Mr. Nestor Burtnyk

A Software engineer, he fathered the multimillion-dollar computer animation industry through his pioneering work in animation technology. Born in Ethelbert, Manitoba to Ukrainian immigrants, he began Canada?s first major computer graphics research project in 1968 at the National Research Council when computers were still in early development. As part of this research in graphics, the first computer mouse in Canada was built under the supervision of J.K. Pulfer, based on a demonstration by its inventor, Prof. Englebart at Stanford University. In 1969, he attended a conference in California where Disney studio animators presented an overview of the process of creating Disney-style hand-drawn animation. Although he claimed to lack an artistic bent, he returned to Ottawa and, with Marceli Wein, developed ?key-frame animation? which used hard-drawn computer images and was patterned on the Disney Studio?s process. Based on its demonstrated potential, he was joined by physicist Wein to participate in its further development and to encourage experimentation by animators from the National Film Board. This technology, designed originally to make computers easier to use, is considered classic in the animated film industry, and inspired many to pursue careers in animation. The technology was used to create Peter Foldes? 11-minute film ?Hunger? for the National Film Board, which in 1974 won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and became the first computer-animated movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short. In 1997, he and Wein finally earned an Academy Award for technical achievement in computer animation. During his 45-year career at the NRC, which began the year he graduated from university, He also studied intelligent robotics and image processing directed primarily in support of applications of the Canadarm and its related technologies. He retired from active research in 1995. In 2000, He was elected a Member of the Order of Canada for his pioneering work in computer animation.