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Alvy Ray Smith says painting came before computers—and that his first computer graphic was a spiral he drew for a weather-satellite antenna around 1964. In this IEEE Spectrum interview, Smith traces how art, engineering, and a series of research and animation jobs led him to help build the company that became Pixar.
What came first: art or computers?
Smith recalls being drawn first to painting, then to engineering and computers. Around 1964, while working part time in New Mexico State University’s physical sciences laboratory, he designed what he describes as his first computer graphic: a spiral for a weather-satellite antenna. “I designed my first computer graphic around 1964 while working part time in New Mexico State [University]’s physical sciences laboratory,” he told IEEE Spectrum.
That early project joined visual form to a practical engineering problem—a combination that recurs throughout Smith’s account of his career.
How did Smith move from engineering into computer graphics?
Stanford and an unexpected change of direction
Smith says he began graduate study at Stanford in 1966, initially focusing on artificial intelligence. His later path took him through teaching at New York University and work at Xerox PARC. He recounts suffering a skiing accident in New Hampshire in 1973, then moving to California after recovering and beginning work at PARC in 1974.
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Finding an animation community at NYIT
Smith later joined the computer-animation effort at the New York Institute of Technology, where he met Ed Catmull. He recalls working with early full-color frame-buffer equipment, part of the emerging toolkit for making and displaying computer-generated images. In his telling, NYIT was where his work in graphics became closely connected to the possibility of animation.
What brought Smith and Catmull to Lucasfilm?
Smith recounts moving with Catmull to Lucasfilm to pursue computer animation. There, Smith designed and directed the Genesis demonstration scene for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). The scene depicts a barren planet transformed into a living world, and Smith describes the work as his directorial debut.
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The Genesis sequence gave computer graphics a prominent role in a feature film. For Smith, it also marked a transition from developing graphics technology to using it as part of a cinematic story.
Why did Smith help start Pixar?
Smith says he and Catmull launched Pixar in 1986 as a hardware company. Its initial product was the Pixar Image Computer; computer animation was part of the larger ambition, but the company began by selling specialized hardware rather than operating as a feature-animation studio.
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Smith says he left Pixar in 1991 after Disney approached the company about making Toy Story. His interview account links that approach to his departure, but it does not establish a fuller explanation for the decision.
What did Smith do after Pixar?
After leaving, Smith says he founded Altamira Software, a company focused on computer graphics. The interview reports that Microsoft acquired Altamira in 1994.
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Where can readers explore Smith’s history of computer graphics?
Smith develops the broader story of pixel-based image making in A Biography of the Pixel. The book ranges across art, technology, entertainment, business, and digital movies, rather than focusing only on Pixar. MIT Press lists its paperback (ISBN 9780262542456) and ebook (ISBN 9780262365215) as published August 3, 2021. See the MIT Press book page for the publisher’s edition details.
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