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MillimeterSony Pictures Imageworks Selects Mental Images’ Mental Ray
Jun 12, 2007 12:00 PM
Mental Images, rendering software for filmmakers and computer entertainment, announced a multi-year software license and custom support agreement that will provide Sony Pictures Imageworks with Mental Images’ Academy Award-winning Mental Ray rendering software for use in visual effects and character animation for upcoming computer-generated movie projects.
Rendering software is used to generate realistic images from 3D scene data. Mental Ray, in particular, can closely simulate reality, allowing studios to reach remarkable levels of visual richness in their computer-generated imagery, blurring the line between what is real and what is computer-generated. Imageworks continues to use mental ray in its rendering pipeline and is now one of the largest mental ray installations worldwide.
Mental Images will provide custom support to Imageworks, including custom software development, 24-hour turnaround, and onsite support. Imageworks will have access to the developer versions of the Mental Ray rendering and Mental Matter modeling libraries as well as Mental Images’ new rendering target platform independent shader creation tool, Mental Mill.
“We use Mental Ray for its technical sophistication and ray tracing accuracy, giving our artists the ability to produce realistic lighting effects for our films. A key factor in our decision was the unique custom support package provided by mental images,” says Bill Villarreal, vice president of technology at Imageworks.
Digital production studios increasingly demand the level of photorealism and artistic visual richness that can be achieved with Mental Ray software. Mental Images’ technology helps blur the line between virtual and real, allowing for experimentation with innovative effects that are revolutionizing the motion picture industry.
“We are excited and honored to be working with Sony Pictures Imageworks,” says Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO of Mental Images. “The combination of their exceptional artistic resources, creativity, technical sophistication, and vision with Mental Images’s world class software will lead to spectacular visual results.”
