Luxion, a leading developer of advanced rendering and lighting technology and maker of KeyShot®, announced the release of KeyShot 4.2 with new features and updates to existing tools that simplify the rendering and animation process. KeyShot® is the first real time ray tracing and global illumination program used in various filed of computer graphics including VFX and visualisations. 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. Luxion by this updated focused on the areas of rendering, usability, control, integration and animation while adding more flexibility to the creation of product visuals. With major new features such as LiveLinking, physical lighting, focused caustics and procedural materials introduced within KeyShot 4, KeyShot 4.2 brings faster rendering, better selection and more control over hardware and 3D data import allowing users to work faster and more efficiently with their models inside of KeyShot without jeopardizing the final quality of their images, animations and KeyShotVR interactive visuals. Many of the updates in KeyShot 4.2 aim directly at improving the user experience of the software and the visual development workflow.
Users of KeyShot will appreciate the new and easier ways for oraganizing their imported 3D data, work with KeyShot's scientifically accurate materials presets and color libraries, as well as have greater control over the rendering environment and settings. Most of the updates include improvements to existing features inside KeyShot with some additional new features that deliver enhanced usability for users.
- Introducing processes and features to speed up model import cycles and create variations of 3D model visuals to save time in the product design workflow.
- Enhancing the user’s ability to create and adjust lighting with the widest array of options and most flexible process in the industry.
- Improving and refining existing materials, object interaction and visual output to provide the most fluid process in visual creation workflow.
- Updating the user interface to maintain the simplicity of creating rendering, animations and KeyShotVRs in KeyShot.
Groups
KeyShot 4.2 introduces the ability to create groups in the Project Scene tree. You may create new groups, drag and drop parts and subassemblies into existing groups and move parts between one group and another.
Set core usage
KeyShot now comes with the ability to set priority on the amount of cores used by KeyShot. Since KeyShot is fully CPU-based and utilizes 100% of all available cores, this ensures you are able to have access to more CPU power in other programs while KeyShot is rendering.
Material swap
You can now swap materials between selected parts without having to change the material for each part. Swapping materials may be done by selecting parts or by dropping materials from the library onto existing materials in the scene.
Scene revisions
KeyShot now offers the ability to save revisions of a scene. When you save a scene, rather than overwriting each scene with the latest settings, you can now save revisions of the same scene which can then be accessed later from within KeyShot.
Realtime presets
There are now more presets available for the real-time viewer. Through the Project, Setting tab under resolutions, the presets of actual aspect ratios found in print and digital media are available as a single-click setting that can be locked to ensure proper resolution.
Toon shading
The non-photorealistic (NPR) toon shader is a new material type that allows you to apply solid colors, solid shading and contours to your objects for a flat, cel shading appearance allowing you to create and deliver concepts or create high resolution technical illustrations. You can apply this material from the material type selection box.
With it, you have options to adjust material color along with contour color, angle, width, quality and more advanced options to adjust contours and shadows. Since it is a material rather than a render mode, the toon material can be used in combination with any other material for still images, animations and KeyShotVR.
Additional KeyShot 4.2 features;
- Themes; KeyShot now comes with two color themes, light and dark. Along with the default light color theme, you now have the option to set a dark color theme through KeyShot Edit, Preferences... dialog.
- Faster realtime render mode; KeyShot’s realtime render mode (max time / max samples) has been significantly improved to deliver much better results in shorter amount of time.
- Transparency slider; For Toon material solid faces can be made transparent while the outline stays opaque.
- Material select; You can now select parts by material with multiple materials selected.
- Color tweaker; For Axalta (DuPont) materials, this allows the paint expert to tweak nine different parameters of the Axalta paint. To protect the actual values of the paint for copyright purposes, this is only a numerical delta of the existing value.
- Faster object highlight; To better display the objects being selected, a new algorithm for significantly faster, thicker object highlight in the realtime window is now implemented.
- Improved cylindrical mapping; When using cylindrical or spherical mapping, maintain aspect ratio has been implemented to ensure the label or texture maintains proportions as close as possible to its original size.
- Improved move tool; The Move tool is now thicker and, as such, easier to grab. Additionally, when a certain direction is selected, only that arrow/circle is highlighted.
- And more...
KeyShot 4.2 is available immediately as an free update for all user on subscription. KeyShot 4.2 is currently available for purchase on the KeyShot website, along with KeyShot Animation and KeyShotVR, interactive visual creation, available as add-ons.
More information at: Luxion