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Download a free Ziva VFX evaluation license to experience the realism of Ziva in your commercial or hobbyist pipeline. Evaluation licenses are not available for commercial asset production.
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Non-Commercial License
COMMERCIAL EVALUATION 
Immediately available for new users only.
Required 180-day wait period between multiple evaluations.

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Licenses running on a single laptop, PC, or individual workstation.

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Licenses running on a company server or virtual machine.
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Damping update tip:


When zSolver.maxNewtonIterations is greater than 1, the dynamics were often under-damped. The dynamics are correctly damped now, which will result in some simulations appearing more damped than before. To recover similar results to previous versions, decrease zSolver.stiffnessDamping and zSolver.massDamping – possibly to the new default values: 0.001 and 0.0 respectively. This
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Maya 2018 Speed Notice:
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Maya 2018 has a performance bug causing meshes, that normally take a few milliseconds to process in Maya 2016, to take multiple seconds in Maya 2018. This is independent of Ziva's plugin and can easily be triggered entirely with built-in deformers.

If you're using more than 1 simulation substep per frame (zSolver.substeps > 1), then this Maya problem may be triggered and can significantly slow down everything.

The workaround is to set Maya to playback at the same rate as the solver substeps. For example, if zSolver.substeps = 4, then set "Playback by" in the Time Slider preferences to be 0.25 = 1/4 to match.
Damping tip for Ziva VFX v1.4 users
View Cassowary Case Study
INDIE

Now available for $50/month. Achieve character effects that rival those of the world's largest Visual Effects and Feature Animation studios, for only $50 per month.
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Currently Serving:

Autodesk ® Maya
version 2019-2023

Available for OS: 

Linux

Windows

Current Version:

ZIVA VFX 2.2

See version release notes
Are you an independent creator?

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A Subscription Plan that Works for You


Production schedules can range. Find the Ziva VFX Indie license that works for you, no matter how busy you may be. Subscribe, learn, or cancel any time you want.

Indie Licenses are available for individuals working on productions with under $500k in total annual revenue or funding.

Monthly Subscription

$50

/month
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You'll receive a new 1-month license every 30 days, right in your inbox.

annual Subscription

$500

/year
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You'll receive a new 365 day license and free upgrades for the entire year.

PHYSICS

Add a physical-correction on top of any existing character rig with our goaling attachment. This lightweight approach corrects unwanted stretch, and adds contacts and secondary motion.

ANATOMY 

Design remarkable characters powered by science. Ziva VFX lets you create interdependent muscle, skeletal, and tissue networks that mimic anatomy and maintain biophysical accuracy.

VOLUME

Build characters easily as a single volume on top of a skeleton. This approach is ideal for feature animation - capturing the bulk, volume, contacts, and secondary dynamics of a character.
"It is the best muscle plugin we've found. It brings extra realism to our creatures via physically plausible muscle FX. It is a great improvement to have Ziva integrated into our workflow."
"Ziva was instrumental in helping Sony create the most realistic muscle and skin simulations for our CG characters to date. Ziva's outstanding results speak for themselves."
Sony Pictures Imageworks Logo
“Ziva’s FEM muscle and skin simulation was the last piece of the puzzle we'd been longing for to achieve realistic looking, physically plausible Creature FX.”    
Double Negative / DNEG Logo


Includes Free Ziva Assets


Every copy of Ziva VFX comes with free access to high-end,
simulation-ready assets like Lila the Cheetah.‍‍
Click below to browse our other available assets:
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Browse Assets

build characters with physics


With ZIVA VFX, virtual characters move, flex, stretch, and jiggle the way audiences expect. Our high-fidelity FEM Anatomy Simulation technology lets you accurately simulate solid objects with complex material properties.
Embedded FEM
All attributes computed with consideration to the embedded surface, simplifying the creation of tetrahedral models.
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Adaptive Tetrahedral Meshing
Adaptive tetrahedral meshing makes it easy for artists to paint localized resolution wherever needed.
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Material properties
Assign real-world material properties to make simulated solid objects behave just like their real-world counterparts.
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Muscle Excitation
Make your virtual characters' muscles flex and fire automatically with muscle fiber flow and automatic excitation.
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Access all Ziva VFX features for

