Pixar!

Several months ago, I received an excited phone call from my father-in-law.

"We won the auction!" he shouted.

What auction?

"An auction for a tour of Pixar! You and David are going to go!"

Apparently, my wife's parents (who obviously have a much different relationship with money than I do) had attended a charity auction for a school affiliated with their Church, and had decided they were going to land the Pixar tour. Even more amazing, they were planning on sending me and my brother-in-law for the visit. To be honest, I was pretty sure that schedule, fate, or a myriad of other events would conspire to prevent me from attending, but today the stars were apparently in alignment, for I did indeed take my tour of Pixar.

The nice folks at Pixar asked us to refrain from commenting on anything particularly interesting we might notice, but they allowed us to take some photos in specific areas (above is a photo of David and me hamming it up with the Incredibles.)

The place is incredible, with a huge central concourse designed to encourage staff to mingle (example: all the bathrooms and snack areas are here.) Much of the 'public' spaces are decorated with cool conceptual art from the current release ('Up" in this case), although I did find some neat story boards from the Incredibles (my personal favorite from their film catalog.)

Being a computational analysis guy, I was really interested in seeing their famous render farm. I remember back in the dark, distant, early days of Linux (back when Bruce Perens was still deeply involved in Debian GNU/Linux) how exciting it was to learn that Linux was being used to run those rendering nodes. So it was with a bit of a lump in my throat that I stood besides those now-vast computing resources to get a quick picture under the neon lights.

Later, they treated us to a great lunch in their cafeteria. It reminded me a bit of Amgen, in that they had created a great immersive environment aimed at keeping people in-house and interacting with each other.

There's something really inspiring about being surrounded by people who are so passionate about what they are doing. Clearly, the people of Pixar love their work -- a fact that shines through the finished products in a way you don't see in many other production houses.

Another element that deeply impressed me was the wide array of talents arrayed in their organization. From sculptors, to sketch artists, to the animators whose final products we see on the big screen; all of them make huge contributions to the whole.

All in all, it was a really exciting day. While I didn't get to peek behind the veil into the secret Pixar underworld where the magic really happens, just getting to absorb a bit of the energy and atmosphere of the place was totally worth the trip.

I actually found myself feeling a little depressed as I left; sort of like the let-down after the holidays when the fun is all over, and all that's left are the bills to pay. I envy the team at Pixar and their creative endeavors, and their ability to reach out and touch people's lives.

One of the things that I love about my company is that our products are involved in a vast range of important work, ranging from alternative fuels, to nanotech, to cancer and HIV research. So it's a little funny (and probably more than a little misguided) that I was more impressed by meeting a few of the people who brought Up to life, than when I met my first Nobel laureate.

But perhaps that is just the nature of art, in all its forms. Its ability to reach out and touch lives, however briefly, seems far more profound in the moment than the plodding march of research, conducted in the dark recesses of academia (or worse, industry), inching ever onwards into the future.