The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards (April 29 at the Academy Museum, hosted by “Andor’s” Diego Luna) will honor 37 recipients in the creation of 14 achievements. These advances include fire stunt safety, synchronization of moving microphones, camera-labelization, improved skin and muscle simulation for digital signs and machine learning Denoisers to make shortcuts.
Recently, The Academy’s Science and Technology Council approved new rules When it comes to human creative authorship in the creation of generative artificial intelligence and other digital tools.
“As part of the Academy’s mission to celebrate artistry and innovation in filmmaking, we are honored to recognize the exceptional contributions from this year’s scientific and technical award recipients. Their work has greatly pushed progress in our industry,” says Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a prepared statement. “We are also deeply honored to present the Oscar Award for qualifications to the individuals who created and supported the development of captions for films. This is an essential technology that plays an important role in making the cinematic experience available to everyone.”
Winners of the Scientific and Engineering Awards (which will receive plaque) include:
Jayson DUMENIGO for action factory hydrogels, which enables safer and longer burns at higher temperatures with rapid waiting times for fire stunt performances.
Thijs Vogels, Fabrice Russle, David Adler, Gerhard Röthlin and Mark Meyer for Disneys ML (machine learning) Denoiser, which saves the rendering time. This was first implemented on Disney’s “Ralph Breaks Internet”, Pixars “Toy Story 4” and ILM’s VFX for “Avengers: Endgame.”
Nir Averbuch, Yair Chuchem and Dan Raviv for Auto Align Post 2, which creates seamless mix of several moving microphones during post -production, eliminating the phase distortion.
Curt Schaller and Dr. Roman Foldyn for the Arri Trinity 2 system, which combines a traditional inertia camera stabilization system with electronic gimbal technology, which allows an unprecedented freedom for camera movement.
Steve Wagner, Garrett Brown, Jerry Holway and Robert Orf for Revolutionary Steadicam Volt Stabilization System with its advanced two -axled motorized design, creating artificial inertia and simulated friction.
Dave Freetth for the handheld stable three-axis motorized camera-tabilization system, which facilitates subtle and dynamic camera moves closer to the actors and in tighter neighborhoods.
Winners of the technical performance prices (which will receive certificates) include:
Essex Edwards, James Jacobs, Jernej Barbic, Crawford Doran and Andrew van Straten for Ziva VFX, a system to simulate muscles, fat, fascia and skin for digital characters.
Javor Kalojanov and Kimball Thurston for Wētā FX’s ML (Machine Learning) Denoiser, which prioritizes temporary filtration with innovative optical flow techniques to preserve crucial details. This has been used on “A Minecraft Movie”, “Avatar: The Way of the Water” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”, among others.
Neeme Vaino for Fireskin360 Naked Burn Gel, which enables longer directed burns directly to the skin, which broadens the range of fire stunts.
Dustin Brooks and Colin Decker for the development of Naked Burn Gel, where fire is shown directly on the skin, which enables a new form of secure fireplaces.
Attila T. Áfra for the Intel Open Image Denoise and Timo Aila for Nvidia applying U-Nets to Denoising. Open Image Denoise is an open source code library, whose nuclear technology is provided by the U-Net architecture, which raises the quality of CG images.
Select NOEL for the Nacmo series of modular movement bases, which dynamically controls simulated measures and provides precise movements to improve special effects.
SU-Slips, Bei Shimen and Zhao Yanchong for Ronin 2-Gimbal system, which achieves three-axis stabilization through several sensors to create more complex and dynamic camera movements.
Tab Firchau, John Ellison, Steve Webb, David Bloomfield and Shane Colton for Mōvi-Gimbals, who provide a person or cooperative camera operation for difficult shots without Dolly or crane-supported stabilized heads.
