Phillip Miller has been appointed evp of business development of mental images U.S. subsidiary, mental images Inc. Miller joins mental images with a noteworthy career of defining and promoting leading software solutions at Autodesk, Discreet, and Instant Effects in addition to architectural design. In his new position, Miller will be responsible for new partners and programs employing the company's new RealityServer software (enabling interactive manipulation and visualization of existing and newly created 3D content), as well as its Academy Award-winning mental ray rendering product, both serving numerous design, visualization and entertainment markets.
"We are delighted to have Phil join mental images," said Rolf Herken, president/ceo/cto of mental images. "Phil's impressive experience creating industry leading graphics software and his background in architecture and design provide him with unique insight into the groundbreaking potential of the RealityServer platform for the development of powerful and unrestricted 3D applications and application services. He is also intimately familiar with the advantages of mental ray and mental matter for both developers and end users and will help to extend the reach of these products even further."
Miller joins mental images from Instant Effects Inc., where he was coo. Prior to that, as a vp at Autodesk, Miller oversaw all functions that defined and delivered the Discreet division's broad range of industry-leading products and led its Animation Business Unit. Previously, he directed Discreet's Software Product Group, numerous product management teams, developer relations and provided consistent guidance to the 3ds max product line since its introduction in 1996. Miller is a well-respected spokesperson within the 3D graphics industry and is also an internationally published author on computer animation as well as an accomplished architect. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master's of Architecture from the University of Illinois and has contributed to several patents relating to computer animation and/or graphics user interfaces.
"I had the great pleasure to collaborate with Phil to define and deliver 3ds max, and I look forward to working with him to produce more solutions that will shape the industry," said Gary Yost, the evp of mental images Inc. "Applications for exploring and manipulating 3D data remotely with RealityServer will be of tremendous importance in a wide range of industries and markets, and Phil is the ideal person to help application developers realize that vast potential."
mental images (www.mentalimages.com), founded in 1986, is a recognized international leader in providing rendering software to entertainment, computer-aided design, scientific visualization, architecture and other industries that require sophisticated images. The company's main product is the high performance photorealistic rendering software mental ray (SHARK TALE, the HARRY POTTER series), which is capable of running on a wide variety of platforms ranging from networks of workstations to parallel supercomputers, producing extremely realistic-looking images. mental images GmbH is a privately held company based in Berlin, Germany, with a wholly owned subsidiary mental images Inc. in San Francisco, California, and an office in Stockholm, Sweden.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
