Last night the 76th Annual Academy Awards aired on television, and for the first time since Titanic, a film took home 11 Oscars (tying the record). "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" took home an Oscar in every category it was nominated in, including Achievement in Special Effects. The winning team at Weta Digital credited Appleis Shake as a key element in the creation of the effects for the film. From the press release:

Last night’s 76th Annual Academy Awards presentation marked the seventh consecutive year Apple’s Shake® compositing software has played a crucial role in the film winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The 2004 winners in this category from Weta Digital credited Shake as a key element in the creation of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”

“We’re thrilled that for seven years in a row, movies created with Shake have won the Oscar for best visual effects,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Shake is helping Hollywood film editors communicate their vision and deliver their art at an Academy Award winning level. We couldnit be happier.”

“We could not have done ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy without Shake’s fast compositing speed, quality and extensibility,” said Joe Letteri, Weta Digital’s Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor. “Shake was the cornerstone of our visual compositing pipeline.”

Weta Digital used Shake to blend numerous visual effects components in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” including live action set passes, digital characters and creatures, set extensions and digital environments. Shake rendered incredibly huge shots and was key in fine-tuning the overall look and feel of every aspect of a shot including colors, composition and camera movement.

More information on Shake can be found on Appleis Shake Web site.