Conference
Tools of Tomorrow
Digital Humans
ON SITE
Meidinger-Saal
Tuesday, April 25, 11:15
APFS - Wētā's Avatar Facial System
Wētā FX’s new facial system used on Avatar: The Way of Water pushes beyond past techniques and establishes a new suite of controls to replicate an actor's facial performance. Join Stuart Adcock, Head of Facial Motion at Wētā FX, as he discusses Wētā’s new Anatomically Plausible Facial System (APFS) and the journey of creating emotionally engaging performances for James Cameron’s Avatar sequel.
Stuart Adcock, Head of Facial Motion, Wētā FX
Stuart Adcock is the Head of Wētā FX's Facial Motion Department.
He joined Wētā in 2018 to work on the cutting-edge digital characters that star in Alita: Battle Angel and Gemini Man, the latter earning him a VES Award nomination.
The Facial Motion Department team is made up of two specialised teams, ‘Facial Motion’ and ‘Facial Modelling’ who work together to produce high-fidelity facial animation. As Head of Department, Stuart ensures his artists are equipped with the very best tools and techniques to deliver the world’s best facial performances.
During his early career, Stuart spent 15 years developing video games at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Ninja Theory. He joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2015, where he spent several years supervising a research and development project focused on virtual production and the integration of real-time aspects into the VFX workflow.
In addition to Alita and Gemini Man, Stuart has worked on Avengers: Endgame, and has just wrapped on James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.