The installer of KeyShot includes also a huge material library with various types of materials which you can apply to your model. This helps a lot at the beginning where the user is getting familiar with the software. Of course you can also create or edit your own materials and change various of parameters like IOR. Like this you can customize almost everything. After the materials are applied you need to choose the environment (HDR map) which simulates the real environment outside and allows KeyShots materials to take reflection from it. It’s very similar like in 3DsMax where you have to choose also the environment from which will your model take reflection. The variation of the HDR maps will allow you to experiment with the settings of the environment and adjust the map as you which by controlling parameters like brightness.
Inside KeyShot you can also import any photography or image which should be used like a backplate. The backplate is a simple an image where you want to put and render your model. Using the right materials and setting up the HDR map you can achieve results which will put the model into backplate like it was there before. The last step is rendering. KeyShot was develop to bring simplicity to the user and because of this in the rendering step are already predefined profiles which divide the out in few categories depending on the settings from low to high. Of course you can edit and create your settings by changing parameters inside the rendering window.
Conclusion
KeyShot is a very good software which brings to the user exactly that what the makers promise. It’s simple but allows the user to change almost everything and also it’s very fast. The only cons which i found inside KeyShot are that it not includes any video tutorial which could help the user to get familiar with the software a lot faster. Also it would be nice to have some render-output filters available such as; color balance, brightness and contrast and similar. To demonstrate the performance of the software we did a test about which you can read bellow.
[yjsgmedia link="http://www.3d-sphere.com/3D.Articles/Software/ReviewKeyShot3/review.mp4" poster="http://www.3d-sphere.com/3D.Articles/Software/ReviewKeyShot3/640x360.jpg" width="640" height="360" resp="yes" id="yjsg_media504"]
KeyShot 3.0 vs MentalRay
The company promises very fast render capabilities of KeyShot using unique Technologies of simulating the light properties. We made a test where we compared KeyShot 3.0 and 3DsMax 2012 MentalRay. We were comparing the speed and overall quality of the result using the Tire Rim model which we were creating in the tutorial (Modeling a Tire rim in 3DsMax).
The testing PC had following specifications:
- CPU – i7 2600K 3,5 GHz
- RAM - 16 GB
- GPU – GTX560 TI 2GB DDR5
We decided to use this model for the test because he is very easy to set-up and featuring only one material which cover the whole model. In the case of the “Rim” its chrome material which is also a material in the library of KeyShot. The set-up of the scene for rendering is very easy and the model was only on a plane on which was applied a “neutral” material which wasn’t taking or generating reflections. We used in both programs the same HDR maps and the default settings of the renderer.
Scene set-up:
MentalRay:
- Two Photometric lights
- Chrome (A&D)
- HDR map
- 1024x568 resolution
- Mental Ray Settings
- Samples: 4-16
- FG Precision Presets: low, medium, high (was unable to render)
KeyShot:
- Presets Chrome material
- HDR map
- 1024x568 resolution
- Render settings:
- Samples: 16, 32,64
- Bounces: 6, 8, 12
- Antialiasing: 1, 2, 4
- Shadow quality: 1, 2, 4
Conclusion
Both outputs from 3DsMax and KeyShot 3.0 are good, however comparing them closely you will see the difference of handling reflections in 3DsMax and KeyShot. The reflection in KeyShot are more natural creating an photorealistic result where the reflections are too joined to the HDR map used for reflecting the surface. Of course this is just the case of experience in both Software’s and by tuning the settings you could have at the end the same result from 3DsMax and KeyShot, however in different render time. The render capabilities of KeyShot are amazing and comparing the speed to MentalRay you can achieve more than 50% difference in time.
KeyShot is good software worth the money. It’s fast, easy to use and have a large material library to make your experience and work with it even more pleasant. Both renderers compared here are good and it would be hard to choose from them which one is better, but definitely KeyShot is faster.
3D-Sphere Administrator