Facial Animation Software Company Faceware Hires “Avatar” Artist David Bennett
SANTA MONICA, CA — Faceware Technologies announced that David Bennett will be head up sales efforts for the company’s facial animation software in Europe and India, as well as build studio and channel relationships in those regions. Bennett is an award-winning artist who is recognized throughout the film and video game industry for his facial animation work on such films as Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Beowulf.
“We began with a desire to bring on a highly technical animation talent capable of illustrating the full capabilities of our Faceware product line to our most demanding clients and coupled that with the need for a development manager well suited for European and Indian software markets,” said Ron Ryder, CEO of Faceware Technologies. “David’s achievements at WETA Digital and Animal Logic, along with his knowledge of facial-specific rigging and animation technology, mathematics, and algorithms, make him an excellent choice for this position.”
Before joining Faceware Technologies, Bennett was the Facial Motion Capture Manager at world-leading visual effects company WETA Digital in Wellington, New Zealand. During his five years with the company, he led his team in creating highly realistic facial animation for blockbuster movies and projects that include Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Prior to WETA, Bennett was a Motion Capture Consultant for Sydney, Australia-based Animal Logic, a top design, visual effects and animation company. At Animal Logic, Bennett worked on David Tench Tonight, a successful real-time television talk show featuring an animated fictional character as host. Bennett also served as Lead Facial Motion Capture TD at Sony Pictures ImageWorks in Culver City, Calif., where he supervised facial data acquisition from sessions with actors working on movies that included Beowulf, Monster House, and The Polar Express. He also worked as a Motion Capture and Rigging Technician on PlayStation Games at Midway Games in Chicago, Ill.
In addition to receiving awards for his ideas and art, Bennett has spoken about digital face cloning at the annual SIGGRAPH Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, and authored two provisional patents. He received a master of fine arts from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
