How This 3D Software Changed Character Animation Forever | Ziva VFX

I think we can all agree that realistic 3D character animation has always been a challenging Pursuit probably the most challenging actually however in recent years there was a tool that goes by the name of Zea VFX which totally revolutionized this genre and came to the industry to help VFX artists create all sorts of creatures in blackbusters whether it be animals humans or fantasy creatures the in thing is that what this tool does is not even visible because it is all under the skin so how does this software help make characters and creature animations look realistic how was it created in the first place and why it is being tossed around like a hot potato between different companies recently before we continue let me tell you about renderhub renderhub is one of the best platforms forms for 3D assets out there from high quality and fully textured 3D models to characters cards and everything else in between spending a long list of every major category like people animals food interior design environments and much more so if it is Art related you can probably find it here there are also a ton of 3D printing ready models if you are into that field and vender Hub is not just a storefront it is also a perfect place if you want to sell your Creations it is super intuitive and it provides you with all the tools you need to organize keep track of your sales create coupons and discounts in addition to other stuff not to forget that render Hub is a great learning platform and they host 3D competitions regularly so if you want to join a thriving Community learn sell and participate in great challenges you can click the link in the Des description down below now back to the video Zea VFS came into existence in the creative Labs of Zea Dynamics a company that was founded in early 2015 by James Jacob an Academy Award winner for his contribution to the development of the tissue physically based character simulation framework which is hard to say imagine how much work went into actually doing it another founder was the tr35 winner Dr Jour bar Arc a professor at the University of Southern California together they combined their contrasting expertise of both working as prestigious VFX Studios like water digital and Academia with a mission of making CGI animations better but how they did this you may ask well with Zea VFX which was originally developed as a plugin for Autodesk Maya one of the most used software in Creative Industries especially for animation and ever since then Zea VFX has evolved into a Powerhouse of a tool set by taking advantage of wellestablished methodologies from engineering and computer science even if you haven't heard of it before chances you have already seen zvf facts in action in blockbuster movies and TV series such as Game of Thrones Pacific Rim and John Wick just to name a few but how does it work well what makes Zea unique is how it takes a different approach from traditional 3D animation methods where instead of relying exclusively on manual rigging and animation techniques Zea offers a simulation based approach that relies on the fundamentals of real world physics and how soft tissue such as muscles fat and skin function to create life like CGI characters and create anatomically accurate animations which respond dynamically to movement gravity and external forces so then everything moves the way audience is expected it to be just like in real life generally speaking artists in 3D animation started by designing a character and then they add a set of digital and invisible bones to animate it however in the case of Zea V facts it takes a different approach by building characters from the inside out kind of how tissue from what a digital Works which makes sense considering they come from the same people anyways animators start by creating a skeleton first and then they add muscles fascia fat skin and finally fur or close if there is any so layer by layer until the animal or character is fully finished however they have to ensure that it is anatomically correct for the movement to look real I know now you might say that's a lot of work and indeed it is but believe me the quality is going to be worth every penny and every minute spent on it the tool starts with the bones movement as the base and then simulating the rest of the body around this system for example every muscle is attached to other muscles and then they are solved with a fem solver a technology that is used in engineering and physics to analyze and simulate the behavior of complex structures and materials under various conditions after that the muscle will drive the fat simulation and then the fat Sim becomes the attachment for the skin and so on and so forth besides it also offers the ability to adjust the attributes of the simulated objects like their flexibility volume preservation density fiber directions and contractile forces these simulations are then connected with Zea attachments so that they can react and Collide realistically with each other to achieve all this Zea relies on the power of machine learning and alternative simulation techniques to simulate how muscles and character animations behave in realistic ways based on the laws of physics and anatomy And as humans our brains are unconsciously able to recognize and interpret realistic movements with a subconscious understanding of how muscles move move and interact that's why it is easy to spot something that does not look realistic without even knowing it which is amazing how our brain works as a result it is important for the industry to have these kind of tools which can offer a semi-automatic way to produce CG animations that are similar to the movements in the real world and it removes a difficult step from the rigging process which would take years upon years of practice in Anatomy to master please keep in mind that we are just touching the tip of the iceberg here and this is just an overview of this technology since we can't cover all of this in this video alone so as we have previously mentioned Zea has fors a name for itself in the VFX industry by becoming a household name with over 200 of the top VFX Studios using it including Heavy Hitters like NPC dag and scal line and in 2019 Zea won the monolith award for technology which is a prestigious award that represents the most outstanding Innovations in technology and it was voted by a board of entertainment and software industry professionals including representatives from the likes of Universal Pictures Warner Bros Microsoft and Adobe among many others one of the earliest Productions that used the tool was Sony Pictures image works when working on suicide Squad in 2016 because around the same time Zea Dynamics was doing a close beta of their new muscle technology and they decided to give it a shot doing a close beta for the simulation of the muscles of the enchanter character to make it look as realistic as possible and while the movie itself didn't live up to the hype from a storytelling perspective at least the C enchantress character was so convincingly lifelike to the extent that it was difficult to distinguish her from the real actors which truly showcased the impressive capabilities of Zea Dynamics from the get-go just like how Mark breakspear a VFX supervisor at Sony Pictures image work stated Zea is an amazing software it helped us animate enchantress in a way that you look at her and you go oh why is c g that was a big achievement I think virtually that was a real payoff and it's one of those things where you know it's going to work but you don't really see it until very close to the end my fingernails have started growing back again but they were pretty worn down for a while from there Zea VFX was adopted and seen at almost every corner of the VFX production industry While most companies would have settled for this achievement Zea Dynamics had an even bigger desire behind closed doors but what was it about in 2020 after making a tremendous impact on the film industry Zea dam is continued his journey but this time they set their sight on a new goal Conquering the video game industry with a backend of $7 million in seed funding a type of capital that a startup or entrepreneurs rais for the development of a product or a service with this funding they plan to further Advance the development of their realtime character engine so that they could introduce the highest quality of character animations what the gaming space has ever seen however let's just say with the ambition of entering the game industry they CAU the attention of a rather a familiar player you see in 2022 to the surprise of many Unity announced the acquisition of Zea Dynamics for an undisclosed amount an Unity plan was to make Zea's lineup of tools available for all game developers and artists regardless of their skill level and about the topic James Jacobs the CEO of Zea Dynamics at the time expressed virtual humans. org that the two companies share the same vision of empowering digital artists and joining forces with unity means Zea technologies will be able to do more as well as reaching a much larger audience of 3D content creators but is this really true unfortunately this is not the case anymore because at the start of April 2024 Unity announced that the company is ending the sale of Zea VFX Zea real time Zea face trainer and Associated products because dag which is a very big and popular VFX Studio has acquired an exclusive Perpetual license of the Zea IP however Unity will continue to retain ownership of the Technologies of Zea on a side note the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed as usual and even though Unity explains that the sales and support are ending active subscribers have the option to convert their existing license to a 5-year term so that they may continue using the product beyond their existing license which is I think the only positive outcome in this current deal for the existing users of zav vaa I hope you guys found this video useful and informative if you did please give it a thumbs up you can also take a look at some of our previous videos thank you very much watching and I will see you in the next one

Channel: InspirationTuts

Views: 36,299

Keywords: Ziva VFX, character animation, 3D software, VFX, CG animation, realistic animation, muscle simulation, character rigging, physics-based animation, Maya plugin, Unity acquisition, game development, video game industry, Hollywood, Ziva Real Time, machine learning, FEM solver, character engine, animation tools, character simulation, virtual humans, character design, creature animation, digital art, animation technology., Blender

Id: CMfSqZdj5KU

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024