Autodesk Wins are Twofold this Awards Season

Image Courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

-Autodesk Technology Helps Artists Create 2016’s Best Films for the 22nd Consecutive Year; Arnold Renderer Honored with a 2017 Sci-Tech Award-

Thursday, February 23, 2017 9:00 am EST

SAN FRANCISCO--(PR NEWSWIRE) — Artists from around the world used media and entertainment software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) for the 22nd year to help bring 2016’s most popular films to the big screen. Autodesk also received recognition from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, earning a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award (Sci-Tech) for the Arnold renderer.

“The amazing display of artistry in the Oscar-nominated work each year consistently raises the bar, and we’re proud to have lent a hand in providing the technology for artists to bring amazing stories and visuals to audiences worldwide,” said Autodesk Senior Vice President Chris Bradshaw. “Autodesk congratulates all of this year’s nominees and appreciates the many studios that used Autodesk offerings to contribute to this year’s Academy Award-nominated films. And to see Arnold, our newest addition to Autodesk Media & Entertainment, earn a Sci-Tech is icing on the cake.”

Best Visual Effects Nominees Tap Autodesk Technology

In the Best Visual Effects category of the Academy Awards, all five nominees —“Deepwater Horizon,” “Doctor Strange,” “The Jungle Book,” “Kubo and the Two Strings” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — were created with help from Autodesk Maya and in some cases, additional Autodesk offerings including: Autodesk 3ds Max, the Autodesk Flame Family, the Arnold renderer and Shotgun Software. Outstanding visuals for all five films were produced by thousands of talented artists working out of visual effects studios across four continents, with work spanning previsualization, visual effects, virtual cinematography, post-production, color grading and more.

Arnold Earns a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award

Annually, the Academy hosts a special awards ceremony to honor achievements that “demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.” This year, Marcos Fajardo, Alan King and Thiago Ize received a Scientific and Engineering Award for the Arnold renderer, a modern ray tracer designed to efficiently render the complex geometry in computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation and visual effects (VFX) films, now a part of the Autodesk Media & Entertainment portfolio. The technology was awarded for its highly optimized geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms, which unify the rendering of curves, surfaces, volumetrics and subsurface scattering, and marks the 10th Sci-Tech Award presented to scientists, designers and technologies from Autodesk.

About Autodesk

Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you've ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you've experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.

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