Petro Vlahos is a Hollywood special effects pioneer who developed the color-difference bluescreen process for the Motion Picture Research Council and, with his son Paul Vlahos, founded the Ultimatte Corporation[1] in Chatsworth, California, in 1976.
His goal was to invent a better traveling matte system for motion pictures and he won an Oscar in 1964 for Blue Screen Compositing Technology. The first Ultimatte units were analog "black boxes" which evolved into the advanced, real-time digital hardware and the computer software products produced by the company today. In 1978, Petro won an Emmy award for Ultimatte Compositing Technology, followed by the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1994.[2] In 1995, Ultimatte’s first software product was also awarded an Oscar.
Petro’s original concepts and innovations have been enhanced and expanded over the years and today Ultimatte users are able to create composites which feature fine details such as hair, smoke, mist, motion blur and shadows. This realism allows for the creation of scenes that would otherwise be too dangerous, impossible and impractical.