Keyshot Render Trial
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I've Been seeing ads around for Keyshot, though haven't see anyone talking about it here.So I downloaded it to see what it was all about. Since I'm running at 5ghz I wondered if my machine could handle it.
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@unknownuser said:
KeyShot is an entirely CPU based standalone 3D rendering and animation system for 3D data. It has been designed to take the complexity out of rendering realistic images. KeyShot is used by designers, engineers and CG professionals worldwide to quickly and easily create realistic images and animations of their 3D models.
Here's what I found.
Downloaded quick enough, 550megs or so. Didn't have to register to download. Although, you will have to register to render anything. Installed correctly on the first go; however, it like a few of the newer systems, asked for multiple folder locations, which I find annoying. I can understand some times it's necessary in some circumstances, but at least explain to me why we're going to use separate locations. What is "Resources"?
Even though it has native Sketchup file support, First impressions were not good. It felt very clunky in navigation, backwards to everything that feels natural to me. (Maybe they're Mac people?) example: scrolling forward on the mouse wheel zooms you out, who on Earth is that natural to? Left mouse button rotates about itself, the camera location does not move as it rotates. I think right click panned? It was very discombobulating. I know they can't all be sketchup, but they should either give me full control of interface and mouse or have some standard modeler options. (Revizto has a beta of this "choose your platform" style of interface configuration and it really makes you feel at home quickly.)
Keyshot did have a nice all in one type of right click on anything and have a menu of it's editability. (Did I just make that word up? I could swear it was real.) It has tons of material or texture options. Stone and wood are strangely absent. Changes are reflected immediately because Keyshot is one of those constantly rendering programs, every move you make re-renders the scene. It does render quickly in edit mode... It renders finals extremely fast on my i5 2500k overclocked to 5ghz. Though I wouldn't call it the best render I've ever done, it had a quick, professional result.
It does not seem to like large scenes such as land with houses; not that it isn't fast, but, it doesn't seem to navigate them well. There seems to be some limit in the zoom that stifles navigation. That being said, it does have some great stone texture interpretation.
This is as close as I can zoom with a large piece of land with a house. it handles the scene very well, but simply stops zooming at about the same point.
Of course they get better results than I do.
Perhaps Keyshot is not even meant for architecture? None of their home page screenshots have any architecture. They didn't mention it or anything really similar to it in their registration survey. I think "Design Studio" fit best...
Even their Gallery was strangely void of any architectural renderings.
The software wants to call the internet every five minutes. I have my firewall set to ask and I get a notice quite often from it. When you deny it access to the internet the program locks up and either has to be shut down or just collapses on it's own.
Now comes the kicker... The price. And boy are they proud of this thing. The price ranges from $1000 for the basic render engine without any animation up to $3500 for the full package. Myself, I just can't think it's worth that much. It doesn't have the vegetation and ecosystem of Vue, it doesn't have the natural environments and ease of use of Lumion, it doesn't even have the marketability or usability in client professional process of the much more affordable Revizto.
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I guess I know now why no one talks about it here in the forum. Have you used it? What were your thoughts?
Disclaimer:I am not a professional 3D illustrator and my talents in rendering are just short of nothing. And I was not asked nor paid for my opinion by KeyShot or SketchUcation.
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Hi kris,
I've played with keyshot back when it was still version 2 I think. Keyshot is one of the best product render apps out there. It's very easy to use. drag and drop materials. It's development focus is mainly on product rendering area I think. For architectural visualisations keyshot is not a good option in my opinion. It can be done, but this works better with other rendering apps.
Greetz Twan
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I have to agree Twan... Although the way it renders the stone, the depth of the texture is really great.
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