17 winners at the 2006 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards ceremony
The ceremony took place at the Beverly Hilton
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feted scientists on Saturday night. One night a year, the men and women behind the scenes who create special effects and other technologies are honored.
The ceremony took place at the Beverly Hilton, the same place where the Oscars took place. The Academy recognized formulas, devices and discoveries that change the way movies are made, giving awards for 17 categories.
Some of the winners were honored for work developed many years ago. “Demetri Terzopoulos and John Platt shared a 2006 Academy Award for pioneering computer-generated techniques to simulate cloth in motion pictures: how a garment folds, a sheet tears, or a flag might billow in the breeze”, published Wired.com.
Talking to autonomous software actors would have sounded more far-feched 30 years ago. However, in the mid-1970s, another new technology was introduced: the Steadicam, whose inventor, Garret Brown, was honored at this years’ Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.