The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has honored three of our own with a Scientific and Technical Academy Award!
Read the official announcement from the Academy.
The actual award was presented at a ceremony in Beverly Hills, CA on February 7, 2015, to the three developers of SpeedTree®: IDV co-founders Michael Sechrest and Chris King, and Senior Software Architect Greg Croft. The Scientific and Technical awards ceremony will be followed on February 22 by the globally-televised Oscars® presentation.
Watch the award presentation below:
Watch the demo reel presented to the Academy when making the case for SpeedTree in September:
Upon learning the great news, Michael had this to say . . .
The list of people who made this possible is literally in the thousands. For more than a decade, we’ve received support, encouragement and invaluable insights from the best artists and engineers in the visual effects and game development industries. These customers, along with the rest of the SpeedTree team, deserve tremendous credit.
Chris also shared his thoughts . . .
SpeedTree is one of countless technologies and innovations that have enriched the cinematic experience for more than a century. We are incredibly humbled by the Academy’s recognition of our work. We’re in amazing company.
Greg had this comment . . .
We are extremely honored to be considered, let alone receive an award. Our efforts have always been to provide our customers with the tools they want and need. They helped to make SpeedTree what it is, and they’re the ones doing amazing things with it.
This isn’t our first brush with the Oscars. SpeedTree was featured prominently in 2009’s Avatar, which received nine Oscar nominations and three Oscar Awards. Since then, dozens more movies have added SpeedTree to their special effects, including Oscar-winning and -nominated films like The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as blockbusters like The Avengers, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Iron Man 3, and Maleficent.