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.^[1] A copy of the exhibition was created in 2017 for touring internationally.

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 explain 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 the museums in the exhibition's tour and the opening and closing dates at each one.

Museum	City	Opening date	Closing date	Notes
Museum of Science	Boston, MA	June 28, 2015	January 10, 2016	As said in a promo, it was meant to open in 2014, but was delayed to 2015 for unknown reasons. Later returned in 2020 after its stop in Dallas was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.
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 being delayed to June 9 for unknown reasons.
Telus World of Science	Edmonton, AL, Canada	July 1, 2017	January 7, 2018	The international tour starts here.
The Henry Ford Museum	Dearborn, MI	October 14, 2017	April 14, 2018
Science World at TELUS World of Science	Vancouver, BC, Canada	May 19, 2018	January 6, 2019
The Museum of Science and Industry	Chicago, IL	May 24, 2018	January 6, 2019
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry	Portland, OR	February 23, 2019	September 2, 2019
The Roppongi Hills Observation Deck Tokyo City View	Tokyo, Japan	April 13, 2019	September 16, 2019
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science	Denver, CO	October 11, 2019	April 5, 2020
Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art	Niigata, Japan	October 12, 2019	November 24, 2019
The Grand Front Osaka Knowledge Capital Event Lab	Osaka, Japan	December 21, 2019	February 24, 2020
Perot Museum of Nature and Science	Dallas, TX	Cancelled	Cancelled	Originally planned to open on April 25 before being cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic. It is unknown whether the exhibition will open here in the future.
The Fukuoka City Museum	Fukuoka, Japan	July 1, 2020	September 22, 2020	Originally planned to open on March 21 before being delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nagoya City Science Museum	Nagoya, Japan	November 28, 2020	February 23, 2021
Hong Kong Science Museum	Hong Kong, Hong Kong	July 30, 2021	December 1, 2021
Cincinnati Museum Center	Cincinnati, OH	October 22, 2021	TBA

The tour is expected to last for ten years with limited tour availability beginning in 2021.^[2]

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" and was meant to start in 2014, but was delayed to 2015.