Science of Pixar

"A Ciência da Pixar" was an immersive exhibition at the Pavilhão do Conhecimento — Centro Ciência Viva in 2025 in Lisbon. Produced by the Museum of Science in Boston and Pixar Animation Studios, the exhibition takes visitors behind the scenes of the animation studio, revealing how cutting-edge science and technology bring to life iconic films like Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and Inside Out. Organised into eight areas with more than 50 interactive experiences, the exhibition covers every stage of the creative process — from story development and character design to 3D modelling and rendering — featuring exclusive accounts from Pixar animators and engineers about how science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics underpin everything they do. The exhibition arrives in Portugal for the first time as a result of a collaboration agreement between the Fundação "la Caixa" and Ciência Viva. Visitors can explore fascinating details from the films — for instance, rendering a single scene involves answering the question "what colour is this pixel?" 1.5 million times, Merida from Brave has around 112,000 hairs with more than 1,500 curly strands sculpted individually, and Lightning McQueen from Cars features 14 different paint variants.