Google buys Zync for large scale cloud rendering

To beef up its cloud platform with more specialized packages, Google is acquiring Zync for its large scale rendering service for movie special effects, called Zync Render.

Google plans to offer the Zync service on its Google Cloud Platform, where it can be used by motion picture studios that do not want to build their own rendering farms.

Motion picture studios have used Zync Render to create special effects for a number of movies, including 'Star Trek Into Darkness' and 'Looper.'

Zync was founded five years ago, originally under the name of Zero VFX, as a cloud-based rendering service.

The acquisition will provide Zync customers with better pricing and more scalability, as well as additional rendering packages, according to a statement from Zync.

Google will charge for the service on a per-minute basis. The company did not provide any details about when the service would appear on its cloud platform.

Other motion pictures Zync Render has been used on include 'American Hustle,' 'Flight,' 'Transformers,' and 'Zookeeper.'

Google cloud rival Amazon Web Services also has a service that could be used for large scale rendering, although it is more general in scope. It's called G2 Elastic Cloud Compute and features a configuration that includes Nvidia GPUs.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.