Computer History Museum

Catmull, Ed (Edwin) oral history : 2013 fellow

Edwin Catmull’s career began at an important stage in the development of computer graphics, when declining costs of memory and computing power allowed for experimentation with new graphical techniques. After graduating from the University of Utah with a PhD in 1974 (in physics and computer science), Catmulll worked at graphics workstation vendor Applicon for a brief period. He then led the computer graphics group at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) where he worked with Alvy Ray Smith and others on computer animation techniques, culminating in the experimental film “Sunstone” by Smith and Ed Emshwiller. Invited by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, Catmull, Smith and others then formed the computer graphics group at Lucasfilm. The group spun out, creating Pixar, in 1986, which attracted financing from Apple Computer, Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Pixar was sold to Walt Disney Studios in 2006 where Catmull was made CEO of the newly-formed Walt Disney Animation Studios. In this oral history, Catmulll describes his long career and accomplishments in an interview with Computer History Museum CEO John Hollar.

Item Details

Date
2013-03-01 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102746614
Organization
Computer History Museum (Publisher)
People
Plutte, Jon (Videographer)
Edwin Catmull (Interviewee)
John C. Hollar (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Credit line
Gift of Computer History Museum
Extent
31 p.
Place of publication
USA/CA/Emeryville
Language
English
Acquisition number
X6771.2013
Subject
Applicon, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), Lucasfilm, Pixar Animation Studios, SIGGRAPH, Computer Animation, Fellow Award Honoree, University of Utah, SketchPad, FORTRAN
Archive collection
Oral history collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection