Tustin, California, August 2, 2017 - Luxion, a leading developer of advanced rendering and lighting technology and maker of KeyShot®, the first real-time ray-tracing and global illumination program for 3D rendering and animation, today announces the release of KeyShot 7, with features to make the 3D rendering process faster for 3D professionals throughout the product development process.
KeyShot 7 is focused on bringing more ways to create with the new KeyShot Configurator, Studios and real-time VR support. Users have more material possibilities with new material types and texture mapping, multi-materials and enhanced procedurals. With more lighting control KeyShot 7 now features Environment lists, HDR output and a new integrated HDRI Editor with interactive Sun & Sky. With more flexibility users now have UI, workspace and hotkey customization. And more real-time speed is provided in new workflow capabilities featuring a completely new sampling method, re-tessellation, adaptive performance mode, eight new render passes and more output capabilities to create renderings, animations and interactive visuals faster than ever before.
The Complex IOR metal presets in KeyShot 7 bring a new level or realistic material capability. Image: John Seymour
With KeyShot used across all industries by 3D professionals around the world, KeyShot 7 builds on its key differentiators of providing real-time speed and the most easy to use interface with the most accurate materials and advanced lighting capabilities wrapped into an efficient workflow that gives users results faster than any software available. KeyShot offers the widest support for the most popular 3D file formats and expanding software integration that designers, engineers, marketing specialists and 3D artists rely on to fit seamlessly into their workflow. Luxion’s focus on offering ‘more’ is grounded in the features implemented to speed and simplify the workflow, deliver the best material and lighting capabilities and reduce setup and render times to allow users to focus on creating amazing visuals.
“KeyShot 7 has amazing capabilities, but we were not satisfied with only adding features,” says Claus Wann Jensen, Co-founder and CEO of Luxion. “Every one of these features and every improvement must consider the user’s workflow from import to final render – simplifying every task, providing absolute flexibility and complete control across interface, camera, materials and lighting. With the input from our users, I’m convinced we have done that with KeyShot 7.”
What Customers Are Saying
“KeyShot 7 is an integral part of our product development and marketing strategies. Improvements in the KeyShot 7 workflow save enormous amounts of time, helping to show off our product designs with very little turnaround. The process of adding labels to materials have been greatly enhanced, and the inclusion of the ability to create stereoscopic panoramas opens up additional marketing opportunities.”
- Ryan Fenik – LayerZero Power Systems, Inc.
“KeyShot 7 is jam-packed with advanced features that cost twice as much in other software. As a product designer, the updated, high-resolution library is a game changer for client presentation.”
- Benny Lee – Coca-Cola Design
“There are so many great things about KeyShot 7. Our latest client project wouldn’t have been possible without the ability in KeyShot 7 to import deforming mesh animations. That’s big but one of my favorite little features is the ability to label your nodes in the material graph. When a material gets complex, this is such a huge time saver. Studios are a natural, but none-the-less wonderful, addition to KeyShot 7. It lets photographers work as photographers.”
- Mike James – TB&O
“The new features in KeyShot 7 are amazing! The new clear coat and metallic material controls are unbelievable, and have really opened up new possibilities.”
- Brandon Boswell - Specialized
“Studios are a fantastic way to efficiently organize variations of a product. They let me configure a single product in multiple ways logically and quickly, which in turn speeds up the rendering process.”
- Eric Summers - Water Pik
“KeyShot 7 helps me save so much time by customizing the interface to adapt to my workflow. The ability to generate HDR gradients and lights enables a whole new way to present my models, and eliminates the need to do it in post. The new material enhancements, specifically the new cloudy plastic material, allow for some captivating visuals on my models – I can’t wait to explore the possibilities to use it creatively generating atmospheric perspective.”
- Ara Kermanikian – Kermaco
KeyShot 7 Overview
As the biggest release for KeyShot to date there are new features across every area of KeyShot – The KeyShot Configurator to build real-time product variations, the new Studios to create scene variations and real-time VR rendering and output round out the top new Pro features. Material capabilities bring in new material types and procedural textures while optimizing others. Multiple materials can be added to a single part and multiple HDRI environment can be added to the scene. Additionally, the user interface has been completely updated with new layout and hotkey customization capabilities.
KeyShot 7 Feature Highlights
The following highlight the top features in KeyShot 7. A video of the top 5 features and more information on what’s new in KeyShot 7 is available at keyshot.com/whats-new/. The entire list of features and improvements in KeyShot 7 and information on how each feature works is available in the KeyShot 7 What’s New Guide. The top features include:
UI Customization
In KeyShot 7, users can customize tab order, tab visibility, tab state, along with window, toolbar and ribbon position then save custom UI arrangements as Workspaces. Additionally, users now have complete control over hotkeys, the ability to change or add new hotkeys or specify camera control options that match supported 3D modeling software.
New user interface customization introduces Workspaces with tab, ribbon and hotkey customization.
New Material Types
KeyShot 7 introduces several new material types and updates. The new Cloudy Plastic material type contains light-scattering particles to replicate complex, scientifically accurate materials such as Polycarbonate or ABS. The new Measured material type allows users to load measured material files in .axf or .xml format. The Metal material type now includes options for Color and 13 scientifically accurate metal presets while other material types have been updated with unit-aware settings and greater control over material settings. Along with the new material types, the KeyShot library presets for materials have been completely updated.
Cloudy plastic is just one of the new material types in KeyShot 7. Image: John Seymour
New Texture & Label Mapping
Texture Mapping has been completely refreshed for KeyShot 7. Updates include unit-aware settings, an improved interactive mapping tool and the ability to center a texture on the model or part. The new Planar mapping type is more versatile, replacing normal projection and planar mapping while providing the ability to control depth of planar projections. Tri-Planar, Tiled UV and Video Map have been added, with cylindrical mapping vastly improved and new procedural brush, mesh and weave textures available.
New texture types like Tri-Planar allow more flexibility when creating advanced materials. Image: Richard Funnell
Environment Updates
More scene lighting capabilities come with the addition of a new Environment list expanding the number of HDRI Environments that can be added to a single scene. With this, users can quickly toggle between different environments or drag and drop new environments into the list. The HDRI Editor is now integrated into the Environment tab and users can export a scene as a HDR or EXR to import and use in other scenes.
The integrated HDRI Editor and multiple environments support makes lighting a scene faster. Image: Nils Piirma
Real-time VR Rendering
Real-time VR rendering and output is available with the support for Stereo Perspective Cameras, Stereo Spherical Maps, and Stereo Cube Maps. This includes support for real-time view through both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive head mounted displays.
