Ziva Real-Time

With small file sizes and incredible speeds, achieve film-quality real-time character animation and deformations across platforms.

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See 2.0 release notes

Cinematic quality in real-time

Ziva Real-Time provides scalable real-time deformations for use in Maya and real-time 3D game engines with machine learning, helping you to save time and achieve fast performance with high fidelity. Deploy Ziva Real-Time into existing pipelines using the free Real-Time Player for next-level character creation.

Ziva VFX TK demo from Onmind

“TK”, a virtual human-made with Ziva Real-Time I Courtesy of ONMIND

Ziva FX body rig in the Unity editor

Drive player engagement with blockbuster performances

Unlock real-time character performance potential using machine learning. Train any real-time asset in an average of 2–3 hours, and accelerate animator workflows to spend more time on creative decisions.

Get started with Ziva Real-Time

Ziva Real-Time 2.0: Tutorial 101

Download the character asset from our free onboarding assets, and follow along with a tutorial to learn and play with Ziva Real-Time.

Ziva RT

Madhav Shyam, Creature Supervisor and Rigging Lead, Ghost VFX

“Ziva Real-Time and machine learning push crucial parts of the CFX development further up in the production pipeline. This has helped me save countless hours and will help studios and artists deliver more consistent high-quality creatures for their projects.”

Madhav Shyam, Creature Supervisor and Rigging Lead, Ghost VFX

Key benefits

Create assets, run them in real-time, and integrate into your pipelines without changing your animation workflow.

Get Ziva Real-Time Player
Create compelling real-time characters

Machine learning algorithms analyze shape and movement data from your character rig to enable efficient and optimized animated deformation rigs.

Work with data-light assets

Display compelling movement of skin and cloth thin-sheet simulations and improve the quality of your experience without compromise.

Use with real-time engines

Deploy your Ziva Real-Time characters in RT3D environments with the free player. Trained characters are compatible with Unity, Unreal, and Maya.

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Frequently asked questions

Ziva Real-Time FAQs

What is Ziva Real-Time?

Ziva Real-Time is a tool designed to facilitate the creation of high-fidelity real-time character and creature rigs for animators and RT3D game environments.

It consists of two main components:

  • Ziva Real-Time Trainer: Leverages machine learning to evaluate shape data for character deformations and encodes it into compact ZRT files.
  • Ziva Real-Time Players: Serves as a deformer primarily focused on computing correctives. It supports popular platforms like Unity, Unreal, and Autodesk Maya, along with proprietary game real-time 3D (RT3D) environments via the source code software development kit (SDK). Connect with us for more on the SDK.
What hardware do I require for Ziva Real-Time?

Hardware requirements:

  • CPU: 64-bit Intel® or AMD®
  • RAM: 8GB of RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
  • Disk space: 2 GB of free disk space for install

Operating systems:

  • Microsoft® Windows® 10, version 1809 or higherMicrosoft®; Windows® 11
  • Linux CentOS 7.6-7.9 operating system

Additional:

  • Unity 2021 and newer
  • Unreal Engine 4.26, 4.27, 5.0, 5.1
  • Maya 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024
What types of asset files do I need to get started?

You need an Alembic file with meshes of your character in many different poses and an FBX file with the joint hierarchy in corresponding poses. Learn more about getting started.

The source of the files can be a rig, a physics simulation of tissue or cloth, deformers, a deformation transfer from one character to another, 4D capture of a face, and more.

What’s a ZRT file, and how do I open it?

A ZRT file is the resulting file type that you export after training your character in Ziva Real-Time Trainer. The Trainer processes all of your character’s data from its Alembic, FBX, and map files (typically several gigabytes of data) and encodes it as a small ZRT file (as small as 20 MB).

You can import the ZRT file into an application that integrates the Ziva Real-Time Player and drive the character’s deformation. Supported applications include Maya, Unity, and Unreal, or a proprietary RT3D environment via the source code software development kit (SDK). Connect with us for more on the SDK.

Where can I find Ziva Real-Time documentation?
I'm a customer, how do I get started?

 Head to the Unity Wētā Tools Onboarding Guide to get started.

What types of content creation workflows does Ziva Real-Time help facilitate?

Ziva Real-Time is designed for linear and games-based animated content requiring high-quality deformed assets for real-time interaction and playback. It’s particularly well-suited for character animation in linear media and the playback of complex characters in game engines and digital content creation tools, such as Maya, because its ML algorithms are trained to handle such data. 

While characters and creatures are the main target asset types, Ziva Real-Time can also be used for other deformed asset content, regardless of the type of mesh being deformed (e.g., human, tiger, dragon, couch cushion) or how it’s rigged. It can also handle complex muscle deformations and quasi-static clothing for various use cases. Ziva Real-Time is best suited for the playback of hyperrealistic and stylized creatures and characters, making it a versatile solution for various visual styles and applications.

Does Ziva Real-Time do cloth simulation?

No. Ziva Real-Time can learn the results of an offline quasi-static cloth simulation and reconstruct those cloth shapes in real time. This can add impressive fidelity to clothed characters, such as wrinkles and folds in pants, shirts, and other relatively stiff garments. However, Ziva Real-Time cannot calculate dynamically draping or flowing cloth like scarves or long dresses, nor can it handle arbitrary collisions or environmental interactions. We recommend using a separate real-time cloth simulator for cases like these.

How do third-party digital content creation applications, like Autodesk Maya, interact and integrate with Ziva Real-Time?

Ziva Real-Time is a versatile standalone application that can encode training data from various sources. Once a character is trained, it seamlessly integrates with popular digital content creation tools and game engines, including Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine through the ZivaRT Player plug-in. 

Integrations via the Ziva Real-Time Player plug-in allow for real-time 3D playback of ZRT files. Future integrations will be driven by customer demand. Additionally, Ziva Real-Time offers integrations with proprietary tooling and game engines through the Ziva Real-Time software and development kit (SDK), making it a comprehensive tool for character rigging across different platforms.

Ziva Real-Time Player FAQs

What is the Ziva Real-Time Player?

The Ziva Real-Time Player allows you to playback your asset in your preferred DCC.

Which versions of Unity, Unreal, and Maya are supported by the Ziva Real-Time Players?

Ziva Real-Time Player for Unity is supported by Unity 2021.3 and newer.

Ziva Real-Time Player for Maya is supported by Maya 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Ziva Real-Time Player for Unreal is supported by Unreal 4.26 and 4.27.

Note: Ziva Real-Time Players currently do not support MacOS

Where can I get the Ziva Real-Time Player?

You can find each player in the Ziva Dynamics Store.

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