Henrietta, N.Y. – Three RIT graduates are up for an Oscar Sunday night for their work on the film "Life of Pi."
The trio helped create the animation, including the tiger that was so well done it's difficult to decipher when it was the real tiger or the animated one.
It’s a magical world on the big screen -- a world we pay to enter -- a world R.I.T. alumni Scott Vosbury ‘04, Rich Enders ‘02, and Jen Stratton ’05 helped create.
“It's always exciting,” said Marla Schweppe, a professor at RIT who developed the curriculum used by the alumni. “It's always exciting to see the students really succeed.”
The three work for Rhythm & Hues, a character animation studio in Los Angeles.
“RIT prides itself on being able to prepare people to step into the work place and really contribute right away,” said Schweppe. "It's really exciting when they do and they get a wonderful credit like being on a film that's nominated for an academy award. It's pretty special.”
What's also special is what the students worked on a tiger, which just happens to be RIT’s mascot.
And that tiger in "Pi" was strikingly real.
In fact, a real tiger was only used in 24 of the 170 times it appeared on screen.
“I don't know about other people, but I find it very difficult to tell any difference between the two, so really fabulous job,” said Schweppe.
