I’m having a heck of a time out in sunny Los Angeles while attending the 2008 ACM SIGGRAPH convention. I’ve seen a lot of cool technology and heard a lot of big names speak, so gather ’round for there’s lots to be told.

Yesterday was the SIGGRAPH keynote address given by none other than Pixar co-founder and graphics genius Ed Catmul. While he spoke of the company’s many successes, he inspired the massive crowd by also speaking of the company’s famous brushes with failure.

Catmul explained that Toy Story 2 was originally destined for a direct-to-DVD release as was common of Disney at the time. It was not a project being headed by John Lasseter, the director of Toy Story and A Bugs Life. Lasseter, in fact, wasn’t involved with Toy Story 2’s release plan at all. However, when Lasseter saw the state of the project, he took the reins and rebooted the project from scratch.

The release date went unchanged. Pixar had less than a year to create a feature-length animated film. That team was pushed to their limits, but they pulled it off. Not only did they finish this new version of the film by its release date, they also created a film that many argue is better than the first film.

Pixar didn’t have to restart the project. They could have left the sub-par idea with Disney, made a few dollars and been done with it. But Pixar had respect for their product and they said “no” until it could be done right. This is the design principle that they’ve built their company around. Because of this, Pixar has yet to miss a beat with successful releases.

Catmul spoke of other times when the studio danced in the shadow of uncertainty; Ratatouille also had its plug pulled to be restarted from scratch. Many know of these stories. To hear Catmul talking about them, however, provided a very different perspective. He was very candid and did not sugar-coat the ugly situations that Pixar has been in. Rather, he spoke of them proudly and confidently. This wasn’t because they enjoyed playing it risky, but rather because the studio has been able to recover and keep on moving forward. To hear this from such a big name in graphics — a man who many think can do no wrong — was quite the different experience.

Many consider Pixar to be the best of the best. They’ve perfected the technique that they created. Despite that perfection, even today they still have issues that almost bring them crashing to the ground.

Catmul wrapped up with a strong statement, “It’s not about preparing to avoid the risks and prevent the failure, but rather preparing to recover from that failure.” Coming from a company that seems incapable of messing up a product, that means a lot to me.

Tags: graphics