Facial animation tech company Image Metrics announced its hire of former Havok and Criterion salesman Michael Crigler as VP of North American Sales. Crigler has 10 years' industry experience in sales, and now in his new role he'll oversee ImageMetrics' regional sales directors and sales operations, as well as its customer service staff. He joins the company as it recently secured $8 million in financing through a stock deal, and went public through a reverse merger with International Cellular Accessories. Image Metrics' software is designed to create facial animations by processing digital video of an actor's face, aiming to eliminate hand animation and motion capture. Titles employing the company's tech include Assassin's Creed II, NBA 2K10, and the Grand Theft Auto series. Image Metrics executive VP Brian Waddle praised the new hire: "Michael has the perfect skill set to lead our sales effort given his extensive experience with major publishers and leading development studios as they adopted technology-based solutions ranging from rendering, animation, physics, AI and audio to improve their production workflow," he commented.