The 96th Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects is a testament to the incredible advances in technology that are constantly breaking the shackles of cinema.
Whether it's spectacular destruction scenes, thrilling action sequences, or interstellar adventures, each of the finalists showcases their unique expertise in visual effects (VFX) and uses state-of-the-art NVIDIA technology in their workflows to bring magic to life on screen.
This year's nominated films are:
- 《AI 创世者》（20 世纪影业）：Jay Cooper、Ian Comley、Andrew Roberts 和 Neil Corbould
- 《哥斯拉-1.0》(东宝株式会社):Takashi Yamazaki、Kiyoko Shibuya、Masaki Takahashi 和 Tatsuji Nojima
- 《银河护卫队 3》（漫威影业）：Stephane Ceretti、Alexis Wajsbrot、 Guy Williams 和 Theo Bialek
- 《拿破仑》（Apple Original Films /索尼影视娱乐）：Charley Henley、Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet、Simone Coco 和 Neil Corbould
- 《碟中谍 7：致命清算（上）》（派拉蒙影业）：Alex Wuttke、Simone Coco、Jeff Sutherland 和 Neil Corbould
Monster movies are given a new lease of life
Godzilla-1.0 faces a special challenge – to re-fear a giant monster that has long been known.
With a budget of less than $15 million, the film is a small-budget film by today's standards, so the film's VFX team relied on rapid iteration with the director, eliminating lengthy review cycles, while using detailed computer-generated imagery (CGI) models to bring Godzilla to life.
Godzilla's head alone has more than 200 million faces, enough to shoot close-ups. Animators have added nuanced, lifelike acts to Godzilla to make it even more perfect.
The destruction scenes in the film use an advanced memory-intensive physics engine that realistically simulates the collapse and destruction of buildings, further immersing the viewer in the chaotic atmosphere.
A shocking cosmic blockbuster
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 continues the franchise's tradition, blending humor with stunning cosmic visuals. The film disrupted the traditional use of real-time rendering technology, enabling artists to visualize complex space environments and characters on set.
Wētā FX, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and others produced more than 3,000 VFX shots for the film. Dense, immersive 3D environments blend live-action with CGI elements and characters to create a visually stunning cosmic blockbuster that maintains the franchise's signature style while breaking new visual grounds.
One of Guardians of the Galaxy's greatest accomplishments is the 120 frame rate of a single sequence with variable speed ramps and non-stop action.
Tell epic stories with detailed visual effects
The historical epic "Napoleon" meticulously and vividly brings every detail and grand scene to life. Using a variety of scene extensions and on-set special effects, the film recreates the vast battlefields and period-specific architecture of early 19th-century Europe.
The film uses advanced crowd simulation technology to depict the huge army of the Napoleonic era, with each soldier animating his own behavior, making the battle scenes more realistic. These details, combined with high-resolution textures and dynamic lighting, make for a visually appealing narrative film based on reality.
Explore the boundaries of AI
AI Creators is a film about AI and virtual reality (VR) that uses visual effects to realistically depict advanced technologies and the digital world.
The film makes extensive use of CG animation and visual effects to create a realistic and futuristic environment. Director Gareth Edwards, best known for Rogue One and Godzilla (2014), has been praised for producing a high-budget summer blockbuster on a very low budget.
Using a combination of motion capture and procedural animation to depict AI entities, the film sought to create characters whose movements and interactions were as complex and fluid as humans. The VFX team developed custom software that simulates the complex patterns of digital consciousness, further blurring the lines between the virtual and the real.
The perfect combination of action sequences and precise visual effects
The challenge for the VFX team at Mission: Impossible 7: Deadly Reckoning Part 1 was to make the film's iconic action sequences even more exciting without tarnishing the franchise's reputation for live stunts. To do this, they took a hybrid approach, using CGI to seamlessly enhance the live effects.
The team combined high-speed drone footage with CG elements to create breathtaking chase sequences, while advanced compositing technology added multiple layers of detail and depth to the explosions and hand-to-hand combat scenes, making the film's action scenes even more exciting.
NVIDIA experts at the Science and Technology Awards ceremony
NVIDIA's Christopher Jon Horvath joined Steve LaVietes and Joe Ardent on stage to accept the award
The Academy Award for Scientific and Technological Achievement recognizes the technological contributions that have had a significant impact on the way movies are made, and the outstanding inventors behind them.
OpenUSD won an Academy Award for Science and Engineering as the first open-source scene description framework that streamlines the entire production process. With its innovative layering system and efficient Crate file format, it has become the recognized standard for 3D scene exchange, taking collaboration across the industry to unprecedented levels.
The Science & Engineering Awards also recognize other outstanding technologies, including the OpenVDB open-source library dedicated to sparse 3D volumes. The library has become the industry standard for simulation and rendering of water, fire, smoke, and cloud visual effects.
OpenVDB was originally created in 2009 by Ken Museth, NVIDIA's senior director of physics research, and was further developed by Museth, Peter Cucka, and Mihai Aldén.
In addition, the Alembic caching and switching system, co-developed by Lucas Miller, NVIDIA's Christopher Jon Horvath, Steve LaVietes, and Joe Arden, was recognized for its efficient algorithms for storing and retrieving baked time-sampled data and facilitating efficient caching and scene sharing across the digital production pipeline.
OpenVDB and Alembic are interoperable with OpenUSD, making them more useful and integrated in production workflows in the film industry.
*Theme image courtesy of Toho Co., Ltd.