Autodesk Congratulates 81st Annual Academy Award Winners and Nominees

For the 14th consecutive year, every film nominated for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award was shaped with Autodesk digital filmmaking tools.

This year's Academy Award nominees continued to push digital imagery to new heights—from intricate and complex computer-generated characters to pyrotechnical marvels to invisible effects so realistic they deceive the eye. Autodesk extends its heartfelt congratulations to the artists and technologists who enthrall audiences with spectacular visuals. We are honored that these filmmakers utilize Autodesk digital technology from planning and previsualization right down to final grade.

Autodesk technology was used to shape Oscar-winning and Academy Award nominated films in the following categories:


ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button



Oscar Winner—Matte World Digital, tasked with re-creating the early 20th century through Hurricane Katrina, created 3D environments, crowd simulations, and matte paintings using Autodesk® 3ds Max® as its main tool with Autodesk® Maya® 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software complementing the work of some shots.

Asylum VFX used Maya, Autodesk® Smoke® finishing effects software, Autodesk® Inferno® visual effects software, and Autodesk® Lustre® digital color grading system for 189 shots for the photoreal tugboat adventure that included extensive water simulation, digital environments and a computer-generated (CG) submarine.

Lola VFX created 100 age reduction and 200 makeup enhancement shots using a combination of tools, including Inferno and the Autodesk® Flame® system.

Evil Eye Pictures used Maya and Autodesk® Combustion® desktop compositing software to integrate matte paintings and environmental effects set in and around New Orleans.


Iron Man



Academy Award Nominee—Industrial Light & Magic brought the superhero character and his nemesis to life using Maya for animating and modeling the CG suits, as well as Inferno visual effects software as part of its SABRE system for compositing over 400 shots.

Pixel Liberation Front worked on the film for 19 months, relying on Maya to create reference models for extensive previsualization.

The Orphanage developed the thruster look and an exploding mountainside using 3ds Max and used Maya for the Gulmira, Missile Test and Stark Jet sequences.


The Dark Knight



Academy Award Nominee—Double Negative created the majority of visual effects in this film, using a combination of proprietary tools and Maya for most of the 2D and 3D work. Maya fluid dynamics helped shape a helicopter crash sequence. Maya® nCloth and Syflex Maya plug-ins were used for cloth simulation of the Batsuit.

Academy Award Nominee—Framestore produced CG environments, CG doubles and digital prosthetic makeup using in-house proprietary tools and numerous Autodesk software applications, including Maya, Autodesk® Mudbox™ software, Autodesk® Matchmover™, Autodesk® Movimento™, and Autodesk® Softimage® 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software.


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM


Kung Fu Panda



Academy Award Nominee—DreamWorks Animation SKG developed new tools and workflows for this stereoscopic 3D film, using Maya for setting and rigging stereoscopic cameras, building virtual sets, and rendering.


BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM


This Way Up



Academy Award Nominee—Nexus used a combination of 3ds Max for modeling and animation and Combustion for compositing, among other tools, for this high-definition digital animated short.


Oktapodi



Academy Award Nominee—Gobelins, l'ecole de l'image, a team of six students from the Paris-based school, created this short using Maya for animation.


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM


Waltz with Bashir



CinePostProduction, one of Europe's largest film labs, relied on Smoke for the conform and online, Flame for visual effects, and Lustre for digital color grading.

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Angels & Demons: Digital Churches Interiors

Working on Rome environments was CIS Vancouver. Led by VFX Supervisor Mark Breakspear, the team created three CG church environments: Santa Maria della Vittoria, Santa Maria del Popolo and St Peter's Basilica. All three churches were off the shooting grid, so visual effects were the only way they could appear in the film.

The approach was to recreate them digitally, stitching together thousands of digital photographs taken at the real locations, and projecting them onto accurate computer models of the buildings. "We used three Canon EOS 1DS MK2 cameras, with gave fantastic quality in the low light levels of the churches" Breakspear says. "We were not able to get HDR in the truest sense, but we managed to get around that by also shooting with a stills film camera. We used Kodak 5218, which was the same film stock from the main unit shoot. By taking image on film, we were able to make use of the wider range from those images for windows, highlights and areas where we wanted to add detail into the shadow areas. We scanned our film images at 5040 × 3684 @ 240 dpi, while our digital images were captured at 4064 x 2074 @ 72 dpi."

For Santa Maria della Vittoria and Santa Maria del Popolo, the art department built one set that could work for both churches, with a little redress. For St. Peter's Basilica, the actors were shot on an entirely greenscreen set, with only the floor and a partial column to orient the vfx team. "We ended up replacing the column and the floor, but don't tell anyone," Breakspear chuckles.

"For Popolo, there were lots of issues with the practical set not lining up with the real location photography, due to creative license being heavily used in its construction. In the end, we were able to bring both locations together by duplicating areas where needed, and hiding other areas that no longer existed in the practical set. Santa Maria del Popolo was the only church we built using LightWave, everything else was built in Maya. When we worked on The Da Vinci Code, we did all our shots in LightWave, as at the time, our pipeline was more centered around this package for this type of work. Four years later, our pipeline has moved toward Maya, and although we still love what LightWave can do, it made sense to split the builds across both packages. All the churches created in Maya were rendered in mental ray. Each frame was generally broken out into 25-40 specific layers, giving the compositor great control on adjusting the look we wanted."

For Santa Maria della Vittoria, Bickerton shot a miniature of the ceiling and the resulting images were digitally projected onto a CG roof that could be placed in any of the shots. Fire, embers, heat haze and smoke enhancements were also added to the practical fire. All of the compositing was done in Shake.

For St Peter's Basilica, the task was far greater, for CIS had to create just about the entire environment, other than the actor. "Normally, you would try to avoid this, as that much CG real estate is typically very hard to pull off convincingly," Breakspears observes. "Our CG Supervisor, Karen Ansel felt that we could master all the nuances required to fool the eye, and together with 2D Supervisor, Martyn Culpitt, worked out all the required layers and approaches needed to pull it off. The end result is pretty amazing!"