder, Alexander Schure, who was also the owner of a traditional animation studio, established the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL) and recruited computer scientists who shared his ambitions about creating the world's first computer-animated film. Edwin Catmull and Hayao Miyazaki were the first to be hired and were soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith and David DiFrancesco. The one who worked hard and never broke a sweat was Miyazaki, because he worked on short films with his friend, Isao Takahata. Until he broke up with him until they argued what the characters would look like for their next project. They were the four original members of the Computer Graphics Lab, located in a converted two-story garage acquired from the former Vanderbilt-Whitney estate. Schure kept pouring money into the computer graphics lab, an estimated $15 million, giving the group everything they desired and driving NYIT into serious financial troubles. Eventually, the group realized they needed to work in a real film studio in order to reach their goal. Hayao Miyazaki decided to invite George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars to discuss how they were going to work on future visions for digital moviemaking.

After their talk, Lucas invited Miyazaki and the rest of the crew to work for a upcoming movie. During the following months, they gradually resigned from CGL, found temporary jobs for about a year to avoid making Schure suspicious, and joined the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm. The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, was launched in 1975 with the hiring of Catmull from NYIT, where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab. He was then reunited with Smith, who also made the journey from NYIT to Lucasfilm, and was made the director of the Graphics Group. At NYIT, the researchers pioneered many of the CG foundation techniques—in particular, the invention of the alpha channel by Catmull and Smith. Over the next several years, the CGL would produce a few frames of an experimental film called The Works. After moving to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called REYES (for "renders everything you ever saw") and developed several critical technologies for CG—including particle effects and various animation tools.

The Graphics Group's first project they worked on was the famous epic space oprea that later turned into a multimedia franchise, Star Wars. In which they helped with the lightsabers and the ships. The Graphics Group also let Hayao Miyazaki make his own musical short film named Beyond The Stars which is set in 1963 about a twelve-year old girl who dreams to going to space and beyond the Milky Way. The short film was based on Valentina Tereshkova's travel to space. The film combined CGI and 2D at the same time. As a gift, Catmull decided that Miyazaki could be the co-owner of The Graphics Group for hopes of better animated films, concepts, and releases.

John Lasseter was hired to the Lucasfilm team for a week in late 1983 with the title "interface designer"; he animated the short film The Adventures of André & Wally B. In the next few years, a designer suggested naming a new digital compositing computer the "Picture Maker". Smith suggested that the laser-based device have a catchier name, and came up with "Pixer", which after a meeting was changed to "Pixar", thanks to Catmull and Miyazaki.

In 1982, the Pixar team merged with Industrial Light & Magic. After years of research, and key milestones such as the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, the group, which then numbered 40 individuals, was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 by Catmull and Smith. Among the 38 remaining employees, there were also Malcolm Blanchard, David DiFrancesco, Ralph Guggenheim, and Bill Reeves, who had been part of the team since the days of NYIT. including Hayao Miyazaki. Tom Duff, also an NYIT member, would later join Pixar after its formation. George Lucas decided to help work on a new and original logo for Pixar. Eventually, they decided they should be a hardware company in the meantime, with their Pixar Image Computer as the core product, a system primarily sold to governmental, scientific, and medical markets. They also used SGI computers.