Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When was Lucasfilm Animation founded?
Founded in 2003 in Singapore as a means to tap into the talent pool, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore (LAS) opened its doors in October 2005. LAS works closely with Lucasfilm Animation. The LAS production schedule also includes contributions to projects from other Lucasfilm companies. While the largest of LAS’ production groups focused on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in July 2006 LAS announced the creation of the Game Group and the Digital Artists Group (DAG). With difficulty in meeting the technical and aesthetic requirements of Clone Wars, LAS was ultimately removed from the production and released a number of employees.
Pixar () is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. Pixar and Disney had a seven feature agreement that allowed Disney to distribute the films with Disney owing the character rights. With the success of "Toy Story 2" in 1999, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs began to disagree on how Pixar should be run and the terms of their continued relationship. Eisner claimed that Toy Story 2 would not count towards the "original" film count of the agreement. Jobs announced in January 2004 that Pixar would not renew their agreement with Disney and would seek out other distributors for releases starting in 2006. In 2004, Disney Circle 7 Animation was formed as a CG animation studio to create sequels to the Disney-owned Pixar properties. In Late January 2006, new Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jobs agreed to have Disney purchase Pixar which led to Disney closing Circle 7.
On April 3, 2013, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company had ceased internal development at LucasArts and laid off its staff, except a skeleton crew of less than 10 employees which would allow LucasArts to remain open as a licensor. As a result, all projects were shut down, including "Star Wars 1313". A Lucasfilm representative stated: "After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality "Star Wars" games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization." It is possible that "Star Wars 1313" may resume development by an external developer, but until that happens "Star Wars 1313" remains shelved. Following the halting of internal development at LucasArts, Disney announced an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts to produce "Star Wars" games for the core gaming market. However, Disney Interactive Studios retained the ability to develop, and LucasArts retained the ability to license the franchise for the casual gaming market. When asked whether Electronic Arts would continue "Star Wars 1313" and "Star Wars: First Assault", a representative for the company stated, "We are not announcing any specific titles at this time."
The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, was launched in 1979 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 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). Years later, the CGL produced 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 a number of critical technologies for CG—including "particle effects" and various animation tools.
Although the "Star Wars" film series itself has never been rebooted, a decision was made, due to works set after the original trilogy that contradict and deviate from Lucas' own view of the "Star Wars" story, to discard the "EU" works from the franchise canon. Lucas decided to cease creative involvement after selling, in October 2012, the "Star Wars" franchise as well as Lucasfilm (the production company of "Star Wars") to The Walt Disney Company. When Disney began development of a sequel trilogy of films and other works, and needed its films to have full creative freedom unbound by the "EU", nearly all "EU" works were removed from "Star Wars" franchise canon and rebranded as "Star Wars Legends". (The two 2008 "EU" works which remained in canon were and its .)
In 1983, Nolan Bushnell founded a new computer-guided animation studio called Kadabrascope as a subsidiary of his Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatres company (PTT), which was founded in 1977. Only one major project was made out of the new studio, an animated Christmas movie for NBC starring Chuck E. Cheese and other PTT mascots. The animation movement would be made using tweening instead of traditional cel animation. After the North American Video Game Crash of 1983, Bushnell started selling some subsidiaries of PTT to keep the business afloat. Sente Technologies (another division, was founded to have games distributed in PTT stores) was sold to Bally Games and Kadabrascope was sold to Lucasfilm. The Kadabrascope assets were combined with the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. Coincidentally, one of Steve Jobs' first jobs was under Bushnell in 1973 as a technician at his other company Atari, which Bushnell sold to Warner Communications in 1976 to focus on PTT. PTT would later go bankrupt in 1985 and be acquired by ShowBiz Pizza Place.
"Star Wars Rebels" is an American 3D CGI animated television series produced by Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm Animation. Beginning fourteen years after "" and five years before "A New Hope", "Rebels" takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy. Imperial forces are hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form.
