Pixel. The Story of One Point

Pixels surround us — on smartphone and computer screens, on billboards and electronic clock displays. From naive pixel art to mind-boggling 8K renders, much of what we see is made of pixels. We rarely think about them, yet pixels hold unexpected beauty in computer computations and serve as the foundation of our virtual everyday life.

The author of this book is familiar with pixels like no one else. Alvy Ray Smith — one of the founders of modern animation, co-founder of Pixar and the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. Having devoted over 50 years to working with digital images, Smith has written their comprehensive and fascinating biography, which contains an equal share of reflections on the history of art, technology, and business. «Pixel» will take you from Fourier's discoveries at the dawn of the French Revolution, the first computers, pixels, and hackers to the creation of «Toy Story» and «Ice Age», Steve Jobs' role in Pixar's fate, and progress in VR and neural networks.