Ziva Dynamics releases Ziva VFX 1.5 for Maya
Ziva Dynamics has released Ziva VFX 1.5, the latest update to its skin and muscle plugin for Maya, adding a set of new solvers intended to speed up calculation of secondary dynamics for soft tissue.
A powerful tool for creating stable, accurate simulations of soft tissues
First released publicly last year, Ziva VFX is designed to let users set up stable, robust simulations, preserving tissue volume exactly even under large deformations or when using large timesteps.
It supports a range of material types, designed to mimic the stiffness, density and volume preservation of real tissues, including bone, tendons, muscles and skin; and supports multiple types of physical damping.
As well as editing parameters directly, Ziva VFX supports a brush-based workflow making it possible to paint material properties and mesh resolution, and even paint in muscle attachment points and muscle fibres.
Current users include Scanline VFX, which recently used Ziva VFX in its effects for The Meg, and Mackevision, which used the software in this PETA ad.
New in 1.5: new, more efficient methods for calculating secondary dynamics
The key change in Ziva VFX 1.5 is a set of new integration schemes for secondary dynamics – BDF2, TR-BDF2, plus a revamped quasi-static solver.
According to Ziva Dynamics, the new solvers should reduce the number of time steps required to generate a realistic simulation; and provide more user options for how damped secondary dynamics will be.
You can see side-by-side comparisons of the new integration methods with Ziva VFX’s existing implicit backward Euler method from 02:25 in the video at the top of the story.
Pricing and availability
Ziva VFX 1.5 is available for Maya 2014 and above, running on Windows 7+ or Linux.
The Indie edition of the software, aimed at individual artists, is rental-only, and costs $50/month or $500/year.
Free 60-day commercial and renewable non-commercial trial licences are also available.
Read a full list of new features in Ziva VFX 1.5
Read more about Ziva VFX on Ziva Dynamics’ website
(Includes download link for the free trial editions)