Dundas winner at Academy Awards

The glow from Sunday’s Academy Awards show might be dimming now for most of us. But a winner from Dundas is still soaking it up!

You might not be aware of it, but you’ve seen Colin Doncaster’s work in blockbuster hits such as Avatar, Planet of the Apes and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He developed a technique called deep compositing: encoding data to produce three dimensional images, like adding details to fur and hair.

Two weeks before the Oscars, the scientific and technical awards were handed out, and Doncaster received his. “It’s a good validation for a lot of the work for the past five or six years that we’ve been putting into it.”

He made not have had a red carpet moment, but Kirsten Bodenstedt, his business partner and wife is incredibly proud of the recognition. “It’s well-deserved – it’s really well deserved, he’s been working so hard, faced so many challenges.”

Instead of a gold statue, they give a certificate. Still, the sci-tech awards are a big deal.

“Because its moving from cameras and camera inventions to the digital realm, a lot more people are taking note of what’s happening the science and technology awards.”

This technique was recently used for the stunning visual effects in Prometheus and Life of Pi.

But despite his big Tinseltown win, Colin is careful not to let the attention go to his head.

“I work from home, I spend time with the kids, I like to help out at home and that doesn’t go away because you have an Oscar.”

Colin’s next big project: the movie 300: Rise of an Empire.