Autodesk scores big (again) at the Oscars

• Best Visual Effects winner Interstellar and four other nominees used Autodesk tech
• Principal research scientist Robert Bridson also recognised with Achievement Award

UNBEKNOWNST to many, perhaps the biggest single winner at the recent 87th Academy Awards was a technology company: 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software company Autodesk Inc.
 
From Best Pictures and Visual Effects, to Best Cinematography, Animated Features and Shorts, Autodesk’s media and entertainment software such as Maya, Shotgun, Softimage, 3ds Max, Flame played a supporting role in the creation of many of the year’s most acclaimed movies, the San Rafael, California-based company said in a statement.
 
Underlying the role of technology in today’s moviemaking and reflecting the artistry of the global computer graphics industry, Autodesk tools were used on four out of five Best Animated Feature films.

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Big Hero 6 (pic above), the winner in this category, showed off a broad range of animation styles from hand-drawn, to stop-motion to computer graphics.
 
Big Hero 6 was four times more complex than Frozen in the scale of its animation and had the need for more sophisticated tools, Autodesk claimed. Using Autodesk’s 3D animation tool, Maya, 90 animators worked with 200 controls to create individual poses and completed about three to four seconds of footage a week.
 
It was also the first feature to use Hyperion, a new state-of-the-art rendering software created by Walt Disney Animation Studios' technology team, in collaboration with production artists.
 
The 2015 Oscar for Best Visual Effects winner, Interstellar (pic, right), and the other four film nominees – Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men: Days of Future Past – also used Autodesk technology and tools.
 
The work contained in these five movies was created by thousands of talented artists working at 25 visual effects studios on four continents, with work spanning the production process from pre-visualisation through virtual cinematography, post-production and colour grading, Autodesk said.
 
This year, the Academy also recognised Autodesk's principal research scientist Robert Bridson with a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award (Sci-Tech Award), for his pioneering work on voxel data structures technology.
 
Autodesk scientists, designers and technologies have been similarly recognised seven times in this category.
 
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