David “DaveS” Simons is an Adobe Fellow and has been with the company for 31 years. He cofounded The Company of Science & Art (CoSA) in 1990, and it was acquired by Adobe for its nascent video compositor After Effects (AE). Simons was AE Engineering Manager until 2007, when he started the Advanced Product Development group (APD) to concentrate on transferring emerging tech from Adobe Research into AE and Premiere Pro.
In 2013, APD and Adobe Research combined forces to create Adobe Character Animator to bring easy, expressive, customized character animation to a wider audience. Along with the respective teams, Simons received a Technical Academy Award for After Effects’ impact on the film industry, and a Technical Emmy Award for Character Animator’s impact on broadcast.
