VANCOUVER, Canada – April 10, 2019 – Today, Ziva Dynamics launches Ziva VFX 1.6, introducing anatomy transfer capabilities to the world’s most advanced character creation software. With Anatomy Transfer, artists can take the full anatomy of one character and automatically fit it to the mesh of another, eliminating the need to start from scratch every time a new character or creature needs to be developed.
The new Anatomy Transfer feature addresses one of the most time-consuming aspects of the character pipeline, allowing studios to scale their projects at a level unparalleled in high-end productions. Instead of waiting days or weeks for new inputs from the modeling team, character artists can now begin immediately, using the anatomy of one creature to generate another. Transferred rigs require minimal remodeling and come with the full power of Ziva physics, resulting in characters that move, flex, and jiggle realistically.
“Creating hundreds of high-quality characters has never been easier,” said James Jacobs, Co-CEO of Ziva Dynamics. “We would have valued technology like this immensely when we worked at Weta; now, every artist and studio worldwide can ‘build it once,’ rather than repeatedly.”
The transfer process begins with a source creature simulated using Ziva VFX, and the external skin mesh of a target creature with similar topology. Artists use two functions—a proprietary bone-warp and spatial-warp—to automatically reshape the bones, joints, and muscles to fit the second creature. A simple load function then transfers the simulation properties to the new rig, including attachments, fibers, materials, and more. The result is a new simulation-ready creature, immediately usable.
“By now, everyone knows we used Ziva to simulate the Megalodon in The Meg. Furthermore, we also utilized the anatomy transfer tools to generate hundreds of other sharks for the film. Each had to meet the quality of our hero character,” stated Sue Rowe, VFX Supervisor of Sony Pictures Imageworks. “Anatomy Transfer made this possible and saved us incredible time and effort. We are thrilled this tool is available in Ziva VFX 1.6.”
To aid users in getting started, Ziva’s Zeke the Lion character asset is now included in the Ziva VFX 1.6 software package, a value of $10,000. Along with Zeke, users will also receive a quadruped cheetah (Lila) to help them practice the anatomy transfer process.
Zeke is Ziva’s flagship quadruped and has undergone extensive iterations and revisions over the past two years. The asset is complete with over 132 individual muscle tissues and an optimized fat/skin layer containing approximately 880,000 collision points. This simulation-ready rig is of blockbuster quality and has been used to create quadruped characters in major productions.
Besides the free assets, Ziva VFX 1.6 introduces a speed optimization, performing 15-20 percent faster than the previous version. With the improved algorithms from December and the removal of the fascia simulation pass from August, Ziva simulations are now over 300 percent faster than one year ago.
