3D animation is more prominent today than ever before. Movies are faster, bigger and better than ever before and studios have enabled that to happen. Of course, all studios work in a different way, so they all use certain processes that they feel will work for them. Some of the most popular and well known studios are Pixar and Dreamworks, which both offer exceptional quality alongside a wealth of experience. Both studios delve in a range of sectors of the film and animation industry, and are both market leaders.

Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios is one of the most popular in the world; some of the best movies ever to hit the big screen have been produced here. They are a GCI animation company and the company was originally developed in their base in Emeryville, California, United States.

Pixar is not actually as old as a lot of people think. It was originally created back in 1979, and was a sub sector of Lucasfilm. Back in 1986 it was purchased by Steve Jobs and was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, which meant a huge investment and development would follow.

Don’t be fooled by their comic image, Pixar are deadly serious. They have produced 10 films which could literally be described as smash hits and will be remembered by many for years to come. The first feature film was released back in 1995, which was Toy Story, and since then they have released three more Toy Story films due to its success! Others films that they have produced include A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, WALL-E and even the Incredibles!

Their success still continues and they are winners of multiple awards in a range of categories including:

Twenty-two Academy Awards

Four Golden Globes

Three Grammys

Of course, these are just the major awards, which offer great significance. Along their journey as an animation company Pixar have picked up a range of other awards, as well as rave reviews from industry critics.

Like most companies, they need to offer an area of specialty, or what is known in business terms as a unique selling point. For Pixar, this is their CGI-animated feature films. They use PhotoRealistic RenderMan as part of their process which enables them to create such high quality images.

DreamWorks

Like Pixar, DreamWorks is one of the well known and reputable 3D animation studios that are currently producing films. The company, DreamWorks, LLC is also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG or DreamWorks Studios.

It seems their portfolio of work spans slightly further than that of Pixar. They boast a range of films, video games, and television programming, where as Pixar now just focus on producing features films.

DreamWorks began as an idea in the early 90’s but became a reality for the creators in 1994. The three creators Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen were not to know they had just stumbled upon a multi billion pound 3D animation company, and over 15 years later, they are still going strong.

Whilst this was a company developed by a small range of individuals, they all chose to go their separate ways. In 2005 the company got an offer they could not refuse from Viacom, and the deal was eventually completed by 2006. Just two years later and DreamWorks were on a mission, they made a huge announcement that their partnership, that had been cherished for so long, would be coming to an end. They signed a $1.5 billion deal which would mean they’d be working in conjunction with India’s Reliance ADA Group producing films.

The DreamWorks animation sector of the business became so big that in 2004 it was eventually developed into a public company, working from two studios!

As far as their success goes, it shows similar dominance to that of Pixar. DreamWorks has managed to develop 10 outstanding films. Each of these has been box office hits, with revenue figures well in excess of $100 million. Of course, there is always a film that stands out from the crowd, or that makes a company what it is today and for DreamWorks, that was Shrek 2. This was their most popular film to date.