The 92 Best Edwin Catmull Quotes
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I don't think most of our films should be realistic, but you want that as an artistic possibility. Then, the artist can take the realism of the world and push it in ways that we can connect with. Edwin Catmull, scientist
What does this quote by Edwin Catmull mean?
In other words, the realism of the world serves as a foundation for artists to build upon and create something unique and relatable.
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With every one of our films, we try to touch emotions, but we don't try to touch the same emotions each time. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If something works, you shouldn't do it again. We want to do something that is new, original - something where there's a good chance of failure. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Linear narrative is an artfully-directed telling of a story, where the lighting and the sound is all for a very clear purpose. You're not just wandering around in the world. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When I was in high school in the early 1960s, I wanted to be an animator and even took art classes. But by the time I was in college, I realized I couldn't draw well enough. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Throughout Pixar's history, we've had major meltdowns and crises. It's happened throughout our history: you reach a certain point, it doesn't work, and you start all over again. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I actually feel awkward being at the center of attention. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I worked closely with Steve Jobs for twenty-six years. To this day, for all that has been written about him, I don't believe that any of it comes close to capturing the man I knew. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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As I look back on my career, I had a goal, which was to build the first feature computer-animated film. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If you see a bad live action film, what are the conclusions you draw? Typically, it is that they made a bunch of mistakes, a bad script, wrong casting. You get into 2D, and you get a few films that are not strong films. And what is the conclusion? That it's 2D? I beg to differ. It's a convenient excuse, but it's just wrong. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We'll fund a project even if I'm skeptical because I'd rather be proven wrong by somebody on the inside than by somebody on the outside. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If you put out 20 films, you hope that a number are successful. It's like human reproduction versus frog reproduction. Frogs produce thousands and hope a few succeed. Humans don't produce many babies but put a lot of energy into them, which is kind of where we are. They still don't always succeed, but you try a lot harder. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The skill of a good creative leader is being comfortable with blowing up an idea and knowing it will get better. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I know that with most companies that have a lot of success, it tends to throw you off, and you can become more conservative. One of our questions is, How do we keep from being pulled into conservatism because we're afraid of not being successful again? Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I liked the first 'Kung Fu Panda.' Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When I see a film, I'll remember that there was a time when it wasn't working, and there was some pain and angst in order to get it to work. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The trick is, in everything we do, there are things we love. And sometimes the things we love get us stuck. And it's only if we let go of some of those things that we free the movie up to become greater. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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In the early 1970s, I headed to graduate school at the University of Utah and joined the pioneering program in computer graphics because I realized that's where I could combine my interests in art and computer science. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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One of the effects Pixar University has on the culture is that it makes people less self-conscious about their work and gets them comfortable with being publicly reviewed. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Sometimes a leap of faith doesn't pan out. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Lucasfilm has always had an openness to technology. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The Braintrust developed organically out of the rare working relationship among the five men who led and edited the production of 'Toy Story' - John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and Joe Ranft. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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With certain ideas, you can predict commercial success. So with a 'Toy Story 3' or a 'Cars 2,' you know the idea is more likely to have financial success. But if you go down that path too far, you become creatively bankrupt because you're just trying to repeat yourself. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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People say they want to be in risky environments and do all kinds of exciting stuff. But they don't actually know what risk means: that risk actually does bring failure and mistakes. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Every Pixar movie has its own rules that viewers have to accept, understand, and enjoy understanding. The voices of the toys in the 'Toy Story' films, for example, are never audible to humans. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When companies are successful or not successful, they almost immediately jump to the wrong conclusions about how they got there or why they got there. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We need to remember we're always a lot more wrong than we think. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Beware of being blinded by your own success. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When I was young, it was television that was taking off, and so you had people worried that people were spending too much time watching television. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Every one of our films, when we start off, they suck... our job is to take it from something that sucks to something that doesn't suck. That's the hard part. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Programmers are very creative people. And animators are problem solvers, just as programmers are. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Creative ideas aren't like Jenga blocks, where they fall apart and you've got to start from scratch, though it can feel that way. