Three Weta Digital artists have won one of 21 scientific and technical achievements awards that the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday for their work on innovative hair manipulation software known as Barbershop.
Barbershop is hair-grooming software that enables digital artists to literally comb, brush and blow-dry CG hair. Its unique architecture allows direct manipulation of full-density hair using an intuitive, interactive and procedural toolset, resulting in greatly enhanced productivity with finer-grained artistic control than is possible with other existing systems.
Marco Revelant is being recognised for the original concepts and artistic vision, while Alasdair Coull and Shane Cooper are being honoured for the architectural and engineering design of the Barbershop hair-grooming system. Continue reading “Weta Digital wins scientific and technical Academy Award”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations
for the 86th Annual Academy Awards this morning, and The Desolation of Smaug received 3 nods.
Best Sound Mixing
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Best Sound Editing
Brent Burge
Best Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Congratulations to the nominees! The ceremony will be held on March 2nd. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ nominated for 3 Oscars”
This past Thursday night, the Visual Effects branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met to vote for the five VFX nominees at this year’s Oscars. As expected, voters were highly impressed by the frontrunners Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the fellow potential nominees were no slouches either. Presentations of the special effects work behind Pacific Rim, World War Z, and others left quite an impression as well. Continue reading “‘Smaug’ Visual Effects wow at Academy Awards bake-off”
She may have waited 15 years, but as Kate Winslet accepted her first Oscar for best actress, she didn’t forget to mention the person who helped launch her career Wellington director Peter Jackson. Winslet, who worked with Jackson in her first feature Heavenly Creatures, filmed in New Zealand, won her first ever Oscar yesterday for her role in The Reader. Down under featured throughout the ceremony, highlighted again when Australian presenter Hugh Jackman amused the crowd as he quipped about New Zealand. “Everything is being downsized because of the recession,” Jackman said. “Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called New Zealand…” Heavenly creature Kate Winslet wins
