Two Animators Win Highest Award in Computer Science

Two animators who pioneered modern animation technology won the Turing Award, the most prestigious prize in the field of computer science. The award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” honors major and lasting contributions to computer science. It also comes with a $1,000,000 prize. For 2019, the award was given to Edwin Catmull and Patrick Hanrahan. The recipients are former technologists at Pixar, an animation studio known for works like Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Since the 1970s, Catmull has been one of the key figures in modern 3-D animation. When Pixar was founded, Catmull became its president. He then hired Hanrahan, who led the creation of the RenderMan software, which helps filmmakers create realistic animations. RenderMan became the first computer program to receive an Oscar. The software was used in animated films like A Bug’s Life and for computer-generated effects in live-action movies like Jurassic Park. RenderMan also spurred the creation of graphics processing units (GPUs), which handle computer graphics and sometimes train AI. Despite all their contribution to computer graphics, Catmull and Hanrahan are aware of the technology's limitations. They said that people might find it disturbing if computer-animated characters look too real. Although creating realistic images has been the focus of computer graphics research, it is never the goal in filmmaking. Catmull said that this is the reason why Pixar has always prioritized traditional storytelling over realistic visuals when producing animated movies.