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Above: Daniel Langlois during the creation of the animated short film Tony de Peltrie. Credit: Fondation Daniel Langlois.
Daniel Langlois ans his partner Dominique Marchand have been found dead in the Carribean. The circumstances of their death are stil unclear. The policie identified their bodies, found in a burned-out car. Three people are being interrogated: it seems that the police thinks the couple may have been murdered.
Daniel Langlois is known as the founder of Softimage in 1986, the company behind the software of the same name. This general-purpose 3D tool was used in major movies such as Jurassic Park, the Star Wars prequels, Titanic, the Harry Potter saga, and more.
Daniel Langlois is also one of the four directors of Tony de Peltrie (1985), a short film that featured a human character, a musician dreaming about his past fame. The emotions and facial animation of the character were a revolution for the time, proving that it was possible to create moving characters using CGI.
Daniel Langlois sold Softimage to Microsoft in 1994 and in 1997, he established the Daniel Langlois Foundation, an organization aimed at advancing arts and sciences, while promoting exchanges between these fields.
Subsequently, he launched various initiatives, such as a cinema complex, a New Cinema Festival, and a sustainable hotel complex.
Softimage ended up being acquired by Autodesk in 2008, by which time the publisher owned the three biggest tools in the market: 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage. However, in 2014, Autodesk announced that Softimage would no longer be updated. The tool is no longer available.
A pioneer in 3D technology, Daniel Langlois received various awards, including a Sci-Tech Academy Award in 1997. He passed away at the age of 66.
