Fourteen scientific and technical achievements under consideration for 2013 Academy Awards.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Scientific and Technical Awards Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 14 scientific and technical achievements have been selected for further awards consideration.
The list is made public to allow individuals and companies with similar devices or claims of prior art the opportunity to submit achievements for review. The deadline to submit additional entries is Tuesday, August 27, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The committee has selected the following technologies for further consideration:
- Neutral densityfilters that remove infrared contamination. Prompted by the submission ofthe Infrared Neutral Density (IR ND) Filter Technology (Tiffen Co.)
- Untethered HD videoassist devices. Prompted by the submission of Meridian (Boxx TV Ltd.)
- Software tools foraccelerated simulation and rendering of smoke, fire and explosions. Promptedby the submission of Plume (ILM) and Flux (DreamWorks Animation)
- Physically basedshading and lighting techniques for digital rendering. Prompted by thesubmission Efficient Physically Inspired Shading (PixarAnimation Studios)
- Software tools forintegrated sculpting and painting of digital models. Prompted by thesubmission of Mudbox (Autodesk) and ZBrush (Pixologic)
- Pre-computation techniquesfor visibility and lighting in rendering applications. Prompted by thesubmission of Weta’s Spherical Harmonics Lighting (Weta Digital)
- Compositing systemsusing per-pixel “deep” depth information. Prompted by the submission of DeepCompositing (Weta Digital)
- Software frameworksfor integrated and extensible VFX and animation applications. Prompted bythe submission of Zeno (ILM)
- Integrated softwaretools for performance capture, visualization and manipulation. Prompted bythe submission of MotionBuilder (Autodesk)
- Non-explosive carflipping devices. Prompted by the submission of the Pneumatic CarFlipper (Fxperts, Inc.)
- Helicopter-basedcamera motion-control platforms. Prompted by the submission of Flying-Cam3.0 SARAH (Flying-Cam)
- Digital workflowspecifications for managing color. Prompted by the submission of ASCCDL (D-Cinema Consulting)
After thorough investigations are conducted in each of the technology categories, the committee will meet in early December to vote on recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors, which will make the final awards decisions.
The 2013 Scientific and Technical Awards will be presented on Saturday, February 15, 2014.
Claims of prior art or similar technology must be submitted on the Academy’s website at www.oscars.org.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
Source: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
