Daniel Langlois is the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc. Daniel Langlois also founded Softimage Inc., serving as its president and chief technology officer from November 1986 to July 1998. The company is recognized in the fields of cinema and media creation for its digital technologies and especially its 3-D computer animation techniques. Softimage software was used to create 3-D effects in such films as , The Matrix, Titanic, Men in Black, Twister, Jurassic Park, The Mask and The City of Lost Children. Before establishing Softimage Inc., Langlois earned a bachelor of design degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal. He also worked eight years as a film director and animator for private companies and the National Film Board of Canada. During this time, he made contributions to the film industry and especially to the field of computer graphics. In addition, he has gained recognition for his work on Transitions, first stereoscopic 3-D computer animation in IMAX format. He also had a hand in the 1985 film Tony de Peltrie, which has garnered several international awards. Mr. Langlois has received many honours throughout his career. In 1994, Ernst & Young chose him as Canada's national entrepreneur of the year. The Université de Sherbrooke bestowed an honorary doctorate degree in administration on Mr. Langlois in 1996. In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with a Scientific and Technical Oscar. In 1999, he became a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000.
Daniel Langlois Foundation
The Daniel Langlois Foundation is a non-profit, philanthropic organization endowed by Daniel Langlois and chartered in 1997 with the mission to support artistic and scientific projects and research dedicated to further general human awareness as well as the understanding of human relation with its natural and technological environment. The purpose of the foundation is to further artistic and scientific knowledge by fostering the meeting of art and science in the field of technologies and the environment. The Foundation seeks to nurture a critical awareness of technology's implications for human beings and their natural and cultural environments, and to promote the exploration of aesthetics suited to evolving human environments. The Foundation Centre for Research and Documentation seeks to document history, artworks and practices associated with electronic and digital media arts and to make this information available to researchers in an innovative manner through data communications. In 2005, the foundation initiated the development of DOCAM. This international research alliance's primary objective is to develop new methodologies and tools to address the issues of preserving and documenting technological and electronic works of art The Daniel Langlois Foundation, DOCAM and its Centre for Research and Documentation are located in Montreal.
