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Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorVisionary visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who died Monday, contributed his groundbreaking inventions and techniques to classics including “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Blade Runner.”Among his many honors were three visual effects Oscar nominations (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Blade Runner”); the Academy’s Scientific and Engineering Award for creating the Showscan Camera System; and the Visual Effects Society’s Georges Méliès Award, honoring those who have made significant, pioneering contributions to the effects business, in 2012.A generation of visual effects artists and filmmakers were influenced by his work, including Weta FX senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri, who said, “Doug stands out as an iconic figure in visual effects, one of the early pioneers who blended a deep knowledge of cinematography and mechanics to develop techniques that we still use today. An early evangelist of high frame rate processes, Doug’s vision for where we can take cinema is just now coming to fruition.” Here’s a look at a five iconic moments Trumbull helped create.Trumbull was Oscar nominated for visual effects for Spielberg’s “Close Encounters,” and one of his significant contributions was the motion control photography used in the scenes featuring the alien’s massive mother ship.

 took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects on Sunday, senior visual effects supervisor Eric Saindon was forced to leave the ceremony and head straight to the hospital.According to a representative for Weta FX, the VFX production company behind the groundbreaking sequel, Saindon had been experiencing gastrointestinal pain throughout the day leading up to the evening ceremony.Saindon checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel around noon but wound up testing negative for kidney stones and appendicitis, so he decided to dampen the discomfort with painkillers until after the show, according to an  report.Saindon and his fellow visual effects supervisors wound up taking home the Oscar and delivering an acceptance speech. However, after posing for photos with their awards backstage, Saindon experienced even greater pain.He left the press room and returned to the hospital, where doctors determined he had a rupture in his small intestine, and immediately performed the surgery.The rep for Weta FX tells ET, «He’s doing okay and recovering as we speak. I’m just glad he left when he did.

The team behind Avatar: The Way of Water‘s long-expected Oscar win for Visual Effects learned first-hand how committed Academy officials and show producers are to keeping things moving.

Daron James Along with its record setting box office numbers and four Oscar nominations, “Avatar: The Way of Water” brings a “Metkayina” wave of impressive next-gen technology that will undeniably set new industry standards in motion capture, animation and underwater photography.  The original facial motion capture rig that also impressively immersed Andy Serkis as Gollum and Caesar, received an overhaul. Not only physically but also in the way the software replicates a performance.  “We looked at how the muscles in the face, eyes and lips are all related and created a neural network that maps all the connections between them,” says senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri. “This gave us this sympathetic motion in the actor’s face which allowed us to translate the performance to the character and make each frame more believable.” 

Tim Gray Senior Vice President “Avatar: The Way of Water” is a sequel, but the VFX team had a mandate far beyond supplying “more of the same.” The follow-up to the 2009 original “Avatar” had many new demands — and these jaw-dropping innovations have helped make the film one of the top box-office films of all time. Joe Letteri, heading up his team at Weta FX, tells Variety, “We were working on this film since the last one finished, identifying what we could do better. Then there was a big burst of research-and-development” about six years ago, when writer-director James Cameron delivered the scripts for this and three more sequels; that’s when they realized the full scope of the film, which takes place in water about 60% of the time.

Weta Digital has tapped Ken Kamins, and former Disney COO Tom Staggs, and Google SVP Jeff Huber to its Board of Directors. The appointments comes as the Peter Jackson studio has offices planned in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The trio join Weta Digital board members Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Sean Parker, Joe Letteri and CEO Prem Akkaraju.