Autodesk is joining forces with Google Cloud Platform – developer of Google Cloud Platform ZYNC Render, an integrated cloud-based storage and rendering solution for the VFX industry – to deliver scalable, cost-effective, compute services for its Media and Entertainment software. To kick off the collaboration, the two companies are launching a new cloud-optimized ZYNC service for Autodesk Maya 2016 software, which will allow users to render 3D scenes created in the software on the Google Cloud Platform, with expansion planned for additional products and platforms in the future.
“Cloud-based rendering has opened new doors for creative facilities of all kinds, making it easy to scale rendering to project demands, and we’re excited to bring this new value-add to customers,” said Autodesk Senior Vice President Chris Bradshaw. “Maya customers can now scale productions quickly and efficiently while also adding rendering capacity – without additional hardware. And Maya is only the beginning as our teams continue to explore how we might expand this functionality to other M&E products as well.”
Given the variable needs of productions today facing tight deadlines and workstation downtime, the flexibility of cloud-based rendering matches the immediate needs of any facility. Boutique creative companies can deliver high-quality visuals with a fast and secure means of image rendering without having to invest in datacenter infrastructure and on premise software licensing and maintenance. Larger companies in turn can add cloud capacity to existing render farms without increasing capital expenditure.
The new Autodesk Maya cloud rendering service for Google Cloud Platform ZYNC Render is available to Maya users today; with pricing starting at USD $0.60/hr. Customers will be able to use Maya-supported renderers, including Arnold, V-Ray and Renderman on ZYNC to render their scenes. For more information on availability or to participate in a free trial, visit www.zyncrender.com or check out Google’s blog post on the announcement.