Alias Congratulates Weta Digital on Oscar and BAFTA Awards
Toronto, Canada (Mar. 01, 2004) -- Alias today extended congratulations to its esteemed customer, Weta Digital, for their Oscar award in the categories of ‘Best Visual Effects’, ‘Best Picture’, and for multiple British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for the third movie in The Lord of the Rings™ trilogy – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King™.
Last night’s Oscar ceremonies saw Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke of Weta Digital accept their third Oscar for exceptional special effects leadership in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Joe Letteri, Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke were also awarded a BAFTA in the category of ‘Achievement in Special Visual Effects’ for the final movie in the installment. [an error occurred while processing this directive]“Working closely with Weta Digital since 1999 has proven to be an exceptional experience for Alias,” says Bill Coleman, Director of Global Marketing at Alias. “To see the Weta Digital team recognized with the most prestigious awards that the industry and their peers can bestow is thrilling and makes Alias proud to be part of such a powerful cinematic experience. Our congratulations go out to each and every team member who so eloquently and realistically brought the trilogy to life.”
The Trilogy Brought to Life by Maya
Alias’ Maya® software was the core 3D animation software technology for all three Lord of the Rings films. Randall William Cook, Animation Designer and Supervisor at Weta Digital was involved in the decision to commit to Maya software from the beginning. “Maya entered the picture very early on,” remembers Cook. “I was shown several selections of software and had the chance to test drive them. Based upon my experience in animation, I found Maya to be the most comfortable interface and the technical team could get into the software to customize the code - we chose Maya and never looked back.”
The Lord of the Rings movies have proven to be one of the most successful onscreen trilogies to date with millions of fans around the world living each successive release. The Return of the King, released on December 17, 2003 by New Line Cinema,® was one of the most anticipated movies of our time.
About Alias
As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops award-winning software, custom development and training solutions for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, education and visualization markets. In 2003, the company was awarded an Oscar for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its development of the Maya software, the professional 3D animation and effects package. Alias also offers a powerful range of services for new to advanced users in the most demanding environments. Learning Tools and training, support, and professional services help meet rigorous production deadlines. Entertainment customers include: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., CNN, Digital Domain, Disney, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation and Weta Ltd.
Alias is a wholly-owned, independent software company of SGI® with headquarters in Toronto and a Custom Development Center in Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias website at http://www.alias.com or call 1-800-447-2542 in North America. International contact numbers include: Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, +44 (0) 1494 441273; Germany, East & Southeast Europe, 0049 89 31 70 20; France, Spain and Portugal, +33 1 44 92 81 60; Italy, 39 039 6340011; Japan and other parts of Asia Pacific, 81 3 5797 3500 and Latin America; 770 393 1881.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
