Can a shape have a personality?

A few points become a polygon. A mesh of polygons forms a wireframe. Eventually, that wireframe can become an outraged toy, a brave princess, or an adventurous little fish—a character with a personality communicated in dozens of ways: gestures, expressions, walking or even just a certain crinkle at the corner of the mouth.

Before these characters are ready to make us laugh or cry, a vast effort goes into turning billions of points, lines and calculations into animated storytelling that feels real. The Pixar filmmaking process does this by merging classic animation techniques from decades of the hand-drawn era with the latest technology offering more and more precision.

The Science Behind Pixar brings you behind the scenes of this process, allowing you to experiment with the many concepts of science, technology, engineering and math within the techniques used every day at Pixar. You’ll try out interactive demonstrations as you progress through eight steps of the production process.