Special effects are awesome; they are also expensive, which is one reason why budget movies look like budget movies. However, if Google Inc has its way, special effects will continue to become cheaper and more accessible.
The Internet giant on Tuesday announced that it has bought Boston-based Zync Inc, the producer of Zync Render, a “cloud-based rendering software.”
The software helps movie studios take simple, computer-generated pictures of things like a giant robot smashing through a wall and make it look real (or at least kind of real) in movies like the Transformers series.
According to an announcement on Google’s Cloud Platform Blog, Zync Render has been used in films like Flight, the Denzel Washington picture about a drunk, drugged-out airline pilot, as well as Star Trek Into Darkness, which, needless to say, had a lot of visual effects.
Google would not say how much it paid for Zync. The company will integrate Zync’s data and technology into the Google Cloud Platform, and move off Amazon.com Inc’s Web Services.
Cloud computing is the term technology people use to describe systems of networked computers that work highly efficiently and have ripped costs out of data storage.
Cloud networks — the biggest being Amazon Web Services and the Cloud Platform — help firms grow quickly because, instead of having to buy 1 million computers to host their data, they can rent them from giants like Amazon and Google.
Google has been beefing up its Cloud Platform recently, buying Stackdriver, a maker of cloud-monitoring software, in May.
While the Google Cloud Platform already had rendering services, Zync, which was spun out of the visual effects studio ZERO VFX, has deep ties to the movie industry.
Industry watchers expect Google to keep adding technological bells and whistles to its Cloud Platform — including through acquisitions — in a bid to get more customers and industries to rent space on its cloud.
Cloud computing has allowed the lightning fast growth of services like Pinterest, the photograph sharing company, by drastically reducing the cost of data storage. The same is true of visual effects.
In the past, studios that wanted to go nuts with special effects had to buy lots of computers and stuff them in temperature-controlled closets, to be used only when effects were needed and not really anytime else. Zync’s system helps smaller studios get in the game by allowing them to rent server space by the hour.
With Google’s financial might, it is a decent bet that the cost of special effects will continue to fall.
In the statement on its blog, Google said: “Together Zync + Cloud Platform will offer studios the rendering performance and capacity they need, while helping them manage costs. For example, with per-minute billing studios aren’t trapped into paying for unused capacity when their rendering needs don’t fit in perfect hour increments.”
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald