Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was Lucasfilm Animation founded?
Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. LLC[1] is the animation division of Lucasfilm, established in 2003. Its first major production was the feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its spin off television series. In September 2016, Dave Filoni, known for his contributions to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, accepted a promotion to oversee the development of all future Lucasfilm Animation projects.[2]
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company, Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when Lucas began production of the film "Star Wars". It is also the original founder company of the animation studio Pixar Animation Studios.
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Lucasfilm Animation used Autodesk software to animate both the film and the series. The Maya 3D modeling program was used to create the highly detailed worlds, characters and creatures. Animators also reviewed designs from the when creating the animation style for the film and the new series.
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California; most of the company's operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005.[3] The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in December 2012 for $2.2 billion in cash and $1.855 billion in stock.[4][5][6]
During that time Lucasfilm Games pioneered several innovations in computer games and interactive entertainment, including the first animated multiplayer online game, called Lucasfilm’s Habitat, in partnership with the predecessor to AOL. This technology was considered by many to be the forerunner of today’s modern multiplayer graphical adventure games, and the first animated adventure game featuring multiple storylines based on which characters the game player chose to adopt. While at Lucasfilm he also led a group that developed innovative uses of multimedia technology for education, collaborating with Apple Computer, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Audubon Society
Gary Winnick founded Horizon Zero Graphiques with Frank Cirocco in 1974. There, he was the editor, artist, and writer for the comic magazine "Venture", which ran until 1976. Horizon Zero Graphiques also published the comic magazine "Mindworks" by Brent Anderson, which included art by Gary. He began his video game career at LucasArts as the only artist and animator at the then-newly formed Lucasfilm Games Division in 1984. He worked as an artist and animator on the early games by Lucasfilm Games, before he became co-designer of the 1987 adventure game, "Maniac Mansion". He continued working on art and animation at LucasArts, and became the art department supervisor on in 1989. In 1992, he was the designer, artist, and animator on Defenders of Dynatron City and co-wrote the comic based on the game, with Steve Purcell. Before leaving LucasArts in 1993, he contributed dialog and story to the sequel to "Maniac Mansion", Day of the Tentacle. After leaving LucasArts, he joined Spectrum Holobyte as an art director. In 1995, he co-founded the video game company, Orbital Studios, where he served as executive producer. In 1996, he returned as a partner at Horizon Zero Graphiques, which was rebranded Lightsource Studios.
On April 26, 2018, the series was officially announced and scheduled for a Fall 2018 debut. The show was created by Dave Filoni, veteran Lucasfilm animation worker, who previously directed the 2008 film "", developed , created, developed, and executive produced "Star Wars Rebels", and in 2017 became the head of Lucasfilm Animation. Filoni said the show was influenced by anime, and by his grandfather's experiences in World War II. By August 1, 2018, Polygon Pictures was selected as the animation production company.
On September 5, 2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy. Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives.[15]
The Digital Artists Group serves as an extension of Industrial Light & Magic, contributing to ILM's work on feature film visual effects. LAS had supported LucasArts’ video game productions and Lucasfilm Animation.
Star Wars Detours is an unaired American CGI-animated comedy series, differentiated from the other "Star Wars" animated series in that it is a parody of the franchise. It offers a comedic take on what happened between the prequel trilogy ("Episodes I–III") and the original trilogy ("Episodes IV–VI"). The series is produced by Lucasfilm Animation in collaboration with "Robot Chicken" creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. Although roughly two seasons of the show exist, they have never been released to the public. Since The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, the show has been on hiatus to allow Lucasfilm Animation to focus on other projects.
On July 19, 2018, Lucasfilm announced at San Diego Comic-Con that "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" would return with 12 new episodes of Season 7 to be released on Disney+.
At April 2005's Star Wars Celebration III, Lucas stated that "we are working on a 3-D continuation of the that was on the Cartoon Network; we probably won't start that project for another year." In July 2005, pre-production had begun on the series, according to Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations. Sansweet referred to the series as "the next generation of the "Star Wars" saga, a cutting edge 30-minute, 3-D computer-animation series based on the Clone Wars that take place between "" ... and ""." Sansweet described the look of the new series as "a melding of Asian anime with unique 3-D animation styling." Primary production will take place at the Lucasfilm Animation facility in Singapore.
In November 2007, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore launched the Jedi Masters Program, a paid apprenticeship providing young artists with mentorship opportunities from industry professionals at ILM, LucasArts and Lucasfilm Animation. The Jedi Masters Program has classroom facilities within the Singapore studio and combines classroom instruction with mentored work in an actual production environment.
In 1983, Nolan Bushnell founded a new computer-guided animation studio called Kadabrascope as a subsidiary of his Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatres company (PTT), which was founded in 1977. Only one major project was made out of the new studio, an animated Christmas movie for NBC starring Chuck E. Cheese and other PTT mascots. The animation movement would be made using tweening instead of traditional cel animation. After the North American Video Game Crash of 1983, Bushnell started selling some subsidiaries of PTT to keep the business afloat. Sente Technologies (another division, was founded to have games distributed in PTT stores) was sold to Bally Games and Kadabrascope was sold to Lucasfilm. The Kadabrascope assets were combined with the Computer Division of Lucasfilm.[17] Coincidentally, one of Steve Jobs' first jobs was under Bushnell in 1973 as a technician at his other company Atari, which Bushnell sold to Warner Communications in 1976 to focus on PTT.[18] PTT would later go bankrupt in 1985 and be acquired by ShowBiz Pizza Place.
According to another statement by Sansweet, "Lucasfilm Animation will be hiring a total of about 300 digital artists and others in both California and Singapore locations to produce not only the series, but animated feature films in the years ahead." He said about the series, "to get the series underway, Lucasfilm Animation has hired key production and creative talent to lead the development of its first animation project." Sansweet has said that "a large component of the future of "Star Wars" and Lucasfilm is CGI animation."
The principal operation of the facility is as a motion picture sound mixing and recording facility, as well as serving as the corporate offices of Lucasfilm. Other Lucasfilm properties provide animation and visual effects; Skywalker handles sound, music, and allied services.
Currently Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar and Lucasfilm Animation (through Lucasfilm) are parts of The Walt Disney Studios unit. This article does not include other animation studios whose films were released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (the company's distribution unit) and not acquired by the company, nor does it count the Laugh-O-Gram Studio (1921–23), Disney's first animation studio, which predated the founding of The Walt Disney Company. For example, certain Studio Ghibli films were distributed by Disney internationally but never owned by the company. Also, Miramax, a independently operating unit of the Walt Disney Studios, also purchased US rights to foreign animated movies.
When multiple major studios approached Rovio to discuss the production of the film adaptation in 2010, Hed eventually decided to have Rovio establish its own in-house animation studio and have it work on the film, rather than risk losing creative control in allowing a third-party studio to produce it. David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, offered to help Hed and Rovio produce the film, as well as John Cohen from Illumination Entertainment and Catherine Winder from Lucasfilm, who later served as the film's producers. Animation services were handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks, making it their first animated film not to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation since "Beowulf" (2007).
"Forces of Destiny" was announced on April 12, 2017, and a special preview of the series presented at "Star Wars" Celebration Orlando on April 14. The series is the first 2D animated series produced by Lucasfilm since the 2003 "" series and the first 2D animation project created by Lucasfilm Animation; previous 2D animated series such as "", "", and early installments of "Clone Wars" were created before the formation of the studio. The series is part of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media's franchise expansion initiative.
Industrial Light & Magic – visual effects ILMxLAB[43] Skywalker Sound – post-production sound design LucasArts – video games (All internal video game development was halted in April 2013, but it retained its function as a Lucasfilm-branded video game licensor, retaining fewer than 10 employees.)[30][32][44] Lucasfilm Animation – animation Lucasfilm Animation Singapore Lucas Licensing – licensing and merchandising Lucas Books – book publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, licensed from Lucasfilm.[45] Lucas Online – websites[46] StarWars.com Lucasfilm Story Group (2012–[41]) The first two revealed members were Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee,[47] headed by Kiri Hart[48] as Lucasfilm's SVP, Development.
Due to its old building being saturated, Lucasfilm Singapore moved into a new building at the beginning of 2014.[4][5]
After his time at CMU, Ralph worked for the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab. He was soon contacted by Lucasfilm and moved to California in 1980. During his time at Lucasfilm, Guggenheim developed EditDroid, which proved to be a revolutionary film-editing system. After his research lab at Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and renamed Pixar, Guggenheim continued to work in the world of graphics and animation. Guggenheim, a respected founder of Pixar, eventually became Vice President of Feature Animation and was a lead producer for "Toy Story." Guggenheim left the company in 1997 after Disney forced Pixar to remove him as producer from "Toy Story 2".
Founded in 2003 in Singapore as a means to tap into the talent pool, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore (LAS) opened its doors in October 2005. LAS works closely with Lucasfilm Animation. The LAS production schedule also includes contributions to projects from other Lucasfilm companies. While the largest of LAS’ production groups focused on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in July 2006 LAS announced the creation of the Game Group and the Digital Artists Group (DAG). With difficulty in meeting the technical and aesthetic requirements of Clone Wars, LAS was ultimately removed from the production and released a number of employees.
It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as Lucasfilm Games, the video game development group of his film company, Lucasfilm. Lucas initially served as the company's chairman. During a 1990 reorganization of Lucas companies, the Lucasfilm Games division was renamed LucasArts.
"Star Wars Rebels" is an American 3D CGI animated television series produced by Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm Animation. Beginning fourteen years after "" and five years before "A New Hope", "Rebels" takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy. Imperial forces are hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form.
Kerner Optical – Practical effects division (model shop) and 3D development team (spun off from ILM in 2006 and subsequently went bankrupt in 2011)[49] Pixar Animation Studios – Computer animation film production company that was sold to Steve Jobs in 1986. It became a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, six years prior to the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm. THX Limited – Theater sound system (spun off from Lucasfilm in 2001)[50] Creative Technology owned 60% of THX,[51] and then sold to Razer Inc. in 2016.