Maya awarded Technical Achievement Oscar


It has been announced that Alias|Wavefront has been awarded an Oscar for its development of Maya software, the 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.

"Maya has become the gold standard in 3D animation and today is used extensively in nearly every feature film requiring 3D computer-generated images," said Kevin Tureski, general manager, Maya engineering. "We're very proud of this recognition and of the great work created by our customers that have made this possible. We consider ourselves privileged to work closely with companies such as Disney, DreamWorks, ILM, Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Weta -- they really challenge us with their beyond-state-of-the-art requirements. To have our innovation recognized with an Oscar is truly an incredible honor, and we are definitely looking forward to meeting continued challenges ahead."

Used in almost every film nominated by the Academy in the category of "best visual effects" since its inception five years ago, Maya is the world's leading 3D animation, modeling and rendering tool for the film, broadcast, video, game development, 3D web and location-based entertainment markets. Most recently, Maya was employed extensively in such films as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spider-Man, Ice Age, Hollow Man and Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.

Since 1930, only 38 Scientific and Technical achievements have been recognized with this award. The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards will be presented at a gala black tie dinner on Saturday, March 1.

Editor's note: Both Alias|Wavefront and Apple are members of an exclusive club in that they are the only two IT companies honored by Hollywood for their contributions to cinema. Truly, the world of film would be a lesser place without either company.

Pardon the workings of my cynical mind... In a world where Hollywood is synonymous with the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America -- two organizations bent on not only disinheriting you of your fair use rights, but also telling you when, how and where you may consume digitally-encoded entertainment -- being awarded an Oscar could be viewed as a dubious distinction.