Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Miller
Hi Jeremy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was in high school, I didn’t intend to go to college and didn’t consider the future much at all. The high school I attended had a robust art program, and I enjoyed art enough to take all the prerequisites to land an advanced drawing class at the beginning of my junior year. I had some skill, but it wasn’t anything jaw-dropping up to that point. The first project of that class was to create a colored pencil still life of vegetables on crumpled tin foil; something clicked, and I hammered that out to the best of my ability. My teacher was so impressed; she mentored me, encouraged me to take more art classes, and guided me through applying to colleges. I wound up getting a significant scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA).
I knew while applying to the Cleveland Institute of Art that it had an undergraduate “Biomedical Art” program (one of the only undergraduate programs in the U.S. at the time), but I never researched or understood the background of the industry. In all honesty, I just thought it sounded cool and could be a nice backup if the standard illustration track wasn’t working for me. We had to apply to majors then, and I wanted to apply to a major that would best benefit the growth of my skills in becoming a tattoo artist; the illustration major was my go-to at the time.
Long story short, and a few life decisions later, I was accepted into the Biomedical Art program at the CIA and discovered the world of medical illustration. This was particularly fitting because I always excelled in the sciences but never had any aspirations to pursue a career in research or medicine. This seemed like a good way to take topics I have a knack for and put them to good use in an industry that has paying work for an artist with relatively high demand. It was solidified in my mind that this would be my career when I interned at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Medical Art and Photography.
I never quite caught my stride with typical 2D medical illustration, but I absolutely loved 3D animation production. During my last two years of school and at my first job as a CGI generalist at a 3D production studio in Cleveland, I continued developing my 3D skills to the point where my portfolio started to appear more professional and desirable to medical animation studios. I was hired as a 3D Medical Animator at a medical-legal studio in Florida for 2 years, continued to build my portfolio, and later moved to Minneapolis for another medical animation studio, where I worked for nearly 6 years. I worked my way up to be a director in that studio and gained so much experience, both in producing work and leading a team. Eventually, I moved on to Arthrex, a medical device company specializing in orthopedics, sports medicine, and minimally invasive technology; I’ve been with their internal medical visualization department ever since.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a very bumpy road. Because the decision-making in my career was somewhat aloof from the start, I didn’t realize the typical route that a medical illustrator takes to break into the industry, so my credentials initially didn’t quite match up with what many employers were looking for. Commonly, medical artists will receive training by attending one of the five graduate-level medical illustration programs in North America and move on from there. Having only an undergraduate degree hurt me at the start, and I was too burnt out after undergrad to pursue graduate school.
My first job helped advance my 3D skills enough to move on to my first medical animation position – a significant milestone for me. However, there were long studio hours with nearly constant portfolio building in my free time. Eventually, I checked off all the prerequisites to get certified in the industry and haven’t looked back since. For anyone with an interest in this profession or in the same position I found myself in – the road without graduate school is more challenging but not impossible.
Aside from that, most of my other challenges involved late hours at the studio and troubleshooting technical issues, especially with large-scale render farms. This career can be quite demanding in terms of production, and one often has to wear many hats. I’ve experienced numerous stressful, late nights, but thankfully, those instances have become less frequent now.
At one point in my career, a colleague and I tried to start our own medical animation studio. Unfortunately, that venture didn’t succeed, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. I still take on contract work occasionally, but I enjoy the stability of full-time employment.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a board-certified medical illustrator working remotely as a 3D Medical Animator Sr for Arthrex, Inc. I have over 12 years of 3D medical animation experience with a focus on medical device marketing, surgical technique instructional animation, and patient education. The bulk of my work entails developing 3D surgical technique animations that are used as guides to advertise and teach about new surgical techniques and/or medical device innovations.
I’m a generalist in the medical animation field, so I do a little bit of everything, but I excel and enjoy modeling/sculpting and look development (the art of using textures, shading, and lighting to develop the look of an asset or scene). ZBrush, which is an industry-standard digital sculpting software, is one of the programs I’m particularly comfortable with. I’ve given several workshops on ZBrush techniques and pipeline integration. Having ZBrush in your toolbelt is a huge benefit for modeling and look development. If I had to guess, my skillset with ZBrush is what I’m known for in the field (it’s a very small field).
I’ve gravitated toward creating medical device marketing content, surgical technique animations, and patient education materials. Fortunately, my current full-time position requires all three, so I’m happy that I get to create the content I enjoy most nearly all the time.
On the side, I enjoy creating hyper-realistic 3D insect models that I use to replicate macro-photography-style renders. As a kid, I was obsessed with insects and arachnids, and that obsession has manifested itself in my personal work.
What makes you happy?
My wife Ann, our dog Waldo, my pet tarantulas, cycling, climbing, BBQ, and my bees. I do beekeeping on the side as a hobby both because I enjoy it and because it’s therapeutic.
I definitely get happiness through my work, and I made it my focus for quite some time, but I realized I needed more than what my career could offer me. I’ve since built a well-rounded life with all of the above and am much better for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jeremycmiller.com
- Instagram: leonardsneed
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-miller-cmi-2894b74b/
Image Credits
Images 1-7 © 2025 Copyright Jeremy Miller
Image 8 (PEEK-OPTIMA™ HA ENHANCED) © 2025 Copyright Invibio Ltd.
