Academy selects 18 for scientific, technical achievements

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected 18 scientific and technical achievements, including Sony and Disney, to be honoured at its Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony on February 11 here.

The awards will be presented to 34 individual recipients as well as five organisations, reports variety.com.

"This year we are particularly pleased to be able to honour not only a wide range of new technologies, but also the pioneering digital cinema cameras that helped facilitate the widespread conversion to electronic image capture for motion picture production," said Ray Feeney, Chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee.

"With their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have significantly expanded filmmakers' creative choices for moving image storytelling."

Those achievements selected must demonstrate a "proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures". The achievements are not required to have been developed in 2016.

The Technical Achievement Awards, which receive Academy certificates, are:

* Thomson Grass Valley for the design and engineering of the pioneering Viper FilmStream digital camera system.

* Larry Gritz for the design, implementation and dissemination of Open Shading Language (OSL).

* Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy, and Maurice van Swaaij for the pioneering development of the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios.

* Brian Whited for the design and development of the Meander drawing system at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

* Mark Rappaport for the concept, design, and development, to Scott Oshita for the motion analysis and CAD design, to Jeff Cruts for the development of the faux-hair finish techniques, and to Todd Minobe for the character articulation and drive-train mechanisms, of the Creature Effects Animatronic Horse Puppet.

* Glenn Sanders and Howard Stark for the design and engineering of the Zaxcom Digital Wireless Microphone System.

* David Thomas, Lawrence E. Fisher, and David Bundy for the design, development, and engineering of the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless Microphone System.

* Parag Havaldar for the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

* Nicholas Apostoloff and Geoff Wedig for the design and development of animation rig-based facial performance-capture systems at ImageMovers Digital and Digital Domain.

* Kiran Bhat, Michael Koperwas, Brian Cantwell, and Paige Warner for the design and development of the ILM facial performance-capture solving system.

Scientific and Engineering Awards, which are awarded plaques, are:

* ARRI for the pioneering design and engineering of the Super 35 format Alexa digital camera system.

* RED Digital Cinema for the pioneering design and evolution of the RED Epic digital cinema cameras with upgradeable full-frame image sensors.

* Sony for the development of the F65 CineAlta camera with its pioneering high-resolution imaging sensor, excellent dynamic range, and full 4K output.

* Panavision and Sony for the conception and development of the groundbreaking Genesis digital motion picture camera.

* Marcos Fajardo for the creative vision and original implementation of the Arnold Renderer, and to Chris Kulla, Alan King, Thiago Ize, and Clifford Stein for their highly optimised geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms which unify the rendering of curves, surfaces, volumetrics, and subsurface scattering as developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle SL.

* Vladimir Koylazov for the original concept, design, and implementation of V-Ray from Chaos Group.

* Luca Fascione, J.P. Lewis, and Iain Matthews for the design, engineering, and development of the FACETS facial performance capture and solving system at Weta Digital.

* Steven Rosenbluth, Joshua Barratt, Robert Nolty, and Archie Te for the engineering and development of the Concept Overdrive motion control system.

--IANS

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