Toy Story Was the First Fully Computer-Animated Feature Film

While animated films had previously used computer-generated elements for specific scenes, the 1995 release of 'Toy Story' marked a revolutionary leap. For the first time, every single object, character, and backdrop in a feature-length movie was created and animated digitally within a 3D environment. This was an audacious undertaking for Pixar, which had previously only produced short films and commercials. The studio essentially had to invent much of the technology and software pipeline required to manage a project of this unprecedented scale and complexity, turning a technical proof-of-concept into a compelling narrative.

The sheer computational power required was immense for the mid-1990s. The process of "rendering" is how a 3D model is converted into a final 2D image, with the computer calculating the effects of lighting, shadows, textures, and reflections for every pixel. A network of 117 Sun Microsystems computers, known as a "render farm," ran nonstop for the production. A simple frame might take a couple of hours to process, but a complex one, like the scene at the Dinoco gas station with its multiple reflections and light sources, could tie up a machine for over half a day. This meticulous, time-consuming process is what gave the film its groundbreaking visual depth and realism, forever changing the landscape of animation.