The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday there will be 11 total recipients of the Scientific and Technical Awards.
“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,” said Chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee Richard Edlund in a statement. “With their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have further expanded filmmakers’ creative opportunities on the big screen.”
Awards will be handed out Feb. 13 at the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles. The Scientific and Technical awards differ from the main ceremony, in that the achievements did not need to have been invented in the 2015 calendar year; rather, they needed to have made a significant impact in making films.
The eight winners for technical achievements (given Academy certificates) are as follows:
- Michael John Keesling for the design and development of Image Shaker, a system that creates a replicable camera shake.
- David McIntosh, Steve Marshall Smith, Mike Branham, and Mike Kirilenko for Aircover Inflatables Airwall, tech that can quickly and safely create walls to support green and blue screens that can reach hundreds of feet tall.
- Trevor Davies, Thomas Wan, Jon Scott Miller, Jared Smith, and Matthew Robinson for Dolby Laboratories PRM Series Reference Color Monitors, which allows a more vibrant presentation of images.
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- Ronald Mallet and Christoph Bregler, for Industrial Light & Magic Geometry Tracker, which helps live-action elements and animation elements work together on screen.
- Jim Hourihan, Alan Trombla, and Seth Rosenthal, who developed a robust media player in Tweak Software RV system.
- Richard Chuang, Rahul Thakkar, Andrew Pilgrim, Stewart Birnam, and Mark Kirk for their work on the DreamWorks Animation Media Review System.
- Keith Goldfarb, Steve Linn, Brian Green, and Raymond Chih, the developers of workflow tool Rhythm & Hues Global DDR System.
- J Robert Ray, Cottalango Leon, and Sam Richards, for crafting Sony Pictures Imageworks Itview, another workflow tool.
Two groups will be given Academy plaques for scientific and engineering awards.
- Brian McLean and Martin Meunier for their innovative work in stop-motion filmmaking.
- Jack Greasley, Kiyoyuki Nakagaki, Duncan Hopkins, and Carl Rand for designing and creating MARI 3D texture painting system.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will receive a special plaque for 100 years of work, offering production tools, expertise, industry standards, and more.
The main Oscars ceremony will feature clips from this event.
Nominations for the Oscars will be announced Thursday morning. The Awards, hosted by Chris Rock takes place live Sunday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.