Academy Award Oscars awarded to two ex Doc/EEE students.

Allan Jaenicke and John-Paul Smith receive Oscars at this years Academy awards event for their work with visual effects software company Imagineer.

Two Imperial alumni, Allan Jaenicke and John-Paul Smith (ex Information Systems Engineering students) have been awarded Oscars in this years Scientific & Technical Awards category for their work with visual effects software company Imagineer, which they both helped to establish soon after  graduating from the College.

They along with Philip McLauchlan and Ross Shain were awarded Oscars for mocha and its underlying Planar Tracking technology. They were recognized for their proven record of contributing significant value to the post-production process of making motion pictures.

Over the years, Imagineer’s mocha software has gained acclaimed notoriety within Hollywood’s visual effects community for its ability to “motion track” problematic footage such as out of focus and marker-less areas helping enable a technique called ‘digital makeup’ or ‘seamless effects.’ Visual effects artists use planar tracking to magically transform actors and locations without requiring timely makeup sessions and expensive sets, allowing directors to make important creative decisions long after the performance has been captured. Capturing accurate movement is essential and mocha has been involved in some famous digital makeup examples such as the snake-like noseless Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, replacing Mystique’s eyes in X-Men and helping Natalie Portman undergo an amazing transformation in Black Swan.

About Imagineer Systems

Imagineer Systems Ltd is the Academy Award winning developer of visual effects solutions for film, video and broadcast post production markets.  Imagineer Systems has made its mark on such marquee Hollywood blockbuster productions as The Hobbit, Black Swan, The Amazing Spiderman, Invictus, and the Harry Potter series. Imagineer’s desktop product line consists of mocha Pro™ - roto, planar tracking, compositing, and removal utility; mocha AE™ - a planar tracking and roto utility designed for After Effects and Final Cut Pro users.  Imagineer Systems was founded in 2000 and its headquarters is located in Guildford, United Kingdom.