The software development team at Colorfront, based in Budapest, Hungary, is being honored with a Scientific & Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for their color grading system in Autodesk’s Lustre.
Colorfront’s managing director Aron Jaszberenyi commented, “To receive this accolade for DI innovation work is a great honour for our team. Their work had a dramatic impact on motion picture post, but the industry moves on and new challenges lie ahead. We use Lustre in our own DI grading theatres, complemented by the new software tools that our award-winning team are developing in-house to assist every aspect of pre-production, cinematography, dailies, conform, visual effects, DI and deliverables. Colorfront relies on these proprietary new technologies for a fast and efficient high-resolution workflow to serve our international production clients.”
Congratulations ! The full press release with some background on Lustre & Colorfront is after the break.
COLORFRONT TEAM WINS ACADEMY AWARD®– Award-winning team now focusing on fresh challenges in streamlining motion picture production and post –Budapest, Hungary, January 14th 2010 – Colorfront, one of the world’s most advanced digital intermediate (DI) and post production facilities, based in Budapest, Hungary, has announced that its software development team is to be honoured with a Scientific and Engineering Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®. News of the prestigious award, for the development Autodesk’s Lustre® grading system, comes as the team focuses on new challenges of streamlining camera-to-post workflows for motion picture and episodic TV production.The Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards honour the people whose discoveries and innovations have contributed in significant, outstanding and lasting ways to motion pictures. The Scientific and Engineering Award® is given for achievements that produce a definite influence on the advancement of the motion picture industry.Colofront’s Mark Jaszberenyi, along with software engineers Gyula Priskin and Tamas Perlaki, met in high school where they studied advanced mathematics and have worked together for a decade. They will receive the Academy Award® for the design and development of the Lustre colour correction system at a formal awards ceremony on 20th February 2010 in Los Angeles. Lustre enables real-time digital manipulation of imagery during the DI process for motion pictures.Brief history of Lustre:When it was launched in 2003 the Lustre was the culmination of five years of pioneering research and development into DI. Its foundations date back to 1998, when Jaszberenyi and Priskin pioneered an end-to-end digital film pipeline offering scanning, compositing, VFX, restoration and titling services for Hungary’s first digital film post production company, founded by Jaszberenyi.DI did not exist at the time and Colofront was established in 2000 by brothers Aron and Mark Jaszberenyi, with Priskin as lead developer, to develop software that met industry demand for colour-calibrated tools to digitally grade and finish motion pictures. Perlaki joined Colorfront in 2001 as lead developer.Colorfront made motion picture history in 2001 when it delivered SACC (Stand-Alone Colour Corrector) to colourist Peter Doyle to grade Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Shortly after, EFILM in Los Angeles became Colorfront’s next customer, breaking new ground with the first end-to-end DI on We Were Soldiers.During this period, British company 5D licensed Colorfront’s colour correction technology and brought this to market as 5D Colossus. In 2003, Discreet (now Autodesk) licensed Colorfront’s technology, and introduced the first Lustre DI system. Autodesk acquired Lustre from Colorfront in June 2005.Jaszberenyi left Autodesk in 2007 and established DI and post-production company Colorfront in Budapest with his brother Aron. Priskin and Perlaki joined Colorfront shortly after. The company offers HD, 2K and 4K post-production services to international filmmakers, with credits including Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal (The Mob/Sky), The Pillars Of The Earth (Tandem Communications/Muse Entertainment/Scott Free) and The Debt (Miramax-Disney).Today Lustre enjoys an enviable reputation as the market-leading DI system, used around the world to grade an extensive list of motion pictures including Apocalypto, The Da Vinci Code, Pan’s Labyrinth and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl amongst many others.Looking forward:The Colorfront team has advised many of the world’s leading facilities about DI workflow including EFILM/Deluxe, Technicolor, LaserPacific/Kodak in Los Angeles, Éclair in Paris, PrimeFocus in India, ARRI in Munich and Weta Digital in Wellington.The Academy