U of T CS alum Bill Reeves has brought some of pop culture’s most famous characters to life as a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios in the 1980s. (Photo credit: Pixar)
When Toy Story hit theatres in 1995, it redefined the possibilities of computer animation in film. The studio behind the box office sensation, Pixar, went on to create some of the most beloved movies of the past three decades. Arts & Science alum Bill Reeves is a major reason for that success, using his degrees from the Department of Computer Science to transform digital special effects in Hollywood.
“One of the pillars of Pixar is the ability to blend art and science, and few people in the world are great at both, but I knew technology and partnered with artists to create these films,” says Reeves, the supervising technical director on Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, and a technical lead on Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and many others.
“None of us could have done it alone, but we could achieve it all together.”
Reeves has always embraced the collaborative spirit and innovative drive he forged at U of T, beginning in 1974 under his master’s thesis supervisor, Professor Emeritus Ron Baecker.
In the Dynamic Graphics Project research group, Reeves created a software tool kit that enabled programmers to develop groundbreaking applications, without having to directly deal with the complexities of the graphics hardware. This was a massive boost to productivity and innovation in U of T’s impact on computer graphics and how we interact with computers.
“That group of students was an extraordinary cohort, and Bill was one of the most extraordinary students,” says Baecker. “He was always a creative and diligent programmer.”
Reeves’s work enabled his peers and mentors to code some of the world’s first programs that could render realistic images, design newspapers and compose music.
One of his former classmates, Adjunct Professor Bill Buxton had a vision to build what he believed to be one of the world’s first portable synthesizers for live performances, and Reeves played a significant role in bringing that vision to life.
“Maybe we got along as friends because Bill didn’t talk much and I didn’t listen much,” jokes Buxton.
The group loaded the instrument into a van to play gigs in Kingston and Montreal. They always had a backup recording ready, but the synthesizer never failed them.
"That was one of the most productive and creative periods of my life, and Billy was no small part of it,” says Buxton.
During his PhD, Reeves applied computer animation to health care. He worked with researchers at Toronto General Hospital and programmed an application for cardiologists to gain a deeper understanding of heart movements.
As his graduation approached in 1980, Reeves was pondering his next move when conversations with a fellow alum set him on an uncharted course for a career in film. Former classmate Tom Duff told Reeves about his work at the New York Institute of Technology where they were trying to use computer graphics to make a full-length animated feature film.
The group’s vision never came to life in New York, but their work got the attention of legendary filmmaker George Lucas, who eventually hired Duff and Reeves to work at Lucasfilm in California.
Reeves had a breakthrough in 1982 when he invented particle systems, a new technique for generating images of smoke and fire. The technology was featured in scenes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
“Particle systems has evolved in many ways, but the method is now a part of everybody’s bag of tricks in the industry,” says Reeves.
In 1986, Reeves was a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios, where he served as head of animation research and development. He worked on groundbreaking short films, which served as testing grounds for advanced animation techniques. His work earned him an Academy Award nomination for Luxo Jr. and the Oscar for Tin Toy for best animated short film in 1988.
Pixar’s long-term goal was to make the world’s first entirely computer-animated feature film and that’s where Reeves came in. He led the development of technology that would enable animators to bring Woody and Buzz to life and captivate audiences worldwide. A few months after its release, Toy Story received a special Oscar for its impact on the industry.
“People said Toy Story would never work,” says Reeves. “It was a lot of late nights and weekends; a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that movie.”
Even with dozens of successful film titles to his credit, Reeves has no intention of slowing down. He’s currently working as technical lead on Toy Story 5, due out in 2026.
Several decades after graduation and numerous awards, Reeves still credits U of T for enabling his creativity. Reeves once said that the graphics group in the 1970s was seen as a bunch of “outliers” in computer science, but they were pioneers and some of the most important figures in the department’s 60 years of existence.
“We had an awesome group of students who went on to do really great things in the industry and beyond,” says Reeves, who received an honorary doctor of science degree from U of T in 2013.
Never daunted by the perceived limits of technology, Reeves always set out to tackle the impossible. In his case, that meant transforming his discipline and challenging conventional filmmaking to inspire future generations of artists and computer scientists.
— Original story by David Goldberg for A&S News