The Science Behind Pixar

The Science Behind Pixar (originally called The Science of Pixar and sometimes called The Science Behind Pixar Exhibition) is a 10,000 square-foot travelling exhibition which opened on June 28, 2015 at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. On January 10, 2016, it started a national tour to other museums around the United States and, later, Canada.^[1]

Exhibition

The exhibition features 40 exhibit elements which demonstrate the production pipeline at Pixar. They are divided into eight sections, each one focusing on a step in the filmmaking process:

Modeling
Rigging
Surfaces
Sets & Cameras
Animation
Simulation
Lighting
Rendering

Before entering the exhibit, visitors go into a theater to watch a five-minute introductory video. In the video, Pixar technical artist Fran Kalal and story artist Alex Woo briefly explaining Pixar's production pipeline. It also features Mr. Ray and Roz greeting the visitors and providing them safety precautions for the theater. Roz appears again at the end of the video to say that she will miss the visitors once they leave the theater.

Characters

Human-sized statues of some of Pixar's characters appear at the exhibit.

Tour

The chart below lists all the known museums The Science Behind Pixar has visited or will visit and when they were open or will be open.

Museum	City	Opening date	Closing date	Notes
Museum of Science	Boston, MA	June 28, 2015	January 10, 2016
The Franklin Institute	Philadelphia, PA	March 12, 2016	September 5, 2016
California Science Center	Los Angeles, CA	October 15, 2016	April 16, 2017	The closing date was originally planned to be on April 9, but it was delayed to the 16th for unknown reasons.
Science Museum of Minnesota	St. Paul, MN	June 9, 2017	September 4, 2017	Originally, it was planned to open on May 27 before beling delayed to June 9 for unknown reasons.
Telus World of Science	Edmonton, AL, CA	July 1, 2017	January 7, 2018	This is the exhibit's first stop in Canada and the first time it has been at two museums at the same time.
The Henry Ford Museum	Dearborn, MI	October 14, 2017	April 14, 2018

The tour is expected to last for ten years with limited tour availability beginning in 2021.^[2] Another stop will be at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, but the dates are currently unknown.^[1]

Trivia

The introductory video is similar to the introduction video from Pixar in a Box.
1:55 scale die-casts of Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks and Brush Curber appear in one of the exhibit elements.
In an early promo, it was called "The Science of Pixar". It was also meant to start in 2014, but was delayed to 2015.