PIXAR Survived "The Job's Touch" | The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company

Looks like a great book.... | The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company | David A. Price

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	• The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company David A. Price Knopf, 2008 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company

Being a stockholder of Pixar and Disney, and a San Francisco Bay Area resident... I have read many stories over the years [regarding Pixar] in our local newspapers, and it was great to be able to acquire more in depth details about the rise of Pixar from this book.

My company is in a related field so we have an inherent interest in Pixar and Disney, and the various bay area power personalities that run these two companies.

Over the years The Disney Company had moved away from the ideals that Uncle Walt set in place... and we feel that the merging of key creative people Like John Lassiter may help bring them back to Walt's original path.

2D animation will never thrive like it did in the past, but with a little care and attention to "how things used to be" I feel that Mr. Lassiter and his team will be able to get Disney back on the right track.

Pixar had a tough past (mostly financial) to deal with, and we understand that because my company is essentially in the same position, as we struggle to leave our mark... This book really helped by showing that tenacity and "stick-to-it" qualities are key factors when you have ideals that you believe it.

If you have innovative ideas that you believe in strongly... this book will help you hang in there. It demonstrates that good things do happen to good people. I highly recommend this one for your collection.

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PIXAR Survived "The Job's Touch"

Author David Price gives us several stories wrapped into one with his "The Pixar Touch: The making of a Company." Students of the movie industry, computer graphics, and those interested in working in a development stage company (any industry) will find this a most satisfying book.

Price pieces together the converging factors that led to the creation and eventual success of Pixar - the University of Utah's growing influence in computer animation; George Lucas' desire to modernize the tools of filmmaking after the success of "Star Wars" and his pulling together many of the Pixar's eventual founders as part of Lucasfilms Computer Division; frustrated Disney animator, John Lasseter's termination from Disney; Steve Jobs belief that Pixar's Image Computer had the same investment potential of his Apple II and his intense unwillingness to suffer another professional defeat; Disney's Jeff Katzenberg's growing interest in computer animation and his ultimate decision to participate in the making of "Toy Story"; and Disney's growing fear that it was losing its premier global franchise to the upstart, Pixar.

Pixar's evolution into one of the world's greatest brands did not come easily. In the early years, Jobs was not the visionary many claim him to be. He had a different vision for the company and was a very reluctant supporter of the animation group. He tried to get Pixar into the medical imaging field, tried to sell the company to Microsoft, and abused all of the founding employees by taking away their stock in exchange for another capital infusion to keep the company afloat.

In addition, the elite of Disney animators, an early partner, argued that computer animation was a dead end - character animation required nuance upon nuance - nuances too fine to capture in a computer. There were few who had the needed tolerance to put up with the awfulness of an early technology.

This is a great story of American business and rugged individualism. This is a story about a core team that stayed the course, worked long hours, and overcame immense obstacles in the service of a vision, to transform an industry through technology - to make great computer animated movies.

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Looks like a great book....

Just got this in the mail today - have only just skimmed it and read parts here and there, but it looks like a great book. The chapters "Making it Fly 1 &2" really caught my interest.

I'm giving this review four stars - mainly because of Amazon and the USPS, the book was shipped to me in one of the flimsy mail pouches and it sustained damage during shipping. The top of the book looks like it was jammed in a machine and the cover binding was crushed to the point of breaking. Add to that the dust cover was really wrinkled from being in such a flimsy package. I know some people might complain that this ain't a good reason to deduct a star from the review - but I see this review in part covering the whole experience of getting this book to add to my collection/library - including the purchase and shipping.

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Case Study on Success

As other reviews have more than aptly addressed the novel content of the book, the merit of the writing and, honestly, the unabashed and probably slightly biased love for Pixar, I think the only thing that I can add is my thoughts on the how the story of Pixar affected my own perspective and motivation as a artist and filmmaker. With each chapter that I read, I find that I am more inspired and motivated to push my own self further. It is the author's ability to communicate, in quite simple and, perhaps, slightly mundane descriptions, the passion and motivation of the likes of Ed Catmull and John Lasseter. The fact that there is no need for dramatization or exaggeration in this story of the evolution of this particular animation studio is merit unto itself. It is truly intriguing to know the steps, the missteps and the sheer luck that combined to make Pixar a possibility...a wondrous possibility to be sure. Though I admire Pixar, know that this book is not a series of simple pictures or short anecdotes to be easily digested like some "art of" books. It is detailed and biographical and likely, sometimes, offers a bit too much info for a casual reader. Overall, I find it a good book for artists in the industry as well as business folk who enjoy reading case studies on the evolution of successful businesses.

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The roller-coaster rags-to-riches story behind the phenomenal success of Pixar Animation Studios, and the first in-depth look at the company that forever changed the film industry and the "fraternity of geeks" who shaped it.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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