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.

To Alvah J. Miller and Paul Johnson of Lynx Robotics for the electronic and software design of the Lynx C-50 Camera Motor System.

This camera motor, operated with programmable microprocessors, achieves an unprecedented range of precisely controlled speeds in stand-alone cameras or when sychronized to motion-control systems.

To Al Mayer, Sr. and Al Mayer, Jr., for the mechanical design, Iain Neil for the optical design and Brian Dang for the electronic design of the Panavision Millennium XL Camera System.

This camera brings the full uncompromised performance of larger heavy-duty cameras to the lightest weight category with ruggedness and advanced features previously expected only in specialized or effects cameras.

To AKAI Digital for the design and development of the DD8plus digital audio dubber specifically designed for the motion picture industry.

To Fairlight for the design and development of the DaD digital audio dubber specifically designed for the motion picture industry.

To Advanced Digital Systems Group (ADSG) for the design and development of the Sony DADR 5000 digital audio dubber specifically designed for the motion picture industry.

To Timeline, Incorporated for the design and development of the MMR 8 digital audio dubber specifically designed for the motion picture industry.

The above four digital audio dubbers have afforded the post-production community a faster, more cost-effective means of playing back hundreds of digital audio tracks for pre-mixing or final mixing in creating motion picture sound tracks. They also offer individual track slipping in multiple track configurations, random access recall, and both destructive and non-destructive editing capabilities, eliminating the requirement for razor blade conforming.

To Joe Wary, Gerald Painter and Colin F. Mossman for the design and development of the Deluxe Laboratories Multi Roller Film Transport System.

This release print system at Deluxe Laboratories utilizes a revolutionary design allowing for higher print volumes, reduced space requirements for loop racks and elevators, and safer operation.

To Vic Armstrong for the refinement and application to the film industry of the Fan Descender for accurately and safely arresting the descent of stunt persons in high freefalls.

Considered a standard of the industry, the Fan Descender provides a means for significantly increasing the safety of very high stunt falls. The system permits falls to be made under controlled deceleration and with a highly predictable stopping point without limitation of camera angles.

To Bill Tondreau of Kuper Systems, Alvah J. Miller and Paul Johnson of Lynx Robotics, and David Stump of Visual Effects Rental Services for the conception, design and development of data capture systems that enable superior accuracy, efficiency and economy in the creation of composite imagery.

These systems digitally record live action camera and axis data with practically no impact on the live action production process, allowing compositing for visual effects to become faster and more cost-effective.

To Leonard Pincus, Ashot Nalbandyan, George Johnson, Thomas Kong and David Pringle for the design and development of the Softsun low pressure xenon long-arc light sources, their power supplies and fixtures.

With the ability to dim these very high-powered lights at essentially constant Kelvin temperature and without flicker, these units produce a bright and even light source for general set lighting. The availability of very high wattage units allows production to extend the hours of work past the time when the crew would otherwise have "lost the light."

To Glenn M. Berggren for the concept, Horst Linge for research and development, and Wolfgang Reinecke for the optical design of the ISCO Ultra-Star Plus lenses for motion picture projection.

The unique optical design of the Ultra-Star Plus projection lenses achieves unprecedented edge-to-edge uniformity of illumination, combined with a significant increase in screen brightness, thus providing a substantial improvement in the cinema viewing experience.

To Udo Schauss, Hildegard Ebbesmeier and Karl Lenhardt for the optical design, and Ralf Linn and Norbert Brinker for the mechanical design of the Schneider Super Cinelux lenses for motion picture projection.

These projection lenses provide a significant improvement in the quality of the cinema viewing experience.

To Philip Greenstreet of Rosco Laboratories for the concept and development of the Roscolight Day/Night Backdrop.

This unique photographic scenic backing allows a smooth transition from day to night views with a single backing. The Roscolight backings provide an important new creative tool to filmmakers, saving time, money and stage space.

To Venkat Krishnamurthy for the creation of the Paraform Software for 3D Digital Form Development.

This system streamlines the creation of 3D computer graphics models by allowing artists to convert the data from automatically scanned physical models into a user-specified configuration of patches well suited for use in computer applications.

To George Borshukov, Kim Libreri and Dan Piponi for the development of a system for image-based rendering allowing choreographed camera movements through computer graphic reconstructed sets.

This component of the Manex Visual Effects Virtual Cinematography System provides theatrical-quality virtual settings.

To John P. Pytlak for the development of the Laboratory Aim Density (LAD) system.

The LAD system has become the standard method used by film laboratories and digital film recording facilities for the efficient and uniform control of color and exposure in camera negatives, interpositives and duplicate negatives.