When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, this reportedly included 50 written scripts for a proposed live-action television series with the working title "Star Wars: Underworld". The series was to be set between the prequel and original trilogies and focus on the criminal and political power struggles as the Empire took over the galaxy. As of late 2018, no news has come of that project, but Disney has announced multiple live-action "Star Wars" series for their upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service, Disney+.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an American 3D CGI animated television series created by George Lucas and produced by Lucasfilm Animation, Lucasfilm and CGCG Inc. The series began with released on August 15, 2008, and debuted on Cartoon Network on October 3, 2008. It is set in the fictional "Star Wars" galaxy during the three years between the prequel films "" and "", the same time period as the previous 2D 2003 TV series "". Each episode has a running time of 22 minutes to fill a half-hour time slot. Dave Filoni is the supervising director of the series. Genndy Tartakovsky, director of the first "Clone Wars" series, was not involved with the production, but character designer Kilian Plunkett referred to the character designs from the 2D series when designing the characters for the 3D series. There is also an online comic depicting story snippets between episodes.
The Vancouver animation establishment opened with much fanfare around Gastown in 2010, with an approval to produce short films based on esteemed Pixar characters. The Vancouver company worked on layout, sets and characters, animation, effects, lighting and rendering departments.
Walt Disney Studios closed its Vancouver-based Pixar Canada studio leaving nearly 100 Pixar employees without a job three years after opening. Viewers of the animation scene in Vancouver disregarded Pixar’s departure, suggesting the industry is robust enough in the province to easily absorb the displaced Pixar workers. When Pixar set in motion in British Columbia came the arrival of U.S. studios such as Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks, with Pixar touting Vancouver’s talent base, proximity and shared time zone with Los Angeles and a digital animation tax credit offered by the B.C. government. Provincial Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said that it is “disappointing” that Pixar is leaving the province, however, she saw the decision as tied to the company’s overall business strategy as opposed to the B.C. business climate.
Star Wars Rebels is an American 3D CGI animated television series produced by Lucasfilm Animation. With its story beginning fourteen years after "" and five years before "A New Hope", "Rebels" takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy. Imperial forces are hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form. The visual style of "Rebels" is inspired by the original "Star Wars" trilogy concept art by Ralph McQuarrie.
LucasArts' first adventure game was the 1986 title "". The game's development was led by David Fox, with contributions from Douglas Adams, Christopher Cerf, Noah Falstein and Brenda Laurel. Based on the film of the same name, it is LucasArts' first video game adaptation of a film. It is the only adventure game not published by LucasArts, as "Labyrinth" was published and distributed by Activision. "Labyrinth" differs significantly from later LucasArts adventure games as it uses text parser gameplay as the main means of play.
"Labyrinth" was followed in 1987 by "Maniac Mansion". "Maniac Mansion" was the creation of Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, and marked the debut of SCUMM, the game engine that powered all but two of LucasArts later adventure games. The game was also the first LucasArts adventure game to be released for DOS. "Maniac Mansion" was LucasArts' first full graphic adventure game, using a point-and-click interface rather than the text-based gameplay seen in "Labyrinth". A menu of verbs allows the player to choose how to interact with the game's environment. "Maniac Mansion" aims to parody the horror genre. The game was subject to several enhancements and re-releases, and was included as a game within a game in its sequel, "Day of the Tentacle".
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1985. In addition to producing 18 feature films, the studio has produced several short films, including commercials, films for the Ghibli Museum, music videos, and works released directly to video.
The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", written and directed by Miyazaki for Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. The origins of the film lie in the first two volumes of a serialized manga written by Miyazaki for publication in "Animage" as a way of generating interest in an anime version. Suzuki was part of the production team on the film and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join the new studio.
"The Science Behind Pixar" is a travelling exhibition that first opened on June 28, 2015, at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. It was developed by the Museum of Science in collaboration with Pixar. The exhibit features forty interactive elements that explain the production pipeline at Pixar. They are divided into eight sections, each demonstrating a step in the filmmaking process: Modeling, Rigging, Surfaces, Sets & Cameras, Animation, Simulation, Lighting, and Rendering. Before visitors enter the exhibit, they watch a short video at an introductory theater showing Mr. Ray from "Finding Nemo" and Roz from "Monsters, Inc.".
