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Alex Hessler
CEO, Creator and Chief Daydreamer at Invisible Thread
Alex Hessler is a prominent figure in the visual effects and immersive technology industries, currently serving as an Advisor at Remembrance.1 In this role, he provides expertise in Augmented Reality Platform Technologies, Creative Direction, and Product Design.1
Professional Background
Alex Hessler is the CEO of Invisible Thread, a position he has held since December 2023.1 Prior to becoming CEO, he was a Partner and Founder of the company from June 2018 to December 2023.1 Invisible Thread is an immersive experience company that creates content using cutting-edge XR/VFX skills and storytelling expertise.2
Career Highlights
Visual Effects Experience:: Alex has an impressive background in visual effects, having worked on notable projects such as:
- Avatar (Lead Technical Director at Weta Digital)1
- Harry Potter (contributing to award-winning visual effects)3
Leadership Roles::
- CEO at Invisible Thread (current)1
- Lead Lighting Technical Director at Weta Digital1
- Head of Render Support at Framestore CFC1
Skills and Expertise
Alex Hessler is described as a passionate leader, creative director, technical problem solver, and project supervisor.3 His career has spanned across prestigious studios including Pixar, Weta Digital, and Framestore, where he has applied his unique blend of creative vision and technical expertise.3
Current Focus
At Remembrance, Alex contributes to a platform that uses augmented reality to create interactive spaces for grieving and honoring loved ones.4 This aligns with his extensive experience in immersive technologies and his commitment to creating meaningful experiences through technology.
Highlights
I’ve waited a day to share this to let the dust settle. Some of you may be aware that Meta “made the decision to shut down Meta Spark’s platform of third party tools and content, effective Tuesday, January 14, 2025”.
Meta has been the largest investor in the AR space for many years, funding ground breaking art and technology. There are thousands of independent artists and educators who have built careers on Meta’s Spark platform. If you’ve ever seen an interactive experience that runs on Messenger, Facebook, or Instagram, it’s been using Spark as its development engine. Face filters, games, museum installations, and public art is all being developed and hosted on this platform. In 2022 Invisible Thread won best XR Experience at Tribeca with a piece that ran on top of Meta Spark.
The community received this notice yesterday https://lnkd.in/gvyS8PxU. Calling this a “rug pull” would be putting it lightly. The thousands of AR experiences that are actively running in public spaces are being deleted by Meta.
This change in priority is fully within Meta’s rights. They built the platform and encouraged everyone to join in. However, their ability to wipe out an entire category of XR content highlights the issue with how much of the AR and VR space is controlled by singular companies that have no concern for their users.
If there’s one lesson to take from this, it is to develop using open standards. Transition your content creation away from single points of failure, like Meta. Meta has a lot of work to do to repair trust with the XR community.
RIP Jon. We’ve lost a legend.
