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Unity Acquires Vancouver-based Virtual Character Software Company Ziva Dynamics
Tuesday, January 25, 2022Company Profile | Follow Company
Vancouver, BC, January 25, 2022--(T-Net)--Unity announced today that it has acquired Vancouver-based Ziva Dynamics, a leader in sophisticated simulation and deformation, machine learning, and real-time character creation.
Ziva works closely with leading organizations to develop future-proof solutions that leverage simulated biomechanical movement. Ziva technologies are directly applicable to Design and Engineering programs in Retail, Fashion and Apparel, Telecommunications, Sports Science, Healthcare, and more.
Ziva 3D simulation and developer tools digitally replicate human and character movement at the highest quality level. Its growing technology stack offers the industry's top advancements in physical simulation, including offline, real-time, and previsualization capabilities.
The company's flagship software, Ziva VFX, is used to digitally replicate and couple the physics and materiality of soft tissue, such as muscles, fat, and skin, enabling artists to create the most lifelike CGI characters.
Ziva's powerful machine learning techniques also enable cloud-based creation that can streamline character creation and save artists time and money.
Ziva was co-founded by Academy Award-winner James Jacobs (CEO), a USC Viterbi School of Engineering professor and MIT TR35 winner, Jernej Barbic (CTO), and Chris Godsall, a Canadian businessman.
Ziva's team also includes Simon Clutterbuck, VP of Creative, who was a Head of the Creature Department at Weta, receiving an Academy Award for Scientific and Engineering for work on Tissue (Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework) with James Jacobs while at Weta. Industry experts like Crawford Doran, Essex Edwards, Ravi Agrawal, and many more, will now bring their deep expertise to Unity.
"The Ziva team has deep expertise and understanding of complex anatomical simulation and real-time artistry tools. Their incredible technology is paving the way for lifelike real-time characters and scalable, accessible workflows" said Unity in a release.
"As the leading deformation and simulation artist tool for real-time and games, Ziva has become the new standard for high-quality creature work, blurring the lines between art and reality for hundreds of film and game studios on titles such as Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade II and movies and TV like Game of Thrones and Godzilla vs. Kong" said Unity in a blog post.
"By acquiring Ziva, Unity aims to further democratize Ziva's best-in-class tools to allow artists, regardless of skill level, to easily and quickly create digital characters unlike ever before. Additionally, through this acquisition, Unity can also accelerate the process of bringing Weta tools to real-time 3D through the cloud with the power of machine learning. Ziva has already solved the challenge of bringing complex film-quality simulations to RT3D. Together, we plan to make the creation of believable digital characters accessible to a wide range of platforms and artists, at scale." the company continued.
"As we grow together, Unity and Ziva will continue serving the many innovative teams, creators, and engines that use our technology, while investing strongly into advancing the state of Unity tools for digital humans and creatures" the company concluded.
Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
About Ziva Dynamics
Founded in early 2015, Ziva Dynamics is changing the way virtual characters are brought to life. Ziva character technologies harness the leading methodologies from engineering and computer science to rapidly produce the most accurate and scalable character results. Ziva fundamentally changes the character creation process, while providing greater control, speed, and capabilities. Emerging artists, award-winning studios, and global brands are all leveraging Ziva's technology to make world-class characters for movies, TV, retail experiences, and interactive environments.
We, as humans, are uniquely attuned to react to human movement. We have an entire section of our brains dedicated to rapidly processing faces and expressions. Creating digital humans that meet the quality and natural dynamics needed to truly satisfy our minds can be a complicated and painful effort, requiring both expert knowledge and extreme perseverance.
About Unity
Unity (NYSE: U) is the world's leading platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content. Creators, ranging from game developers to artists, architects, automotive designers, filmmakers, and others, use Unity to make their imaginations come to life. Unity's platform provides a comprehensive set of software solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and 3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented and virtual reality devices. The company's 1,800+ person research and development team keeps Unity at the forefront of development by working alongside partners to ensure optimized support for the latest releases and platforms. Apps developed by Unity creators have been downloaded more than five billion times per month in 2020.
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