Interior Lighting Gets an Upgrade
Though KeyShot 6 has teased for a while, the full release of KeyShot’s flagship product is even more impressive than expected. To begin with, KeyShot 6 includes six new interior lighting modes, each of which is powered by a new lighting algorithm. For those who need to render complex interior spaces or provide a realistic environment to showcase a product, KeyShot 6’s lighting modes can gather all of the various light sources in a room and interactively render them quickly.
Material Control Goes Graphical
Though lighting is important and may well be the main consideration for photography and CGI, KeyShot’s biggest advance might not have anything to do with lighting.
To use Material Graph, users simply drag and drop existing or user-created materials or textures into the graph workspaces where they turn into nodes. Once all of a material’s elements have been assembled, users simply connect the nodes and toggle the density of each material characteristic to fine tune the final appearance of a new, custom material.
In addition to the all-powerful graphical material editor, KeyShot has added the ability to put materials on labels. Now that might not seem like a big deal, but nothing throws a great render off like a label that appears plastic. In essence, label materials add that last bit of realism needed to make a 3D model indistinguishable from real life.
Materials Get Animated
Transitioning from the photorealistic to the hyperrealistic realm of material animation, 6 allows users to dynamically control the color, opacity, settings or even the intensity of a scene’s lights. Whether you need your model to undergo a dramatic color change, or just need to dim the opacity of a crank case to see the inner workings of a machine, KeyShot’s material animator makes the process quick and easy.
Other features included in KeyShot 6 are support for VR, camera path animations, a geometry view editor and much more. KeyShot 6 does truly represent a huge leap from its last offering, but…
Is KeyShot 6 Worth It?
With the release of KeyShot 6, it’s hard to imagine that anyone interested in creating stunning, photorealistic renders would use the native renderer in their CAD software. Renderings are becoming even more compelling, useful parts of design reviews, and marketing using the best tools at your disposal is paramount. As of right now, KeyShot 6 is as good as any other renderer, and what’s best is that it’s built for CAD and it’s incredibly easy to use.
KeyShot 6 is available at two levels. KeyShot HD comes with unlimited real-time rendering and output resolution. It’s priced at $995. For those users who need animation features in their CG software, KeyShot Pro includes KeyShot Animation Pro and costs $1,995.