{"id":27814,"date":"2026-02-24T16:41:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=27814"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:22:07","slug":"academy-award-sci-tech-wins-for-bu-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2026\/02\/24\/academy-award-sci-tech-wins-for-bu-graduates\/","title":{"rendered":"Academy Award Sci-Tech wins for BU graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two BU animation graduates are to be honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences<\/a> for their innovative contributions to film.<\/p>\n

Josh Bainbridge and Nathan Walster, who both graduated from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) and who now work for Framestore, have been named among 27 winners of the Academy\u2019s annual Scientific and Technical (Sci-Tech) Awards.<\/p>\n

The awards recognise the pairs\u2019 work to devise and develop Framestore\u2019s proprietary layered shading system, which enables the company\u2019s artists to generate realistic surfaces for characters, vehicles, and CG elements. The system was first used during Framestore\u2019s work on Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>, and has since helped to realise films such as Paddington, Barbie, Superman, Wicked <\/em>as well as Academy Award-nominated work on F1<\/em> and the BAFTA-nominated How to Train Your Dragon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Josh<\/strong>, who graduated from BU\u2019s MSc in Computer Animation and Visual Effects<\/a> in 2015, shared the news on LinkedIn by saying: \u201cIncredibly honoured to be receiving an Academy Award alongside Nathan, for our work on layered materials and shading technology at Framestore. Fifteen years in the making, to see this work recognised with a Scientific and Technical Award means so much. This technology was shaped by so many talented teams and individuals – from the brilliant researchers publishing papers to the remarkable technical and creative teams here at Framestore<\/a>, who together bring it to life on the big screen<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan<\/strong>, who graduated with both an undergraduate and Master’s degree in Computer Animation, said: “It is a tremendous honour to be recognised by the Academy for our work on layered materials and shading technology. This milestone represents a continued effort at Framestore to give our Lighting and Look Development artists a modular approach to crafting realistic surfaces. Seeing our work help bring iconic characters and moments to life across more than one hundred film and TV projects has been incredibly rewarding, and a true testament to the power of long-term innovation and collaboration<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The Academy Sci-Tech Awards will be presented to recipients from some of the biggest names in animation at a ceremony on April 28 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.<\/p>\n

Announcing the winners, Darin Grant and Rachel Rose, co-chairs of the Academy\u2019s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, said: \u201cWhether through enhancing the safety of practical effects with lead-free bullet hits or pushing the limits of stop-motion animation and sound restoration, these technologies are now fundamental to the craft. We are honoured to recognise the brilliant minds behind these tools, which continue to elevate the moviegoing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofronis Efstathiou, Principal Lecturer at BU\u2019s National Centre for Computer Animation, said: \u201cOnce again, it is humbling to see our talented graduates named among the leading figures in animation and visual effects today. This award not only recognises talent, but also innovation and a contribution that goes beyond a single movie. A huge congratulations to both Josh and Nathan for this achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two BU animation graduates are to be honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their innovative contributions to film. Josh Bainbridge and Nathan Walster, who both graduated from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) and who now work for Framestore, have been named among 27 winners of the Academy\u2019s annual… Read more » about Academy Award Sci-Tech wins for BU graduates<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":27640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2430,499,496,1669,19,3610,1663,1638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-animation-visual-effects-pg-courses","category-computer-animation-visual-effects","category-ug-courses","category-pg-courses","category-featured","category-graduates","category-postgraduate","category-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27831,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27814\/revisions\/27831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}