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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At Pixar, we believe strongly that filmmakers should develop ideas they are passionate about. This may sound like a no-brainer, but in fact in Hollywood, the big movie studios have whole departments devoted to acquiring and developing projects that will only later be paired with a director-for-hire. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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After Pixar's 2006 merger with the Walt Disney Company, its CEO, Bob Iger, asked me, chief creative officer John Lasseter, and other Pixar senior managers to help him revive Disney Animation Studios. The success of our efforts prompted me to share my thinking on how to build a sustainable creative organization. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If you think you're right 80% of the time, you're deluded. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When you take a director off a project, that makes a person feel humiliated because everyone knows it. But we're responsible because we put them in that position. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I've always been surprised at the number of people who think we've got it all figured out. It's incorrect, and it's a real problem. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Technical understanding should be a core competency of any company. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I have received a great deal of benefit from the simple yet difficult practice of learning to stop the internal voice in my head. I learned that the voice isn't me, and I don't need to keep rethinking events of the past nor overthink plans for the future. This skill has helped me both to focus and to pause before responding to unexpected events. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Pixar is a community in the true sense of the word. We think that lasting relationships matter, and we share some basic beliefs: Talent is rare. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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For me, the work we did to turn around 'Toy Story 2' was the defining moment in Pixar's history. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Communication needs to be between anybody at any time, which means it needs to happen out of the structure and out of order. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If you're a director presenting a new idea, and the person who can judge whether or not it goes ahead is in the room, that makes you somewhat defensive. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I love solving the problems of having groups work together and removing barriers. But to actually turn around and be in the center of that is an awkward place to be. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas. They're in the form of every sentence; in the performance of each line; in the design of characters, sets, and backgrounds; in the locations of the camera; in the colors, the lighting, the pacing. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We encourage our people to build their ideas from scratch, and we give them the resources - and, crucially, the candid feedback - that are required to transform the first wisps of a story into a truly compelling film. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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At heart, we believe that the films that work well are the films that do touch people emotionally. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Virtual reality's been around for 40 years. People have been talking about storytelling in that world for all these years, and there have been experiments around of people trying to do that, and always excited about it. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Believe me, you don't want to be at a company where there is more candor in the hallways than in the rooms where fundamental ideas or policy are being hashed out. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Creativity has to start somewhere, and we are true believers in the power of bracing, candid feedback, and the iterative process - reworking, reworking, and reworking again until a flawed story finds its through line or a hollow character finds its soul. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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It is not the manager's job to prevent risks. It is the manager's job to make it safe to take them. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We need business leaders who have a respect for technical issues even if they don't have technical backgrounds. In a lot of U.S. industries, including cars and even computers, many managers don't think of technology as a core competency, and this attitude leads them to farm out technical issues. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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If you want people to be let loose, you can't over-control them. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The desire to avoid meltdowns actually is one of the things that screws up live-action films. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The Pixar name means more than any other name. It's very important to us to keep that name at a high level. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I exercise in the gym about three times a week. I vary the workout every time, but I'll always do some type of circuit work with weights. It gets my heart rate up without putting too much stress on my knees, which for some reason seem to be older than the rest of my body. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Are the Simpsons cool? They are, and that is crude 2D animation. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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One term that's used in this industry a lot is this notion of 'feeding the beast.' You've got all of these people whose livelihoods are dependent on it. There are enormous pressures to keep material going into it, and the pressures to feed it are not irrational. They're the basis of your business. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I started off life at Pixar with interesting technical problems. But as time has moved on, I found that the social and management problem was far more complex and interesting. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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'Balance' is a soft word. It implies calm, something almost yogic, but that's not it at all. The process is always chaotic and turbulent. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We have to evolve, we have to change, and in order to do that, we have to initiate the change. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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One reason for keeping Disney animation separate from Pixar was that by solving their own problems when they finished a film, Disney could say, 'Nobody bailed us out; we did it.' And it's a very important social thing for them to do that. