Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 20, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
For the technical Oscars, it is not relevant that the developments came onto the market last year. What matters is whether they have proven themselves and are innovative. The Academy distinguishes between “Technical Achievements” and “Scientific and Engineering”.
Special cameras
Arri receives a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development work surrounding the digital Super 35 format in the Alexa camera. And RED may accept the award for the development of the digital Epic camera with an interchangeable sensor. Panavision and Sony receive the same award, also for a camera model: the Genesis Digital Camera System. Thomson Grass Valley also has an award-winning model in its range with the the Viper FilmStream camera.
Revolutionary software technology
In the software field, Larry Gritz receives a Technical Achievement Award for the design, implementation, and dissemination of the Open Shading Language (OSL), which he developed at Sony Picture Imageworks for Arnold. Blender Cycles now also supports OSL.
Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy, and Maurice van Swaaij are honored for pioneering work on the CGI Studio Renderer (a ray tracer) from animation studio Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, The Peanuts Movie). And Brian Whited receives it for his work on the Meander Drawing System at Walt Disney Animation Studio. The technology made possible the retro 2D look of the short film “Paperman”.
Facial capture
Kiran Bhat, Michael Koperwas, Brian Cantwell, and Paige Warner of ILM, and Parag Havaldar of Sony Pictures Imageworks, will accept the Technical Achievement Award for their development work in facial performance capture. Weta Digital’s controllable facial-motion-capture system named Facets, developed by Luca Fascione, J.P. Lewis, and Iain Matthews, receives the Scientific and Engineering Award.
All 18 winners
You can find the complete list of all award recipients here on the Oscars website. The Academy will present the awards on February 11 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Download free article
We met Oscar winner Luca Fascione at FMX, where he impressed us with his concentrated technical knowledge. We spoke with him about Weta’s own Manuka renderer. He also revealed which kind of artists have the best chances of being accepted into the Weta team. You can download the article from DP issue 05 : 16 here free of charge.
Update: Our downloads have moved—for technical reasons. You can find this file and all the others, as well as additional web content from the magazine, free PDFs, Animago images, Video2Brain chapters, and much more at:
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