Edwin Catmull

Early in life, Catmull found inspiration in Disney movies such as Peter Pan and Pinocchio and dreamed of becoming a feature film animator. However, he assessed his chances realistically and decided that his talents lay elsewhere. Instead of pursuing a career in the movie industry, he enrolled in the physics and computer science programs at the University of Utah. It was there that he made three fundamental computer graphics discoveries: Z-buffering, texture mapping and bicubic patches. While at the university, he invented algorithms for anti-aliasing and rendering subdivision surfaces and created, in 1974, his earliest contribution to the film industry, an animated version of his left hand for Futureworld, the science fiction sequel to the film Westworld and the first film to use 3D computer graphics.

After leaving the university, Catmull went to work for George Lucas at Lucasfilm. It was at Lucasfilm that he helped develop digital image compositing technology used to combine multiple images in a convincing way. Later, in 1986, Catmull founded Pixar with Steve Jobs. At Pixar, Catmull was a key developer of the Renderman rendering system used in films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

In 1993, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Catmull with his first Academy Award "for the development of Renderman software which produces images used in motion pictures from 3D computer descriptions of shape and appearance." Again in 1996, he received an Oscar "for pioneering inventions in Digital Image Compositing". Finally, in 2001, his third award was "for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar's RenderMan." It was also in 2001 that Catmull was named president of Pixar Animation Studios.

See also: Catmull-Rom spline, Subdivision surface

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