Keyshot 2023
| | PRICE £80/$100 per month COMPANY Luxion WEBSITE keyshot.com
Keyshot 2023 is one of the easiest renderers for users to get to grips with. It prides itself in offering an intuitive interface that will guide you through the process of adding materials and lighting to your 3D models.
Rather than acting as a plugin for a host program, Keyshot live syncs your model from your DCC into its own application. That means any changes you make to a model will be replicated straight away in Keyshot. Once the live sync has been successfully set up, artists can then add lights and materials using the easy dragand-drop tools.
For those who are prepared to pay extra, Keyshot can be extended to include virtual reality capabilities and render sharing over the internet. As is the standard with any Keyshot software, both these additional features are intuitive and have wizards to help beginners.
The 2023 release includes several key updates such as multi-layer EXRS, an improved colour workflow, and an extended 3D Paint texture painting system. Keyshot is by no means the most affordable of renderers available, and relies on its artists paying the increased subscription fee in return for the benefit of having a renderer that’s simple and intuitive to use.
SCENE TEMPLATES SPEED UP WORKFLOWS
Keyshot 2023.1, the first update to be released in the 2023 cycle, includes support for scene templates, Coloro colours, and multi-layer EXRS.
The scene templates enable artists to reuse the scenes and presets that they’ve previously created. It’s common for artists to need to keep going back to old scenes to replicate camera and lighting setups, so this feature will be used by many. These templates contain things like camera setups and render styles. Aside from getting a new project up and running more quickly, one of the main benefits is that these files can easily be shared around teams or with other artists.
Additionally, it’s now possible to render multi-layer EXR files for greater flexibility during the post-production phase. The ability to store your channels, layers and views all in one file also helps to keep everything more organised.
BRUSH UP TO 3D PAINTING TOOLSET
Following up there, Keyshot’s 2023.2 update boasted an extended 3D Paint texture painting system. This feature was originally introduced back in Keyshot 11, but now brings extra support for graphics tablet pressure sensitivity. This is important when painting as artists want maximum control
over what they’re creating in their projects.
Alongside this, the brush indicator is now also projected accurately onto the object being painted. This is essential for 3D objects that feature lots of different faces in various orientations. The functionality of this system is nothing when compared to what you’ll find within a program like Adobe’s Substance 3D Painter, but you have to start somewhere.
There’s also now the ability to create 360-degree views in the Keyshot Web Viewer. This is ideal for artists who want to either present their work or get feedback from a client. End users don’t need to have Keyshot in order to see the end results, while additional password protection can be set up to ensure that only the right people gain access to your work.
Incidentally, this second update also improved the visual parity between the CPU and GPU versions of Keyshot.
COLOUR IMPROVEMENTS AND GPU SPEED BOOST
And on to Keyshot’s 2023.3 update, which saw a wealth of improvements to its colour workflow. Prior to this update, colours had been inseparable from other features in Keyshot. But this has now changed with them being separated out into their own instances.
This means that any material linked to that colour instance will receive the updated colour information every time the instance is then updated. The benefit here is massive, as it helps to maintain consistency across your materials, while speeding up the process of updating them.
When artists are working with colour libraries, there’s now a new colour mode that hides all unnecessary parts of the user interface and instead provides users with the tools they need. However, a quick word of advice is that before entering this mode, make sure to set up Multi-colors for your scene, as you’re unable to add in extra Multi-colors inside of Color Mode.
Another new arrival with 2023.3 is a performance mode that speeds up GPU rendering more than twice, according to Keyshot themselves. This level of speed improvements will be welcomed by all artists.
BIG RESULTS FOR A PRICE
Keyshot is a powerful tool for visualisation that’s easy and intuitive to use. It includes a straightforward interface with wizards and focused interfaces that make using it perfect for beginner artists. It’s also great for product designers and other creatives who have no interest in becoming experts in complex rendering software, as they can create stunning images and VR experiences.
As well as being easy to use, Keyshot is also incredibly fast so your results can be seen instantly. The speed at which the rendering resolves will be dependent upon hardware, but Keyshot does a good job of making the best use of what’s available to it.
This latest set of releases brings strength to a number of its existing tools, while also offering a variety of handy new features. The 3D painting tools make it easier than ever to buff your models, while a colour workflow overhaul simplifies the process of using colours across materials.
Keyshot is some way from being the cheapest renderer on the market, but if you can stomach the price you won’t be disappointed by the results.
“KEYSHOT IS GREAT FOR THOSE WITH NO INTEREST IN BECOMING EXPERTS IN COMPLEX RENDERING SOFTWARE”