In a recent article in Barrons, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard cites the importance of facial animation in the next generation of consoles. He argues that the new hardware will finally let developers achieve the realism required to create an emotional connection with the player.

Check out the article here:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125150805017468583.html

For the first time, OC3 Entertainment will be exhibiting FaceFX at SIGGRAPH 2009. We're looking forward to meeting artists, animators, content creators, and producers, and demonstrating how FaceFX is an outstanding solution for facial animation outside of its traditional role in the video game production pipeline. If you're at the show, find us at booth 3706.

More information about our SIGGRAPH presence.

www.evolver.com launched this week. You can generate highly realistic characters in Maya, FBX, or Collada formats. FaceFX is one of the standard output settings, which gives you access to 77 blendshapes that are great for facial animation. FaceFX ships with sample evolver content, so getting an evolver character talking is really easy. A FaceFX-compatible character is $69.

We're very excited to launch our newly-redesigned website. With the new site, we're trying to create a place on the web where FaceFX users can meet and exchange ideas on how to get the most out of FaceFX. This blog will be a place where the FaceFX devs post updates, announcements, and some tips and tricks. We hope you check back often to learn a little more about using FaceFX.

So browse around, check out the video tutorials, post your questions on the forums, and make yourselves at home!