William Reeves (animator)

William "Bill" Reeves (born May 5, 1959) is a Canadian animator and technical director known for working with John Lasseter on the animated shorts Luxo Jr. and The Adventures of André and Wally B.[1]

William Reeves
Reeves in December 2011 at the Pixar campus
Born	(1959-05-05) May 5, 1959 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupations	Supervising technical director modeling animation system development RenderMan software development
Employer(s)	Pixar Animation Studios Industrial Light & Magic
Spouse	Ricki Blau
Children	Julia, Oliver, & Ian Reeves
Awards	1987 – Nominated: Animated Short Film Luxo, Jr. 1988 – Won: Animated Short Film Tin Toy 1997 – Won: Scientific and Engineering Award For the original concept and the development of particle systems used to create computer generated visual effects in motion pictures. 1998 – Won: Scientific and Engineering Award For the development of the Marionette Three-Dimensional Computer Animation System. 2018 – Won: SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award For outstanding contributions to the practice and advancement of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and completing a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, Reeves was hired by George Lucas as a member of Lucasfilm's Computer Division, Computer Graphics Group. He was one of the founding employees of Pixar when it was sold in 1986 to Steve Jobs. Reeves is the inventor of the first motion blur algorithm and methods to simulate particle motion in CGI. Bill Reeves created particle systems allowing for the realistic articulation of random elements like smoke and fire.[2]

Lasseter and Reeves received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (Oscar) in 1988 for their work on the film Tin Toy, the first completely CG-animated film to ever win an Oscar. Their collaboration continued with Reeves acting as the supervising technical director of the first feature-length, computer-animated film: Toy Story.

In 1996 he became the 2nd awardee of the J.W. Graham Medal, named in honor of Wes Graham an early influential professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo, and annually awarded to an influential alumnus of the University's faculty of mathematics.[3]

In 2018, Reeves was the first recipient of the new annual SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice and advancement of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.