The 2010 Scientific and Technical Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were bestowed at a gala event atthe Beverly Wilshire Hotel on February 20. The event was introduced by visual effects pioneer Richard Edlund, ASC, and hosted by actress Elizabeth Banks (W, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, Definitely, Maybe). The awards are divided into Technical Achievement Awards, which are Academy certificates, and Scientific and Engineering Awards, which are Academy plaques.

This year, awards chiefly honored color management software, performance capture systems, film scanning and DI systems.

In the area of color management, Mark Wolforth and Tony Sedivy received a Technical Achievement Award for their contribution to the development of the Truelight real-time 3D look-up table hardware system. Dr. Klaus Anderle, Christian Baeker and Frank Billasch received one for their contributions to the LUTher 3D look-up table hardware device and color management system. Dr. Richard Kirk received a Scientific and Engineering Award for the overall design and development of the Truelight real-time 3D look-up-table hardware device and color management software.

For film scanning, three different technologies were honored with Scientific and Engineering Awards. Volker Massmann, Markus Hasenzahl, Dr. Klaus Anderle and Andreas Loew received one for the development of the Spirit 4K/2K film scanning system as used in the DI process for motion pictures. Michael Cieslinski, Dr. Reimar Lenz and Bernd Brauner received the award for the development of the ARRISCAN film scanner, enabling high resolution, high-dynamic range, pin-registered film scanning for use in the DI process. And Wolfgang Lempp, Theo Brown, Tony Sedivy and Dr. John Quartel received one for the development of the Northlight film scanner, which enables high-resolution, pin-registered scanning in the motion picture DI process.

For color-correction systems, two Scientific and Engineering Awards were given: to Steve Chapman, Martin Tlaskal, Darrin Smart and Dr. James Logie for their contributions to the development of the Baselight color correction system; and to Mark Jaszberenyi, Gyula Priskin and Tamas Perlaki for their contributions to the development of the Lustre color correction system.

Brad Walker, D. Scott Dewald, Bill Werner and Greg Pettitt were honored with a Scientific and Engineering Award for their contribution to furthering the design and refinement of the Texas Instruments DLP Projector technology, enabling color-accurate DI preview. Fuji Film Corporation, Ryoji Nishimura, Masaaki Miki and Youichi Hosoya were honored for the design and development of Fujicolor ETERNA-RDI digital intermediate film, designed exclusively to reproduce motion picture digital masters.

For technologies related to performance capture, Steve Sullivan, Kevin Wooley, Brett Allen and Colin Davidson received a Technical Achievement Award for the development of the Imocap on-set performance capture system, developed at Industrial Light & Magic.  A Scientific and Engineering Award went to Paul Debevec, Tim Hawkins, John Monos and Dr. Mark Sagar for the design and engineering of the Light Stage capture devices and the image-based facial rendering system developed for character relighting in motion pictures.

Also, with regard to CG lighting, Hayden Landis, Ken McGaugh and Hilmar Koch received a Technical Achievement Award for advancing the technique of ambient occlusion rendering. And Per Christensen, Michael Bunnell and Christophe Henry received a Scientific and Engineering Award for the development of point-based rendering for indirect illumination and ambient occlusion.

Finally, Bjorn Heden received a Technical Achievement Award for the design and mechanical engineering of the silent, two-stage planetary friction drive, Heden Lens Motors.

The winners had much to say about the evolution of tools for digital filmmaking. "Bringing Lustre to market was a team effort," said Jaszberenyi. "Autodesk was instrumental in marketing and distributing Lustre, ensuring that the software tool was made available to many world-leading colorists, and has continued to innovate and support Lustre."

For Filmlight co-founder/CEO Wolfgang Lempp, the evening was significant because his company won four of the evening's awards (for Truelight, Northlight and Baselight). "These Academy Awards stand out because they are at the top of the pyramid in terms of our aspirations in the filmmaking process," he said. "There isn’t really anything else that compares." Lempp reported that Filmlight is currently working on issues related to file system-level architecture. "The filmmaking process using digital technology is by no  means sorted out," he said. "There is lots and lots of work to be done."