Image Metrics appointments

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - March 25, 2009 (GDC Trade Show - Booth 5416-NH) - Image Metrics, the leading provider of facial animation solutions to the entertainment industry, has assembled a new team of industry professionals with extensive experience bringing video games and video game technology to market. Art Santos has been hired as a European sales manager, with Ric Neil and Eric Peterson joining recent hire Gordon Bellamy in the Santa Monica office to improve the Company's developer relations within the video game industry. Dario Ahdoot will focus on developing the company's performance transfer technology into a self-service solution for film and visual effects (VFX) studios. Nick Ramsay and Beau Teora have been named technical account managers, handling client services for Europe and North America, respectively.

"We're pleased to add these new team members' valuable expertise in response to Image Metrics' on going growth, including a new facial animation project for SCEA's 'God of War III' video game and signing Double Negative as our first self-service performance transfer beta client," said Michael Starkenburg, Image Metrics CEO. "Our new team members all possess a deep understanding of the unique workflow challenges our customers face when creating games and visual effects. Their unrivaled experience in helping to develop successful products will enable our customers to tell better stories through believable facial animation."

Product Development Team

As software development manager, Dario Ahdoot will lead the Santa Monica product development team, which is focusing on Image Metrics' self-service performance transfer solution that is currently in beta. He was most recently at Vicon/House of Moves for 10 years, where he worked as software development manager for the entertainment market. Ahdoot's ten years of experience working at House of Moves has given him expert insight into how companies are integrating animation into their pipelines, which is a central element of Image Metrics' product development plans.

Image Metrics self-service performance transfer solution, now in beta, will enable select studios to incorporate the power of Image Metrics' facial animation technology into their internal pipelines for increased creative control, cost-efficiencies and production speed.

Business Development Team

Ric Neil is a new director of business development based in Santa Monica. Prior to Image Metrics, Neil was head of production at D2C Games, a casual games startup. He has worked at AMD in the console gaming division, where he managed the technical relationships with the game development studios, and has also led the creative effort behind "NFL Fever" for Microsoft Game Studios. Prior to Microsoft, Neil led the "Madden" and "James Bond" franchise production teams at Electronic Arts.

Eric Peterson also joins as director of business development and is based in Santa Monica. Before Image Metrics, Peterson was president and director of business development at Gizmondo Studios, Inc. Previously, Peterson was the CEO and owner of Fever Pitch Studios/Warthog PLC and one of the founders of Digital Anvil, Inc., which was sold to Microsoft in January of 2001.

Art Santos, Image Metrics' new European sales manager, has more than 10 years of experience helping game publishers, developers and enterprise companies worldwide to bring new technologies to market. He has worked as director of sales with DemonWare in Ireland. He also worked at GameSpy, where he closed deals with top publishers including Activision, Electronic Arts, Take 2, Microsoft, THQ and Ubisoft. Before working at GameSpy, Santos worked on the sales team of Ingram Micro.

Client Services Team

Nick Ramsay joins Image Metrics as a technical account manager for Europe. In this role, he will work closely with Image Metrics clients on all facets of their facial animation projects. Ramsay comes to Image Metrics from Autodesk Media & Entertainment, where he worked as product specialist in software and systems. He has also worked as a 3D animator for video games.

Beau Teora is Image Metrics' new technical account manager for the North American market. Like Ramsay, Teora will assist clients with his deep understanding of current production processes and challenges. He brings with him expertise in both video game and film production, having worked at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging, Threshold Animation Studios and Eidos Interactive.

About Image Metrics

Image Metrics provides superior facial animation services to the interactive entertainment and film industries. Developed by a team of computer vision Ph.D.s, Image Metrics rapidly re-creates facial performances without markers or makeup, achieving levels of realism and fidelity that are unparalleled in computer graphics. Image Metrics' solutions enjoy widespread adoption by some of the best-known production studios in the entertainment world, including Digital Domain, Rockstar Games and Sony Computer Entertainment. Image Metrics has offices in Santa Monica, California and Manchester, U.K.

###

All trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.