CityEngine Used to Create Oscar-Nominated Effects in Blade Runner 2049

REDLANDS, Calif.—March 1, 2018—Esri, the global leader in spatial analytics, and its distributor Esri Canada today announced that Framestore, a visual arts studio with a presence in Montréal, Québec, has received a nomination for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Designers at Framestore used the Esri CityEngine application to re-create portions of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, as seen in the movie Blade Runner 2049.

"We were tasked in creating a futuristic Las Vegas for the year 2049. We had to fly over the main strip of Vegas on a long sequence shot," said Didier Muanza, lead environment TD, Framestore. "CityEngine seemed to be the best choice to help us generate a modern-day model of Vegas, which was used as the base for the futuristic version."

CityEngine is a sophisticated 3D modeling software used in professions such as urban planning and architecture as well as film and other entertainment industries. Framestore designers used CityEngine for only one month and generated a set that was 6.759 km long and 4 km wide and included more than 1,400 buildings. Realistic textures were based on aerial and oblique photos of the Las Vegas main strip.