The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 9 scientific and technical achievement awards, represented by 25 individual recipients, will be given out at the annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at The Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday, February 9, 2013.
The Sci-Tech Awards are presented to products and people “contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.”
And the winners will be:
Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificate)
Richard Mall for the design and development of the Matthews Max Menace Arm.
The Max Menace Arm is a safe and adjustable device that allows rapid, precise positioning of lighting fixtures, cameras or accessories. On–set or on location, this compact and highly portable structure is often used where access is limited due to restrictions on attaching equipment to existing surfaces.
J.P. Lewis, Matt Cordner and Nickson Fong for the invention and publication of the Pose Space Deformation technique.
Pose Space Deformation (PSD) introduced the use of sparse data interpolation techniques to the task of shape interpolation in the creation of computer–generated characters.
Lawrence Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich and Daniel Wexler for the creation of the Light system for computer graphics lighting at PDI/DreamWorks.
Light has been in use for more than 15 years as a final–quality, interactive render preview with user–configurable spreadsheet interface.
Steve LaVietes, Brian Hall and Jeremy Selan for the creation of the Katana computer graphics scene management and lighting software at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Katana is a lighting and rendering tool that lets artists non–destructively edit scenes too complex to fit into computer memory, at scales ranging from a single object up to an entire detailed city.
Theodore Kim, Nils Thuerey, Markus Gross and Doug James for the invention, publication and dissemination of Wavelet Turbulence software.
This enables creation of highly detailed gas simulation.
Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque)
Joe Murtha, William Frederick and Jim Markland of Anton/Bauer, Inc. for the design and creation of the CINE VCLX Portable Power System (Batteries, dual-voltage battery, chargers.)
The CINE VCLX provides extended run–times and flexibility, allowing users to power cameras and other equipment.
Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling for the development of the Tissue Physically–Based Character Simulation Framework.
This faithfully simulates what’s going on under a computer-generated character or creature’s skin.
Dr. Philip McLauchlan, Allan Jaenicke, John–Paul Smith and Ross Shain for the creation of the Mocha planar tracking and rotoscoping software at Imagineer Systems Ltd.
Mocha tracks objects even when there are no clearly defined points in the image. It can exchange rotoscoping data with other image processing tools in the visual effects industry.
Academy Award of Merit (Oscar Statuette)
To Cooke Optics Limited for their continuing innovation in the design, development and manufacture of advanced camera lenses that have helped define the look of motion pictures over the last century.
Cooke optical designers have been responsible for major innovations that helped define the look of motion pictures for the past 118 years.
Portions of the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation will be included in the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012, which will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Theater formerly known as Kodak, now known as Dolby, at the Hollywood & Highland Center. It will be televised live on ABC Television Network in the US and on other networks in more than 225 countries worldwide.