LOS ANGELES, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the launch of the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) (oscars.org/aces) at the 2015 NAB show, a free, open, device-independent color management and image interchange system that offers a critically needed global industry standard for motion picture and television production.
From image capture through editing, VFX, mastering, public presentation, archiving and future remastering, ACES enables a consistent color experience that preserves the filmmaker’s creative vision. It addresses and solves a number of significant production, post production and archiving problems that have arisen with the increasing variety of digital cameras and formats in use, along with the surge in the number of productions that rely on worldwide collaboration using shared digital image files.
“A decade ago, the Academy recognized the need for a new set of infrastructure standards as the industry moved from film to digital,” says Richard Edlund, Academy governor and founding member of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. “We made a deep commitment to the effort — coordinating hundreds of top industry scientists, engineers and filmmakers on years of research, testing and field trials — so we’re both proud and excited to launch ACES 1.0 as the first production-ready release of the system.”
The Academy is simultaneously launching the ACES Logo Program to encourage consistent, high-quality implementations of ACES concepts and technical specifications throughout the industry. Initially focused on production and post production equipment such as cameras, color correctors, displays and visual effects and animation software, the Logo Program is the first step toward enabling facilities and productions to take full advantage of ACES benefits. There are 22 leading companies already in the Logo Program, including: ARRI, Assimilate, Autodesk, Canon U.S.A., Codex, Colorfront, Deluxe Media Creative Services, Digital Vision, Dolby Laboratories, FotoKem, The Foundry, Panasonic and Sony Electronics.
ACES has been used on scores of film and television productions to date, including such features as Chappie, The Lego Movie, Big Eyes, Elysium, Oblivion and Chasing Mavericks.