Deb Aronson

What Lies Beneath

Michael Johnson’s software packs a punch at Pixar

First appeared in Illinois Alumni in January 2010 under Profiles

If Michael B. Johnson ‘88 ENG were a Pixar movie character he would be Sully, the large, furry, green-with-blue-spots star of Monsters, Inc. Like Sully (voiced by actor John Goodman), Johnson’s voice is deep and resonant; he is a hail-fellow-well-met; modest in an “aw-shucks-just-doing-my-job” way; and he is all about giving credit to others.

For 16 years, the Chicago native has worked at Pixar Animation Studios, an entity synonymous with exquisitely rendered computer animation combined with heart-warming characters and imaginative stories. Since its first movie, Toy Story, hit the screen in 1995, Pixar has subsequently released A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters,Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Wall-E, and Up. The first six Pixar movies alone have generated $3.2 billion worldwide and won numerous Academy Awards.

At Pixar computer software is critical, not just in making movies but also in managing the workflow. This is where Johnson comes in. As head of the studio’s acclaimed Moving Pictures Group, he writes computer software (or code) that helps make the jobs of the writers, artists, animators and other “Pixarians” easier and more productive. As such Johnson functions like the best of wedding planners — unobtrusive but essential to a successful enterprise.

Want to make sure Editorial knows what Animation is doing? Johnson can write software code for that. How about being able to mark up drawings and then refer back to and manipulate those markings? Johnson has written code for that. Or, boy, wouldn’t it be great to see your drawings as a movie much sooner, rather than just a pinned-up collection of sketches? Johnson and his team have solved that with custom computer software that enables artists to make storyboards on the computer.

Johnson’s adult career path began at the University of Illinois, which he chose over Princeton, and in electrical engineering, which he chose over theater. The National Merit Scholar packed numerous experiences into his college career, including working for IBM as part of the engineering co-op program; studying in Swansea, Wales; and learning from Nancy St. John, who had been hired from the Los Angeles computer graphics business world to start the Scientific Visualization Program at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on campus.

“The NCSA experience was the first chance I had to work on campus with faculty and staff and see them as humans,” says Johnson. “Otherwise [for me], as an undergraduate, professors and TAs and the like were very mysterious.”

(Perhaps to demystify himself, Johnson made a point of replying first to questions from numerous pre-teens who helped fill the Wohlers Hall auditorium at a talk he gave on campus last fall.)

By the time he was a junior, Johnson realized his passion and skill lay in writing computer code, and switched to computer science engineering. After graduating, he studied at the MIT and its Media Lab, and joined Pixar as an intern via Ed Catmull, a member of his dissertation committee and a co-founder of Pixar.

In the intense, creative and occasionally chaotic atmosphere of Pixar, Johnson has found a perfect fit for what he loves to do. “Our craft is coding,” Johnson says of his team, “And we have to code fast.”

Part of that quick coding reflects the point of creating custom software — to overcome a frustration by improving a particular problem. For example, sometimes in the midst of a review, a person will have an idea that is most easily communicated by scribbling something on the existing image. “Lots of creative people finish their sentences with a drawing,” explains Johnson.)

Thus “Review Sketch” came into being. The software records those drawings (done on a computer screen or tablet), which users can later edit or simply review. Creating “Review Sketch” meant “a lot of tension went out of the room,” says Johnson. “Beautiful, well-crafted user interfaces and work flows make people happy,”