FormZ

Raygun Studio is a digital imaging and CGI studio in Palo Alto, California. Michael Tompert is Designer-in-Chief of who describes himself as one who aligns planets working with different people involved in the project from photographers, art buyers, art directors and agencies. Michael tells us more about this industry and how KeyShot has helped.

Most of the work at Raygun comes from ad agencies with the rest comes from design companies. 50% of the work is direct where an agency needs something animated and more high end. I'm the point of contact and I'll bring in a photographer. The other half is where photographers are hired by an agency and then come to me to help them with the CGI component.

What thrills me about KeyShot is that they never rest. They pursue this stuff and infuse this sub surface scattering which is kind of like a wax and a candle-you can actually see the light going through that glass. It behaves differently on the edges where it is darker and there is soft illumination in the middle. What they have done is that everything is in real-time, which means that you don't really have to plan to see it - you can truly work visually. The visuals they have created are so far and above anything I've seen. You can create these materials in other programs but you have to be somewhat of a scientist because you have to understand what all the qualities are - what the settings mean and they dial it all in. We use Cinema 4D for our 3D model and to put scenes together, but for rendering we use KeyShot because the materials are pretty much self-explanatory. They are 99% of the way there. In other programs you really have to understand the math of things in order to create a convincing material.

Luxion understands photographers and their process. Much like Apple, who has been able to pull off the perfect match between engineering and art. When you look at something like an iPhone it has so much technology in it, yet it is still just a single button. When you make a choice in this interface you don't come back with two choices - it's been made simple for you to use it - it doesn't give you 100 choices. Typically engineering is all about choices - the more the better. That's the engineering world. Someone who works in the creative field may not know exactly what he wants - he has to see it first to see if it is the right thing. Something that presents itself - 1 or 2 choices - do you like A or do you like B? That's a much more intuitive way for a photographer to work. I think that is what KeyShot has pulled off - putting the visual first.