Visual Effects Work of Harvey Mudd Alumnus Earns Academy Honor
February 23, 2017Share story
Live action movies like Edge of Tomorrow and animated features like The Smurfs all benefit from the dazzling, often mind-bending work of technical innovators like Harvey Mudd alumnus Clifford Stein 鈥�92 (computer science).
Since July 2005, Stein has worked as a software engineer at Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI), a “for-hire” visual effects studio for feature motion pictures. He is a developer on the Arnold Renderer, a software program which takes a 3-D scene (like a virtual movie set complete with 3-D models, a virtual camera, virtual lights, etc.) and generates the images viewers see on the screen.
This software, based on Monte Carlo ray tracing and considered an industry standard, has earned accolades for its beauty and efficiency. During the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences鈥� Scientific and Technical Awards presentation Feb. 11 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, the Arnold Renderer鈥檚 creator and several of its co-developers were among 34 recipients and five organizations honored.
The Academy鈥檚 Scientific and Engineering Award, a 24k gold plated plaque, is given for achievements that produce a definite influence on the advancement of the motion picture industry. Stein and several colleagues received the Scientific and Engineering Award for their geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms as developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle.
鈥淭he software was originally begun by Marcos Fajardo in the late 鈥�90s. He brought it to SPI in 2005 for the production of Monster House which is when I joined the project to help make it more 鈥榝eature-ready,鈥欌�� says Stein. 鈥淪ince then, Marcos returned to Spain where he founded his own company, Solid Angle, to sell his software. SPI retained a source-code license of his software, and we continue to work on our own codebase. But we still continue a friendly relationship with Marcos where we exchange ideas, algorithms, bug fixes, etc.鈥�
The work of Stein and his colleagues has been used in movies such as Alice Through the Looking Glass, Suicide Squad, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the recent Ghostbusters, Hotel Transylvania and Storks, to name a few.
Here鈥檚 an excerpt from the Academy news release posted Wednesday, January 4, 2017
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that 18 scientific and technical achievements represented by 34 individual award recipients, as well as five organizations, will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.
鈥淭his year we are particularly pleased to be able to honor not only a wide range of new technologies, but also the pioneering digital cinema cameras that helped facilitate the widespread conversion to electronic image capture for motion picture production,鈥� said Ray Feeney, Academy Award庐 recipient and chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. 鈥淲ith their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have significantly expanded filmmakers鈥� creative choices for moving image storytelling.鈥澛�
Unlike other Academy Awards to be presented this year, achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2016. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.
The Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements [include]:
SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING AWARDS (ACADEMY PLAQUES)
To Marcos Fajardo for the creative vision and original implementation of the Arnold Renderer, and to Christopher Kulla, Alan King, Thiago Ize and Clifford Stein for their highly optimized geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms which unify the rendering of curves, surfaces, volumetrics and subsurface scattering as developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle SL.
Arnold鈥檚 scalable and memory-efficient single-pass architecture for path tracing, its authors鈥� publication of the underlying techniques, and its broad industry acceptance were instrumental in leading a widespread adoption of fully ray-traced rendering for motion pictures.
Portions of the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation will be included in the Oscar庐 telecast.
The 89th Oscars庐 will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre庐 at Hollywood & Highland Center庐 in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
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