The hands-down, undisputed, leader in digital animation is a company called Pixar in the United States. They are
the people behind Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life(1998), Toy Story 2, (1999)
Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, and the latest movie UP. Originally, the studio was the computer
graphics division of George
Lucas's Lucasfilm before it was purchased by Steve Jobs in 1986.Even though Pixar's
movies are generally 90 minutes, they take a long time to produce. Monster Inc. took
five years to complete. Each movie produced by Pixar gets better, because the technology
gets better. In Monsters Inc., for example, each of Sulley's 3.2 million hairs is
individually animated. The hairs are computer designed as though they were springs with
balls at the end. Five hundred key hairs are placed throughout Sulley's coat and a
special computer program was created to make these hairs coordinate the movements of
all the other hairs around them. The ultimate effect is a stunningly natural
coat of hair.