Smith and Catmull co-founded Pixar in 1986 with financing from Steve Jobs. After the spinout from Lucasfilm of Pixar, he served on the board of directors and was executive vice president. According to the Steve Jobs biography "iCon" by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, Alvy Ray quit Pixar after a heated argument with Jobs over use of a whiteboard. It was an unwritten rule that none other than Jobs was allowed to use it, a rule Smith decided to break in front of everyone after Jobs went "total street bully" on him and they ended up screaming into each other's face "in full bull rage". Despite being the co-founder of Pixar, Young and Simon claim that the company has largely overlooked his part in company history since his departure. For example, there is no mention of Smith on the Pixar website.
Despite the influence, Fujiwara received no money from Lucas, and Lucas never personally thanked Fujiwara. Fujiwara may or may not have seen the Star Wars films, but he did not comment on what he thought of R2D2 or any other of the characters, though the subject of "Star Wars" was brought up in a televised discussion between himself, Akira Kurosawa, and his costars Misa Uehara and Minoru Chiaki. George Lucas acknowledged heavy influence of "The Hidden Fortress" on "Star Wars", particularly the technique of telling the story from the perspective of the film's lowliest characters, C-3PO and R2-D2.
"The Cactus Kid" (April 11, 1930) was the last film to be animated by Ub Iwerks at Disney. Shortly before the release of the film, Iwerks left to start his own studio, bankrolled by Disney's then-distributor Pat Powers. Powers and Disney had a falling out over money due Disney from the distribution deal. It was in response to losing the right to distribute Disney's cartoons that Powers made the deal with Iwerks, who had long harbored a desire to head his own studio. The departure is considered a turning point in Mickey's career, as well as that of Walt Disney. Walt lost the man who served as his closest colleague and confidant since 1919. Mickey lost the man responsible for his original design and for the direction or animation of several of the shorts released till this point. Advertising for the early Mickey Mouse cartoons credited them as "A Walt Disney Comic, drawn by Ub Iwerks". Later Disney Company reissues of the early cartoons tend to credit Walt Disney alone.
The Incredibles is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios. Brad Bird wrote and directed both films, and Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell and Samuel L. Jackson are part of the cast. The first film, "The Incredibles", was released in November 2004 and received acclaim from critics, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The second film, "Incredibles 2", was released in June 2018, received mostly positive reviews and set the record for best opening weekend for an animated film with $183 million. The series has grossed a combined $1.876 billion worldwide.
The studio's first live-action film was "Treasure Island" (1950). Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar are also released by Walt Disney Pictures. The studio has released four films that have received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination: "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Up" (2009), and "Toy Story 3" (2010).
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" originated in a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of "Vincent" in the same year, Burton began to consider developing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as either a short film or 30-minute television special to no avail. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be "too dark and scary for kids".
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California; most of the company's operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005. The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in December 2012 for $2.2 billion in cash and $1.855 billion in stock.
Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12, 1977. In 2005, Lucasfilm opened a studio in Singapore.
It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as Lucasfilm Games, the video game development group of his film company, Lucasfilm. Lucas initially served as the company's chairman. During a 1990 reorganization of Lucas companies, the Lucasfilm Games division was renamed LucasArts.
The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental, innovative, and technologically advanced video games. "Habitat", an early online role-playing game and one of the first to support a graphical front-end, was one such title. It was only released as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64. Quantum Link could not provide the bandwidth at the time to support the game, so the full Habitat was never released outside of the beta test. However, Lucasfilm Games recouped the cost of development by releasing a sized down version called "Club Caribe" in 1988. Lucasfilm later licensed the software to Fujitsu, who released it in Japan as "Fujitsu Habitat" in 1990. Fujitsu later licensed Habitat for worldwide distribution, and released an updated version called "WorldsAway" in 1995. The latest iteration of Habitat is still called "WorldsAway", which can be found at MetroWorlds.