By 1979 Catmull and his team decided tp join forces with famous Hollywood director George W. Lucas, Jr. They were hopeful that would allow them to pursue their dream of making animated films. As part of Lucas’s filmmaking facility in San Rafael, California, Catmull’s group of aspiring animators was able to make substantial progress in the art of computer animation. But the unit was not able to generate any profit, and Lucas was not willing to let it grow beyond using computer animation for special effects.