$50 USD

per month (single-user)
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Buy Now
Available for individuals working on productions under $500k in total annual revenue or funding.
Coupled cloth sims
Ziva VFX now offers fully coupled cloth simulation for fascia or skin
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Collisions
Realistic simulations require the use of collisions. Ours are fast and robust.
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Attachments
Create mechanical relationships between tissues, cloth and bone objects by using attachments.
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Painting
Easy painting: attachment areas, muscle fibers, muscle strength, tet mesh resolution, material properties, etc.
muscle growth
Instantly multiple the effects of muscle excitation with the Muscle Growth parameter setting for greater definition or shot-specific alterations.
External Forces
Combine the effects of any standard Maya Field with the organic physics and volume conservation of Ziva.
ELASTIC SOLIDS
Goal elastic solids to externally animated triangle meshes for instant secondary motion.
caching
Cache simulations to RAM or disk for fast playback and/or restarting.
scripting
Script and pipeline using Maya MEL or open-source Python tools.
Much more....
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UNLOCK ZIVA VFX
every month

$50

/month
Add to Cart

You'll receive a new 1-month license
every 30 days, right in your inbox.
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TRY ZIVA VFX Today


The Ziva VFX Indie Licenses let you create anatomical, industry-leading characters for your independent projects and productions. Our full spectrum of Ziva VFX tools in Maya let you replicate real world physics, biology, and kinesiology for top-quality results.

You can try Ziva VFX free for 60 days:

Download TrialVisit FAQ

+ ZIVA VFX FEATURES

  • Take large timesteps with stable and invertible FEM
  • Use multiple material types, producing robust motion even under large deformations: StVK, NeoHookean, co-rotational, anisotropic
  • Collide objects using automatic collision detection and response
  • Add physical attachments between objects and paint where they are attached
  • Embed arbitrary triangle meshes into your simulated solids
  • Simulate thin shells (for skin)
  • Paint muscle fiber directions, then excite/contract a muscle using scripted muscle activation forces
  • Goal elastic solids to externally animated triangle meshes, for automatic addition of secondary motion
  • Paint nearly everything: attachment areas, muscle fibers, muscle strength, tet-mesh resolution, material properties
  • Use multiple types of physical damping
  • Cache simulations to RAM or disk for fast playback and/or restarting
  • Exactly preserve volume, even under large deformations
  • Script and pipeline your rig using Maya MEL, or using our open-source Python tools

+ Workstation requirements

  • Operating System
    ‍    Microsoft® Windows® 10, version 1809 or higher.
    Microsoft® Windows® 11
    Linux CentOS 7.6-7.9 operating system
    Maya 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023

    Hardware
    CPU:     64-bit Intel® or AMD®
    RAM:     8 GB of RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
    Disk Space:     7 GB of free disk space for install
    GPU:     NVIDIA® graphics card with Turing™architecture support (Minimum Compute Capability: 7.5 ; Graphics driver compatibility: CUDA 11.8)

+ Use Cases

  • Anatomically realistic character animation, including:
    – Anatomically accurate bending of the skin at the joints
    – Correct hand pronation-supination
    – Correct neck shape with precise neck muscle movement
    – Correct upper-body rigidity under twisting
    – Correct thigh skin shape due to quadriceps muscle excitation
    – High-quality belly fat secondary motion (inertia and gravity)
    – Correct elbow self-collisions
  • Cartoon/feature character animation with simple, single-simulation-mesh anatomy or complex, hyper-realistic anatomy.
  • Enrich existing baked animations with controllable and tuneable secondary physically based motion.
  • Modelling tool for reducing stretch and volume-change in sculpts.
  • Make and simulate arbitrary elastic objects undergoing collisions and self-collisions, from gel to plants to steel-beam bridges.