Curly the Dog

Nu Boyana Fx


About the Project

The Nu Boyana FX team sought to expand their technical abilities and learn the full creature workflow with Ziva VFX. To do this, they needed to build a creature that would demand dramatic tissue dynamics and powerful deformations. Naturally, they landed on a creature with jiggly fat, wrinkly skin, and strong dense muscles – the American Pitbull.

Getting STarted

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."

"It is really easy to start using Ziva. It is an intuitive software, and it comes with detailed documentation and good support. So if you're willing to learn, you'll pick it up quickly. Also, it's a flexible platform so it is easy to adapt it to fit your pipeline. It is very useful for Nu Boyana."

Ruben Fuentes, Lead Character TD, Nu Boyana FX Portugal

Using Ziva Vfx

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.

"We've completely adopted Ziva now. Our entire muscle pipeline is based on Ziva and we plan to continue working with it on many future projects."

Ruben Fuentes, Lead Character TD, Nu Boyana FX Portugal

Nu Boyana Fx

Nu Boyana FX is an International servicing company providing VFX and Animation expertise, based in Portugal and Bulgaria. It is part of Nu Boyana Film Studios, an international group with vast experience in Hollywood film production. With a proven record of VFX projects such as Hellboy: Rise of the blood Queen, Angel has Fallen, Rambo V - Last Blood and the upcoming Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard and Jolt, we have the right expertise to follow upon your project and be part of your production journey.

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