Unity acquires Ziva Dynamics and its character tech

Unity today announced it’d acquired Ziva Dynamics, the company behind revolutionary digital character creation. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Unity plans to “democratize” Ziva’s tools, to make them easier to use for developers of all skill levels.

Ziva and Unity announced their new pair-up with a video narrated by Ziva’s wholly digital person, Emma. The tech that Ziva uses to animate Emma’s facial expressions is called the ZRT Trainer. Ziva’s technology allows users to create people, animals, or similar items like cloth, and have them deform in realistic ways. Emma, for example, has been trained with 72,000 shapes and can make unique facial poses.