BEFORE BUZZ AND WOODY, before Sully and Mike, there was Alvy and Ed, two of the original members of the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Laboratory (CGL). Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull—whose pioneering techniques were born in Gerry House, the “pink building” on the Long Island campus—were among the young computer graphics geniuses who helped make animation what it is today. A long-standing point of pride for New York Tech, their CGL innovations eventually led to the creation of the Pixar powerhouse that forever changed animation. Ed Emshwiller and Alvy Ray Smith at New York Tech circa 1979.
COURTESY OF ALVY RAY SMITH
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