Award® award comes it implements new image-processing and visual communications technologies at its Budapest-based facility that streamline camera-to-post workflows for motion pictures and episodic TV productions.Colorfront’s managing director Aron Jaszberenyi commented, “To receive this accolade for DI innovation work is a great honour for our team. Their work had a dramatic impact on motion picture post, but the industry moves on and new challenges lie ahead. We use Lustre in our own DI grading theatres, complemented by the new software tools that our award-winning team are developing in-house to assist every aspect of pre-production, cinematography, dailies, conform, visual effects, DI and deliverables. Colorfront relies on these proprietary new technologies for a fast and efficient high-resolution workflow to serve our international production clients.”– ENDS –
About Colorfront:Colorfront is one of Europe’s leading DI and post production facilities, based in Budapest, Hungary. The company was founded by brothers Mark and Aron Jaszberenyi, who together played a pivotal role in the emergence of DI, and as the original authors of Lustre, Autodesk’s best-selling DI grading system.Combining this in-depth expertise, with a pedigree in the development of additional cutting-edge software for colour enhancement and dust-busting, Colorfront offers today’s most advanced technologies for scanning and recording, DI grading, conforming, digital dailies, VFX, online and offline editing, cinema sound mixing, mastering and deliverables. For further information please visit www.colorfront.com.Editors Notes:Scientific and Engineering Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy, Academy Award and Scientific and Engineering Award Academy Plaque are registered trademarks and copyright of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®. Lustre is a registered trademark of Autodesk. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.Tamas Perlaki (born in 1973) is a researcher and developer at Colorfront Ltd., one of Europe’s leading digital film post-production facilities. He got involved with computer graphics at the age of 14. Upon receiving his M.Sc. at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, his interest shifted towards high-performance image-processing technology. He joined Colorfront Ltd as software developer, working on the Stand Alone Colour Corrector software used on motion picture The Lord Of The Rings. After the acquisition of Colorfront technologies by world-leading 3D software company Autodesk, he joined Autodesk’s software development team, creating tools and algorithms for its world-renowned high-end visual effects product line, including the Lustre DI system. He left Autodesk in 2008 to rejoin Colorfront and to face new challenges.Gyula Priskin (born in 1973) is a developer at Colorfront Ltd. He encountered computers at primary school and these became his main hobby. After receiving a Computer Science B.Sc. at Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Science, Budapest he worked as a service engineer at Digital Media Solution Ltd (a local digital video product reseller company). He then joined Colorfront Ltd as software developer, working on the Stand Alone Colour Corrector software used on motion picture The Lord Of The Rings. Following the acquisition of Colorfont technologies by world-leading 3D software company Autodesk, he worked in Autodesk’s Lustre develpment team as a main developer. In 2008 he left Autodesk to rejoin Colorfront and to face new challenges.Mark Jaszberenyi (born in 1973) is a founder of Colorfront, one of Europe’s leading digital film post production facilities. He got involved with computer graphics at an early age at High School in Minnesota. Upon returning to Hungary, he attended a special Mathematics High School in Debrecen, Hungary, together with Gyula Priskin and Tamas Perlaki. Mark studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Eotvos Lorand Universtiy in Budapest, receiving a BSc, while working as a 3D animator, compositor, then visual effects supervisor at various post-production facilities in Budapest.Mark founded Colorfront in 2000 with his brother Aron, and introduced the company’s first product at NAB 2000, the color*star spark plug–in for Discreet Flame. Working with Priskin and Perlaki they delivered the Stand Alone Colour Corrector for The Lord Of The Rings in 2001, sparking the DI revolution. Autodesk aquired all assets of Colorfront in 2005, and Mark became a director at Autodesk.The Jaszberenyi Brothers reopened Colorfront as Europe’s most advanced DI facility in 2007, where they have worked on a number of high–profile international feature films and episodic television shows shot in Hungary and abroad.
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