While the Academy Awards' night of nights isn't until Monday, some of those who work on the technology behind the scenes have already been honoured - including one Canberran.
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Canberra College and ANU alumni Nicholas Apostoloff has been recognised at the Academy's 2017 Scientific and Technical Awards alongside his colleague Geoff Wedig.
The award was for the "animation rig-based facial performance-capture system" that Apostoloff and Wedig developed over six years working for studios ImageMovers Digital and Digital Domain. In layman's terms, it's a technology that can record an actor's performance and apply it to a digital character.
"In Tron: Legacy, the system allowed Jeff Bridges to perform his role as Clu on stage with other actors, benefiting from the give and take of being on set. The facial performance was then applied to the digital character of Clu," said Apostoloff.
"In other instances such as the three fairies in Maleficent, performers could act on a motion capture stage where both body and facial performances were captured simultaneously, allowing a more holistic representation of their performance."
Apostoloff first discovered a passion for photography, robotics and computer vision through his studies at Canberra College, and then a Bachelor of Information Technology and Engineering at ANU.
That led to a masters degree in computer vision, and he was then accepted to start a PHD at Oxford University in 2002, which is where his interest in the film industry developed.
Since working in the industry, Apostoloff has worked on films including A Christmas Carol (2009), Mars Needs Moms (2011), Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), Maleficent (2014), Night at the Museum 3 (2014), Deadpool (2016) and the highly anticipated Beauty and the Beast (2017).
The Scientific and Technical Awards are held separate to the annual Academy Awards, and Apostoloff and Wedig were presented with their certificate at the Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 11.
"The ceremony was amazing and felt very much like the Oscars," Apostoloff said.
"Unfortunately, they don't award the gold statues for the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards. Everyone from the Academy was super friendly and the whole ceremony was very special."
These days, Apostoloff lives in California with his wife Isla, who he met at Oxford, and two children Carys and Dylan. He works for Apple, but isn't able to talk specifically about his job.
"California is very similar to Australia in terms of lifestyle and we love it here."
