Patents were awarded to Jos Stam and Duncan Brinsmead, for inventing a method of producing fluid-like animations using a rapid, stable Navier-Stokes solver; Dick Rice and Craig McPheeters, for generating a curve through points residing on underlying geometries in a three dimensional space; Dick Rice and Nikki Rohm, for developing curve and surface modeling based on point cloud data; Peter Liepa, for devising a system and method for generating planar maps of three dimensional surfaces; and Jos Stam, for inventing a method for modeling light reflected from anisotropic and diffracting surfaces.

"Each of these patents is not only a demonstration of the depth of creativity and technical excellence of our people, it also shows how Alias/Wavefront software products provide powerful, distinct solutions that you can get nowhere else," claims Bill Buxton, Alias/Wavefront chief scientist.