Autodesk Software Plays an Integral Role in the Creation of Great Movies
– Including 8 of the 9 Best Picture Nominees
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2014--
Great movies are defined by great stories and increasingly, great
storytelling is being empowered by digital technology. Autodesk,
Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) media and entertainment staff and software played
a starring role in the creation of many of this year’s Academy Award
nominees across many categories and were recognized by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with two Scientific and Technical
Achievement Awards (Sci-Tech Awards).
“This year has been especially gratifying. Not only is it the 19th
consecutive year Autodesk software has enabled Academy nominated
filmmakers to push the boundaries of what is possible by enabling them
to tell stories that just would not be possible practically – whether
it’s creating the weightlessness of outer-space or the ice-locked beauty
of a frozen world,” explains Chris Bradshaw, Autodesk senior vice
president. “But Autodesk staff were also recognized by the Academy for
two of the technologies they developed, and were instrumental in helping
Mark Gill bring ‘The Voorman Problem,’ to the big screen. We are
delighted to be such an integral part of innovative filmmaking.”
Scientific
and Technical Achievement Awards
Every year, the Academy hosts a special awards ceremony two weeks before
the Oscar ceremony to recognize the “discoveries and innovations [that]
have contributed in significant, outstanding and lasting ways to motion
pictures.” In a press release, Richard Edlund, Academy Award-winning
visual effects artist and Scientific and Technical Awards Committee
Chair wrote, “This year’s honorees have in a myriad of ways enabled
today’s moviegoing experience…their efforts have advanced not only the
art and science of motion pictures, but the work of countless global
industries.”
The Academy honored Autodesk
Mudbox, 3D sculpting software, with an Academy Certificate for its
powerful new design capabilities and its contribution to
multi-resolution digital sculpting. Additionally, the Academy awarded
FiLMBOX, the foundation of Autodesk
MotionBuilder, with an Academy Plaque for its innovative
architecture that was the basis for the development and evolution of
virtual production. Autodesk scientists, designers and technologies have
been similarly recognized five times in past Scientific and Technical
awards ceremonies.
Best Live-Action Short
As a favor to an old friend, Mark Gill, writer and director of “The
Voorman Problem,” three artists in the Autodesk London office
volunteered their post-production expertise for the Oscar-nominated best
live action short which will be available on iTunes, Amazon and
Pay-Per-View from February 25th. The whimsical dark comedy about a man
who believes he’s a god stars Martin Freeman (“The Hobbit” and TV’s
“Sherlock”) and Tom Hollander (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s
Chest”).
“Working with the Autodesk team on the Flame program is like nothing
I’ve ever experienced before. I didn’t know you could do stuff like
this. That’s the great thing about filmmaking, it’s a constant
collaboration,” said Mark Gill. Autodesk’s Darren Brooker, the
post-production supervisor on the short added, “All we set out to do was
help Mark make this film as good as it could possibly be.” More than 45
festivals worldwide have played the film, which also received a BAFTA
nomination for Best Short Film in 2013.
Best Visual Effects
In the Best Visual Effects category, all five film nominees—“Gravity,”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Lone Ranger”
and “Star Trek Into Darkness”—used Autodesk software to bring their
stories to life. Together these five movies contained over 7,000
computer generated visual effects shots, created by thousands of artists
working at 42 visual effects studios in 10 countries, a testament to the
power of technology, not only to create what has never been seen before,
but to bringing great talent, from around the world, together toward a
single creative goal.
Autodesk software also played a role in the creation of a number of
other movies nominated this year including—Best Animated Features: “The
Croods,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Frozen,” and “The Wind Rises.” Best
Animated Shorts: “Get a Horse,” “Mr. Hublot,” and “Room on the Broom.”
And eight of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture: “12 Years a
Slave,” “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,” “Gravity,” “Her,”
“Nebraska,” “Philomena,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Autodesk congratulates the following studios that used Autodesk software
to contribute movie magic into this year’s Academy Award-nominated
films: Atomic Fiction, Bot & Dolly, Cantina Creative, Cinesite, Crafty
Apes, Crazy Horse Effects, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Dreamworks
Animation, The Embassy, Framestore, Furious FX, Halon Entertainment,
House of Cool, Illumination MacGuff, Industrial Light & Magic, Lola
Visual Effects, Luma Pictures, Magic Light, Method Studios, Moving
Picture Company, New Deal Studios, Nvizible, One Man Army, OOOii,
Passion Pictures, Pixomodo, Prime Focus World, Prologue Films, Proof,
Rising Sun Pictures, Scanline VFX, Studio AKA, Studio Ghibli,
Technicolor, The Third Floor, Trixter, Union Visual Effects, Walt Disney
Animation Studios, Weta Digital, Zeilt Productions and Zero VFX.
To watch trailers and breakdown reels from many of these nominees,
please visit the Autodesk YouTube channel Academy
Award playlist.
About Autodesk
Autodesk helps people imagine, design and create a better world.
Everyone—from design professionals, engineers and architects to digital
artists, students and hobbyists—uses Autodesk software to unlock their
creativity and solve important challenges. For more information visit autodesk.com or
follow @autodesk.
Autodesk, Flame, MotionBuilder and Mudbox are registered trademarks
or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or
affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a
registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their
respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and
services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without
notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors
that may appear in this document. © 2014 Autodesk, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140224005346/en/
Source: Autodesk, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Rama Dunayevich, 415-547-2472
rama@autodesk.com
Karen
Raz, 310-450-1482
karen@razpr.com