Developers of movie-making advancements such as a system that simulates a shaking camera and a tool for enhancing stop-motion animation are among those that will be honored at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, the academy announced Friday.
Nearly three dozen people will be honored for the development of 10 scientific and technical advancements during the ceremony, which is set for Feb. 13 at the Beverly Wilshire hotel.
“This year’s honorees represent a wide range of new tech, including a modular inflatable airwall system for composited visual effects, a ubiquitous 3D digital paint system and a 3D printing technique for animation,” according to Robert Edlund, chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. “With their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have further expanded filmmakers’ creative opportunities on the big screen.”
The honorees are:
— Michael John Keesling for the development of Image Shaker, an optical system that creates the illusion of the camera shaking;
— David McIntosh, Steve Marshall Smith, Mike Branham and Mike Kirilenko for the development of the Aircover Inflatables Airwall;
— Trevor Davies, Thomas Wan, John Scott Miller, Jared Smith and Matthew Robinson for creation of Dolby Laboratories reference color monitors;
— Ronald Mallet and Christoph Bregler for a tracker and solver that helps interact digital and live-action elements in a scene;
— Jim Hourihan, Alan Trombia and Seth Rosenthal for an extensible media player system;
— Richard Chuang, Rahul Thakkar, Andrew Pilgrim, Stewart Birnam and Mark Kirk development of features on the DreamWorks Animation Media Review System;
— Keith Goldfarb, Steve Linn, Brian Green and Raymond Chih for the Rhythm & Hues Global DDR System;
— J. Robert Ray, Cottalango Leon and Sam Richards for the Sony Pictures Imageview Itview;
— Brian McLean and Martin Meunier for rapid prototyping for character animation in stop-motion animation; and
— Jack Greasley, Kiyoyuki Nakagaki, Duncan Hopkins and Carl Rand for design of a texture painting system.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will receive a special award recognizing its 100 years of nurturing the advancement of film technology.