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Part of being the successful Pixar is that we will take risks on teams and ideas, and some of them won't work out. We only lose from this if we don't respond to the failures. If we respond, and we think it through and figure out how to move ahead, then we're learning from it. That's what Pixar is. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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In life,you're going to have risk, so you have to say, 'My attitude going forward is how to I fix the problem.' And it's not trying to cling onto the past. When I look around, most problems happen because people are trying to cling onto the past. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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What happened in the early days of Disney is that Walt Disney used all of the new technologies as they came out. When matting came out, they adopted it. They adopted sound and color and xerography. Walt did that. And then, when he died, people began to think that this is just about making films, so they stopped bringing in new technologies. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I can't look at 'WALL-E' or 'Finding Nemo' or 'Up' and look at in the same way as people outside of the company would look at it. Each one of them had angst. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Encourage people to mingle, meet, and communicate. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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It is only by trying new things that we can hope to create products that are original. Don't just say those words; act like you believe them. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Every new idea in any field needs protection. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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While problems in a film are fairly easy to identify, the sources of those problems are often extraordinarily difficult to assess. A mystifying plot twist or a less-than-credible change of heart in our main character is often caused by subtle underlying issues elsewhere in the story. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We've always had ups and downs at Pixar, starting with the high we felt doing something we'd never done - 'Toy Story' - and the low we felt right after when we realized we'd messed a bunch of things up along the way. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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When it comes to producing breakthroughs, both technological and artistic, Pixar's track record is unique. In the early 1990s, we were known as the leading technological pioneer in the field of computer animation. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Look at the computer industry. I've watched a lot of companies come and go, some that were right at the pinnacle of their success. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Believe me, sequels are just as hard to make as original films. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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For me, one of the great tragedies is the conclusion studios have drawn about traditional animation. I believe that 2D animation could be just as vital as it ever was. I think the problem has been with the stories. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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My best advice came by examples. A supportive environment at home, school, and grad school. Support at the New York Institute of Technology, then George Lucas, Steve Jobs, and Bob Iger. The examples meant that I should support other people, even when things aren't going well. It will pay off. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I did like 'Despicable Me.' I thought it was quite good. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The need to challenge the status quo is just more obvious when you're failing than when you're succeeding. But it's no less urgent. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I've really thought a lot about why other companies fail or succeed. I had to be a student of failure and find out why things went off the rails. I did that at a fairly deep level, and it's still something I do. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I use a progressive alarm that makes a soft sound at first and then progressively gets louder. But I usually wake on the first sound, so it doesn't disturb my wife. When I used a loud alarm clock, I was more likely to hit it on the head and go back to sleep. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I've certainly seen R&D groups, typically funded by large corporations, where they bring together a lot of smart people and nothing happens. And the reason nothing happens is that they don't have a clear goal. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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What I've learned running Pixar applies to all businesses. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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One of Pixar's key mechanisms is the Braintrust, which we rely on to push us toward excellence and to root out mediocrity. It is our primary delivery system for straight talk. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Outsourcing, in and of itself, isn't responsible for the erosion of America's high tech infrastructure. The short-term thinking that led to a lot of bad outsourcing decisions is the root cause. And short-term thinking isn't a problem confined to the executive suite. It's a problem in Washington and in our society as a whole. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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It doesn't even matter how successful a movie like 'Up' is: you'll never sell a lot of toy walkers. But that's the way we spread out the risk. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Everything's interconnected. That's the way life is. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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Candor is the key to collaborating effectively. Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional environments. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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I eagerly await the day when there is a replacement for the meniscus. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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The problem is some of our riskier films just don't make as much money. But if you only make films that will just be commercially successful, then you can also sink yourself as a studio. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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We have a whole industry which is gigantic: games. Games is very successful. It's its own art form, though, and it's not the same as a linear narrative. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Our decision-making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group. Edwin Catmull, scientist
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