Intel and Ziva Dynamics Making the Prehistoric Possible for The Meg

Intel and Ziva Dynamics Making the Prehistoric Possible for The Meg

January 13, 2019 – Internationally renowned visual effects studio Scanline VFX harnessed the power of soft-tissue simulation with Intel AI and Ziva Dynamics to raise the megalodon from extinction in the highly-anticipated summer blockbuster, The Meg.

As audience expectations rise, film studios like Warner Bros. Pictures rely on Intel AI and Ziva Dynamics to make creatures, like the Meg, photorealistic in every way.

“If you look at all the complex motion on the Meg’s gills, like the wave propagation, you can see the power of Ziva simulations. The technology produces the discrete, vital details that allow actors and virtual characters to co-exist while the audience remains fully immersed in the story.” – James Jacobs, co-CEO & Founder, Ziva Dynamics.

According to Mousavi, ZIVA VFX was really the only tool available to accurately simulate the soft-tissue behaviour of of the shark, which enabled the company to create physics-based computational models of the natural features of the prehistoric megalodon, along with present-day sharks. Ziva Dynamics’ groundbreaking technology lets users rapidly simulate soft-tissue materials, such as muscles, fat, cartilage,and skin, and embed real-world physics in every creation.
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“When we work with Ziva, we can pretty much hit a button, and that can calculate and simulate the physical relations between al lof the different layers of the very complex anatomy of any creature,” says Mousavi. “You can get a simulation within a few minutes, look at the results, discuss, and iterate.”

“Today, we are dealing with very intelligent audiences. When they see the 75-foot megalodon on screen, they already know it’s computer generated. So it’s very important for Warner Bros. that we capture the realism of the shark.” – Mohsen Mousavi, VFX Supervisor at Scanline VFX.

Together, Ziva and Intel AI are helping deliver more lifelike characters to screens of all shapes and sizes faster and more efficiently than ever before. This is AI on Intel.

CHALLENGE

Computer-generated characters in movies and games are time-consuming and expensive to create, relying on scans that take months—in some cases, even years—to accomplish. And once these characters are created, they often lack the lifelike features and behaviors you would expect given the time it takes.

SOLUTION

Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors give Ziva* software the computationally intense performance to generate real-time characters that can progressively learn body movements, while easily applying features and behaviors from one character to another. Thanks to Intel AI, Ziva has been able to slash the time and costs for production companies of all sizes, creating virtual characters with machine learning algorithms used to simulate lifelike appearances and movements.

“How could AI not have an impact on media? It’s going to impact every aspect of how we create and how we consume.” – Shelly Palmer, Media and Technology Expert.

In almost every creative enterprise, artificial intelligence will augment what creatives are making. Filmmakers, game designers, writers, and artists will all benefit from emerging AI tools. Media professionals also benefit from accelerated content creation at new levels of personalization.

TAKE A MAJOR LEAP FORWARD

If you want to get the most out of AI, you need hardware and software optimized for certain tasks. That’s where Intel Xeon processors come in. Updated specifically to run high-performance AI applications alongside the data center and cloud applications they already run, Intel Xeon Scalable processors have the compute and memory to handle all your major AI tasks—from classic methods to deep learning.

Source: Ziva Dynamics, Intel AI

// For more info:

Official website of Ziva Dynamics
Official website of Intel AI
Official website of The Meg