Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter and Ed Catmull of Pixar have been awarded the first Oscar ever given specifically for rendering. The announcement is here.
Academy Award of Merit
(Oscar Statuette)
To Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter and Ed Catmull for their significant
advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in
Pixar’s ‘Renderman.’
Their broad professional influence in the industry has inspired and
continues to inspire and contribute to the advancement of
computer-generated imagery for motion pictures.
ed. Note: Contrary to statements in the press release, this is not the first Oscar awarded for software development – in 1995 these same 3, along with Thomas Porter, Pat Hanrahan, Anthony A. Apodaca and Darwyn Peachey, were awarded an Oscar for, “development of ‘RenderMan’ software providing the means to digitally create scenes or elements that may be composited with other footage.” On a further note, imdb.com states that this award was given in 1993. Pixar’s awards page and the academy awards database says the date for the previous award was 1995. I’m going with 1995.
