Alias|Wavefront, has been awarded an Oscar for its development of Maya software, their professional 3D animation and effects package.
Oscar recipients for scientific and technical achievements were announced earlier last week by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards will be presented at a black tie dinner on March 1, 2003 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.
Maya was used in the production of such films as “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “Spider-Man,” “Ice Age,” and “Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.” The Academy’s Board of Governors voted to award the Oscar, based upon recommendations from the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, chaired by Richard Edlund.
While this is Alias/Wavefront’s first time to receive an Oscar, employees previously have been honored by the Academy for achievements in the Scientific and Technical category. Recognition was bestowed upon: Jim Hourihan in 1996 for the primary design and development of the interactive language-based control of particle systems embodied in the Dynamation software package; William Kovacs in 1997 for his creative leadership; Roy Hall in 1997 for his principle engineering efforts that led to the Wavefront Advanced Visualizer computer graphics system; and John Gibson, Rob Krieger, Milan Novacek, Glen Ozymok and Dave Springer in 1997 for the development of the geometric modeling component of the Alias PowerAnimator system.