Excerpt from a YouTube interview with Ed Catmull (uploaded by Patrick Biddiscombe) in which Catmull defines creativity broadly as "figuring things out"—problem solving and expression. He argues everyone can be creative, gives Pixar examples (resolving technical challenges for films like Toy Story and Finding Nemo), describes how teams prioritize technical problems that support story, and closes with a takeaway that individuals' actions transform the world.
Chapters
Not everybody's going to make a computer that changes the world. But your actions do transform the world.
Can you give us your definition of creativity?
I think of creativity in a very broad sense. For me, it's figuring things out. It's problem solving. And problem solving means you've got something. You don't know what to do. So thinking that through is a creative act.
When it comes to creativity, I think there's a lot of people who say, I'm not creative. I don't have the ability to be creative. That's for somebody else. Do you think all people have the ability to be creative?
Yes, and that's why I define it broadly as solving problems. It is expression. So there's no question about it. But I think most people would say, oh, well, pure science. Well, that's a creative endeavor. A lot of times, trying to understand. When kids are in the world trying to understand, well, they actually have these weird, interesting views and sometimes misinterpretations, but also fresh way of looking at things. Well, it's a creative act. We're full of things. We're kind of scratching our heads. And it can be emotional, it can be difficult in addressing it, looking at it, thinking about it, engaging with others is a creative act.
We're here in Boston. The Museum of Science last year had an incredible exhibit on the science of Pixar. And in that exhibit there were stations that explained the different problems that you've had to solve with each film. So you started with Toy Story, partially because plastic was one of the only materials you were really able to properly render, and then moved on to things like cars and Finding Nemo to figure out underwater and shiny surfaces and the hair and brave. And so what is that process like within Pixar to identify what problems you want to solve and how you're going to solve them?
Well, you've got the two sides in the fact that there are storytellers. And since a visual component is a major piece of making a film, then they want the best that they can for something that supports the story. The technical people want challenges. They can't take on too many, so they have to figure out which ones they can take and which ones are most important for the story. Then they will pick whatever that is. And sometimes it's hair, sometimes it's cloth, it's simulation water. Sometimes things really are hard, so you have to kind of fake them at the end.
Can you give us any examples?
Well, for instance, take Finding Nemo as an example, where the human animation in the dentist's office isn't up to a level that we would find acceptable. Now, even at the time, we knew it looked weak. Now, by having a strong story, I'd say almost most people didn't notice. So we might grimace when we see it, but most people didn't notice it because the fish looked great.
Yep. How do you, as president and a manager and a leader, encourage your team to not take on too much? And how do you make sure that they are, you know, taking on the appropriate amount of things to be able to get a good product out?
Well, most of those decisions actually happen locally as we have to give them the control of what to do and trust that they're going to do the right thing. And they do. They're experienced, they want to do good, but they're also practical. I would get involved with some others, and we take on a really big project like we wanted to change the entire underpinnings of our software. It was a major project, took several years, and you need some balance if you can't do that every year. But you do need to have some of that going on when you're trying to make a major advance. And then there are a lot of little problems, which are the film only and then everything in between.
Yep. If there's any one thing that you would like the audience to take away from your talk and the idea of creativity and how they can take creativity into their lives, their workplace, what would that be?
Well, it's that your actions do transform the world. You do make a difference. So the takeaway should be that you use care and loving and the right kind of aspirations to change the world around you. Not everybody's going to make a computer that changes the world, but you do make a difference wherever you are, and you can.
