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AfterToy Story,Toy Story 2, andA Bug’s Life, John Lasseter directed his fourth film collaboration with Disney and Pixar,Cars(2006). By the time Pixar animated the story based on anthropomorphic cars, technology had advanced far from what they had used for their revolutionary first film in 1995. According to the reports, the computers used for animatingCarswere 1000 times faster than those used inToy Story.
However, the development ofCarsbegan in 1998 right after the production ofA Bug’s Life. It took years for Disney to come out with the film that had clean animations and used some advanced animation techniques. The efforts paid off handsomely asCarsbecame the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2006.
Why DidCarsTake More Time For Pixar To Make ThanToy StoryEven With Faster Computers?
Making the 2006 animated featureCarswas no easy feat forJohn Lasseterand the team of animators from Pixar. They had more advanced computers than the ones they used to createToy Storyearlier. In a feature aboutCarsinThe New York Times, it was reported that computers used in this film were four times faster than those used inThe Incrediblesand 1000 times faster thanthose used inToy Story.
However,Carstook its sweet time to develop mainly because Lasseter wanted the film to have the most authentic look. The main culprit was identified to be an algorithmic rendering technique known as ‘ray tracing’. In theCarsproduction notes released by Disney, the supervising technical director of the film Eben Ostby shared the biggest challenge that led to the use of this technique.
He shared that Lasseter wanted the cars to have metallic and painted surfaces. They usually use matte-based technology to cheat reflections, but Ostby revealed that Lasseter insisted on seeing real reflections in the film. Ostby shared that theCarsteam, therefore, added the ray tracing capability to their existing Renderman program. Ostby shared in theCarsProduction Information:
Given that the stars of our film are made of metal, John had a real desire to see realistic reflections, and more beautiful lighting than we’ve seen in any of our previous films.
In the past, we’ve mostly used environment maps and other matte-based technology to cheat reflections, but for Cars we added a ray-tracing capability to our existing Renderman program to raise the bar for Pixar.
According to the document, the addition of reflections added a massive render time. The average time to render a single frame of the film was 17 hours. Even with 3000 computers working on the film, one second of the finished film often took days to complete.
John Lasseter Shared It Took Months Of Trial And Error To Figure OutCarsAnimation
The production notes also detailed that John Lasseter visited the design studios of the Big Three Detroit automakers. He and his team learned a lot about the design of cars before they sat down to flesh out their characters.
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Lasseter shared that it took many months for the team to figure out how each car moved and how the world of cars worked. He shared that through trial and error, the team determined the unique movements of each character. He shared that the new sports cars and the older ’50s cars had different movement styles and helped the team to give them unique personalities.
Lasseter shared:
It took many months of trial and error, and practicing test animation, to figure out how each car moves and how their world works. Our supervising animators did an amazing job working with the animation team to determine the unique movements for each character based on its age and the type of car it was.
Some cars are like sports cars and they’re much tighter in their suspension. Others are older ’50s cars that are a lot looser and have more bounce to them. We wanted to get that authenticity in there but also to verify each car had a unique personality.
Carsreceived positive reviews upon release and grossed $462 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). In comparison to the 3000 computers that worked onCars, Pixar’s first filmToy Storyworked with a staff of 110 people, including 27 animators and 22 technical directors, and they used 400 computers (via EW).
BothCarsandToy Storyare now available for streaming on Disney+.
Hashim Asraff
Senior Writer
Articles Published :3017
Hashim Asraff is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,800 articles published on celebrity culture, comic book movies, and major TV franchises. With a background in Sociology and a keen interest in pop culture, Hashim brings a unique lens to breaking news stories, character deep-dives, film rankings, and fan-driven perspectives.His coverage often includes the MCU, DCU, hit network shows, and celebrity profiles, giving readers a rich blend of entertainment and analysis. A longtime fan of crime and investigative series, Hashim has watched thousands of episodes of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, Blue Bloods, and The RookieA passionate storyteller and wordsmith, Hashim has also worked as a ghostwriter and managed multiple social media handles. He brought his writing expertise to FandomWire to also pursue his lifelong love for cinema and television.
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