TECHNOLOGY AWARDS
New Application Award
This award recognises the best new content creation applications that have been released over the past year, which provide stable, useful and usable tools for the CG artist.
New Application Award Winner: Hiero Player, The Foundry
Software Update Award
This award is open to any existing application that has received a sizeable update, introducing useful new features and new technologies to its user base while maintaining stability and usability.
Software Update Award winner: Creation Platform, Fabric Engine
Plug-In Award
This award recognises the work done by smaller teams of developers working to add functionality to existing applications. It rewards plug-ins that deliver new technologies or features to enhance the host program.
Plug-In Award winner: Maxwell Render 2.7, Next Limit Technologies
Software Innovation Award
For this award, we’re looking for software or services that break new ground, deliver new techniques, and provide a clear benefit for artists in the creation or implementation of CG assets. This award is sponsored by Escape Technology.
Software Innovation Award winner: Blender 2.66, The Blender Foundation
Hardware Innovation Award
This category recognises the technology behind the products we use every day. The nominees have all enabled their customers to benefit from significant technical advances in the past 12 months.
Hardware Innovation Award winner: Cintiq 24HD touch, Wacom
CREATIVE AWARDS
CG Animated Feature Film Award
This hotly contested award goes to the animated feature film that, in your opinion, delivered the best use of CG – through stylish visuals, dynamic camerawork, top-quality character animation and good old-fashioned storytelling. This award is sponsored by RebusFarm.
CG Animated Feature Film Award winner: Brave, Pixar
CG Animation Short Award
This award celebrates the parade of short-form animated productions we’ve enjoyed this year: both episodic TV series and one-off shorts created for the internet or film festivals.
CG Animation Short Award winner: Paperman, Disney Animation Studios
VFX Feature Film Award
Visual effects – and the companies that produce them – are the new stars of Hollywood. This award goes to the technicians who film the unfilmable and represent the cutting edge of the medium, where art meets technology. This award is sponsored by The Foundry.
VFX Feature Film Award winner: Prometheus, Twentieth Century Fox (The main VFX vendors were Fuel VFX, MPC and Weta Digital)
VFX Film Short Award
This category rewards those teams without the staff and budget of blockbuster movies: the studios that deliver film-quality FX on weekly TV shows, or amateur filmmakers who ply their trade on the web.
VFX Film Short Award winner: Tears of Steel, The Blender Foundation
CG Commercial Campaign Award
With just 30 seconds or so to grab your attention, be memorable and get their message across, this award is for the team that’s produced the highest-quality, innovative and most eye-catching CG ad work.
CG Commercial Campaign Award winner: Rollin’ Safari, Flying Stone
Arch-Viz Still Award
There are enormous amounts of top-quality architectural visualisation work generated every year. This award recognises those images that are technically excellent, artfully designed and evoke a positive reaction.
Arch-Viz Still Award winner: The Japanese, Diego Querol
Arch-Viz Animation Award
As the field of arch-viz gains the technologies of the VFX artisan, so the level of quality has soared. This category is in honour of animated films that are technically excellent, captivate the viewer and best showcase the project in question.
Arch-Viz Animation Award winner: Lux Aeterna, Cristóbal Vila
CG Videogames In-Game Award
As videogame technology marches onward, so do the requirements of the gamer. This award goes to the title that delivers the very best in terms of art and production design, texture and shader work, character animation and visual effects.
CG Videogames In-Game Award winner: Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
CG Videogame Promotion Award
Pre-rendered CG footage – used to promote new titles or punctuate the game itself – is now a prerequisite of the field. The stunning imagery in this category will be rewarded for technical excellence, production design, storytelling and overall visual impact.
CG Videogame Promotion Award winner: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft Montreal
SPECIAL AWARD
3D World Hall of Fame Award
We stand on the shoulders of giants. This special award has been given to the individual artist or technologist who the CG community wants to recognise for making an outstanding contribution to the industry.
3D World Hall of Fame Award winner: Ed Catmull
President, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios
