When the Nu Boyana FX first began to develop Curly the Dog, they turned to the Ziva Community and the many online tutorials to find their way. The rigging and modelling teams at Nu Boyana worked closely together to ensure their creature geometry was accurate and anatomical. Together, the team also found ways to simplify the character anatomy so they could expedite their simulation process without reducing the quality of their character.
According to Ruben Fuentes Lead Character TD, Nu Boyana FX Portugal, "We devoted time to learning the fundamentals and then did an accurate study of the actual animal and their standard anatomy. This was extremely useful for making an optimized model."
The team quickly realized that Ziva VFX could be used for a lot more than just powerful muscle systems. After exploring the online tutorials and conducting simple internal tests, they discover that the versatile software could actually replace their previous nCloth-based skin system. They highly enjoyed replicating the flappy, stretchy behaviour of the dog's lips without having to build any complex proxies.
The team then updated their animation sequences to better emphasize the dynamics of the loose skin. And, much to their surprise, the software allowed the team to make off-the-cuff animation changes without hitting any roadblocks. The anatomy system could ingest the new motion and solve the accurate physics at rapid speeds.