{"id":21426,"date":"2021-01-02T18:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T22:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21426"},"modified":"2021-01-11T19:07:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T23:07:29","slug":"ed-catmull-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Catmull: Education Includes Childhood Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Where did Ed Catmull get his education? How did Ed Catmull&#8217;s education help him in his role at Pixar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Ed Catmull, education was drawn from two main sources of inspiration. Albert Einstein, and Walt. Fostering these interests means he was able to learn about problem solving from Einstein and creativity from Disney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Ed Catmull, his education, and childhood interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ed Catmull: Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a child, Catmull was fascinated with the work of two men: Walt Disney and Albert Einstein:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Catmull loved Walt Disney because he created worlds and ideas that had never existed before. <\/strong>He watched <em>The Wonderful World of Disney <\/em>broadcast every week and fell in love with animation as an art form. Though the characters were hand-drawn, they came across as fleshed-out characters with thoughts and opinions. Disney Animation Studios was at the forefront of the animation industry and constantly developed new methods and techniques of animation that inspired Catmull.<\/li><li><strong>Catmull loved Albert Einstein because he created explanations for existing phenomena. <\/strong>He read Einstein\u2019s many biographies and researched his theories. He saw Einstein as an expert puzzle-solver and loved how he used existing technology to create new and exciting perspectives on the universe.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Catmull\u2019s appreciation of these two iconic figures eventually led him down the path of computer animation.<\/strong> At first, he studied the animation stylings of Disney Animation Studios and tried to hone his skills. However, after studying the form for some time, he realized that he\u2019d never been talented enough to work at Disney as a traditional animator. This sparked his desire to find an alternative way to create characters and build worlds (much like Einstein had tried to find different ways to approach challenging and unexplained topics).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>University of Utah<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Catmull graduated from the University of Utah (U of U) with undergraduate degrees in physics and computer science. <\/strong>When looking at graduate programs, he met Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer in computer graphics, who convinced Catmull to study the field under him at U of U. Catmull\u2019s colleagues became some of the leading figures in the computer industry. In fact, their efforts at U of U created a resource called \u201cARPANET\u201d that would eventually develop into the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While in U of U\u2019s graduate program he learned how to work with highly creative and highly intelligent people. His professors gave him and his colleagues the freedom and resources to create whatever they wanted. <strong>They created forerunners to Photoshop, Netscape, PDFs, and user interfaces.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where did Ed Catmull get his education? How did Ed Catmull&#8217;s education help him in his role at Pixar? For Ed Catmull, education was drawn from two main sources of inspiration. Albert Einstein, and Walt. Fostering these interests means he was able to learn about problem solving from Einstein and creativity from Disney. Read more about Ed Catmull, his education, and childhood interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,15,33],"tags":[178],"class_list":["post-21426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-education","category-people","tag-creativity-inc","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ed Catmull: Education Includes Childhood Interests - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where did Ed Catmull get his education? Besides college, Catmull learned from his childhood heroes. 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Read more about Ed Catmull&#039;s education.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-02T22:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-11T23:07:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-education.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1324\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"721\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Ed Catmull: Education Includes Childhood Interests\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-02T22:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-11T23:07:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/\"},\"wordCount\":425,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-education.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Creativity Inc.\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"Education\",\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/\",\"name\":\"Ed Catmull: Education Includes Childhood Interests - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ed-catmull-education\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-education.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-02T22:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-11T23:07:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Where did Ed Catmull get his education? 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