 Director John Lasseter 's first experience with computer animation was during his work as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation , when two of his friends showed him the lightcycle scene from Tron . It was an eye @-@ opening experience which awakened Lasseter to the possibilities offered by the new medium of computer @-@ generated animation . Lasseter tried to pitch the idea of a fully computer @-@ animated film to Disney , but the idea was rejected and Lasseter was fired . He then went on to work at Lucasfilm and later as a founding member of Pixar , which was purchased by entrepreneur and Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs in 1986 . At Pixar , Lasseter created short , computer @-@ animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer 's capabilities , and Tin Toy ( 1988 ) — a short told from the perspective of a toy , referencing Lasseter 's love of classic toys — would go on to claim the 1988 Academy Award for animated short films , the first computer @-@ generated film to do so . 
