William Reeves

Who is William Reeves?

William "Bill" Reeves is an American animator and technical director known for working with John Lasseter on the animated shorts Luxo Jr. and The Adventures of André and Wally B.

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.

Lasseter and Reeves received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1988 for their work on the film Tin Toy. Their collaboration continued with Reeves acting as the Supervising Technical Director of the first feature length, computer-animated film: Toy Story.