84th Academy Awards Honour VFX, DP & Animation in ‘Hugo’ and ‘Rango’

Pixomondo took home an Oscar for their VFX work and DP Robert Richardson for Best
Cinematography on ‘Hugo’, while ILM’s first animated movie ‘Rango’ earned the Best
Animated Feature Award.

Pixomondo Visual Effects Supervisor Ben Grossmann and Digital Effects Supervisor Alex Henning, along with production Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato and Special Effects Supervisor Joss Williams, earned the Best Visual Effects Oscar for work on Martin Scorsese’s stereo 3D film ‘Hugo’, at the 84th Academy Awards held 26 February at the Hollywood & Highland Centre. The win marks Pixomondo’s first Academy Award and adds to VFX recognition from the BAFTA Awards, the Visual Effects Society Awards and the International Press Academy Satellite Awards. “’Hugo’ was truly a passion project for everyone involved,” said Pixomondo CEO and founder Thilo Kuther. “The dedication shown by Ben, Alex and the whole Pixomondo team in bringing this film to life is remarkable and they more than deserve every ounce of acknowledgement for all their hard work. We are grateful to have been a part of such an amazing film and congratulate Ben and Alex on a job well done.” ‘Hugo’ contains over 800 stereo 3D VFX shots, the majority of which were created by more than 400 artists at ten of Pixomondo’s eleven facilities in Germany, the US, Canada, China and the UK. It was shot in England and France, where Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning played a significant role on set during production. Pixomondo’s 24-hour global pipeline was instrumental in completing the project on time and budget.  www.pixomondo.com
DP Robert Richardson took home the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for ‘Hugo’ as well. The movie, shot in stereo on ARRI Alexa cameras, is his third Oscar. He received Best Cinematography awards for Scorsese's ‘The Aviator’ and Oliver Stone's ‘JFK’. Robert Richardson earned four other Best Cinematography Oscar nominations for ‘Inglourious Basterds’, ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ and ‘Platoon’. He is currently in production on Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film ‘Django Unchained’.  www.toolofna.com
A unique photographic look and realistic animation helped ‘Rango’, by Director Gore Verbinski, win Best Animated Feature at the 84th Annual Academy Awards last 26 February. ‘Rango’ is the Director’s and ILM’s first animated feature. The company previously collaborated with Verbinski on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films. Each film earned an Academy Award nomination, and won Best Visual Effects for the second film, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’. ‘Rango’ also took further honours at the Annie Awards and VES Awards and earned the BAFTA for best animated feature. To start working on this project, ILM adapted their visual effects pipeline for an animated feature, and developed new tools to help create the look and feel of the film. ILM’s Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Alexander said, “It’s our approach as live action filmmakers that gives this film such an interesting look, one that I don’t think we’ve seen in animation before. We created everything in the world of ‘Rango’ the only way we know how, with a level of detail, texture and lighting that we traditionally put into our live action films.”  www.ilm.com
While the bulk of the work was completed at ILM’s San Francisco headquarters, ILM’s studio in Singapore also contributed to 25 per cent of the movie. Production work in Singapore ranged from modelling to rigging, animation, FX, creature simulation, digimatte painting, lighting, compositing and rotoscoping and involved over 100 artists, technical staff and production support. “One of the largest challenges for ILM Singapore was to assemble an entirely new team, most of whom had never worked on a feature production, and fast track them through an intensive training program to deliver the work within one year,” says Patrick Cohen, Singapore CG Supervisor. ILM Singapore sister division Lucasfilm Animation Singapore is currently in production on its first animated feature and is looking for the best and brightest talent within the Asia region and around the world to join the force.     www.lucasfilm.com