When he hit play, Pip didn't just move; he lived. The wooden puppet waved back at his creator from across the digital void. In that moment, the complex menus and hundreds of tools vanished. There was only Leo, his puppet, and the infinite possibilities of a blank 3D scene.
He slid the timeline to frame 24 and moved the hand across the screen.
The year was 2014, and Leo sat in a dim room, the glow of his monitor illuminating a face full of both frustration and wonder. On his screen was the gray, clinical interface of Autodesk Maya 2014 , a software powerhouse known for its steep learning curve but also for powering the worlds of Pixar and Disney.