Alvy Ray Smith began his career as a theoretical computer science professor at NYU and UC Berkeley. He went on to become the first director of computer graphics at Lucasfilm, and then co-founded Pixar. Along the way, he found time to create synapse, the cover art for the Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) proceedings for 41 years. In this episode of Polylogues, Simons Institute Associate Director Sandy Irani sat down with Alvy to discuss his rich and varied career.