Bill Kovacs, 56; Shared an Oscar for Work in Computer Animation
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Bill Kovacs, 56, a computer animation pioneer and Academy Award winner, died Tuesday at his Camarillo home from complications of a stroke brought on by a cerebral hemorrhage, said his longtime domestic partner, Kathy Salyer.
In the early 1980s, Kovacs co-founded Wavefront Technologies, which produced a groundbreaking off-the-shelf software product that allowed a wide range of companies to create animation.
In 1997, he shared the scientific and engineering Academy Award for digital imaging with Roy Hall. They were recognized for their roles in developing Wavefront’s Advanced Visualizer computer graphics system.
