20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982)
9. Pixar’s First Computer Generated Sequence For A Movie Was The Genesis Demo
Pixar started in 1979 as a division of Lucasfilm called the Graphics Group (it would be spun off as its own corporation under the Pixar name in 1986). A team of experts under the leadership of Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, The Graphics Group was assembled by George Lucas to develop techniques for using computers in movies. At first, recalled Alvy in 2002, this meant working on “a digital video editor, a digital audio synthesizer, and a digital optical printer.”
Alvy’s team, however, wanted to do more. When Robert Sallin approached them to create the Genesis demo sequence for Star Trek II, Alvy recognized it as an opportunity for him and his team to prove themselves.
The initial idea Sallin presented was far less ambitious than what ended up in the movie (“there would be an aquarium with a rock floating in it and somehow things started to grow on this rock,” recalled Alvy in 2002). Alvy asked for twenty-four hours so he could storyboard a more ambitious sequence that he knew his team could execute, and Sallin agreed. Alvy spent the night furiously drawing storyboards that played to the strength of his team (since he had experts on fractal mountains, particle systems, and craters, he incorporated all of those ideas into his proposal) and the next day, Sallin told them to proceed with work.
The final sequence was a major step forward for CGI in a motion picture, representing the longest single such sequence until the release of Tron (1982) later that summer. Paramount got its money’s worth on the Genesis demo sequence, too, reusing it extensively in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).