Model winner

AutoCAD is probably the most recognisable global CAD 'brand' — a bit like the Coca-Cola of the CAD world. Yet if you examine

recent products it's all about animation and visual effects.

The company's modelling software was used on some of the top films at this year's Oscars. London-based Framestore CFC, for example, used Autodesk's Maya 3D modelling, animation and rendering software to create and light all the challenging polar environments, such as ice and snow shots, in the fantasy epic

. The film won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

The software also helped bring to life special-effects tricks in non-animated films such as

and

.

The interesting thing here is that well-known post-production houses such as Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic, Asylum, Sony Pictures Animation, Rhythm & Hues, EFILM and Deluxe Digital London are now using 'standard' commercial software to work their magic.

When these companies and their predecessors first said that there was no such thing as reality in films any more in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was their own home-grown applications that achieved the remarkable effects.