And the Oscar goes to . . .

Scientific and Technical Award (Technical Achievement Award). To Hayley Iben, Mark Meyer, John Anderson and Andrew Witkin for the Taz Hair Simulation System. Taz is a robust, predictable and efficient mass-spring hair simulation system with novel formulations of hair shape, bending springs and hair-to-hair collisions. It has enabled Pixar artists to bring to life animated digital characters with a wide variety of stylized hair, from straight to wavy to curly.

Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award). To Thijs Vogels, Fabrice Rousselle, David Adler, Gerhard Röthlin and Mark Meyer for the creation of Disney’s ML Denoiser. This sophisticated machine learning denoiser features a ground-breaking kernel-predicting convolutional network and temporal stability. It has been adopted far beyond its original domain of animation and is an essential tool for creating computer-generated imagery in feature films.