The day we’ve long anticipated is here. Today, we are very excited to release the latest version of our 3D rendering and animation software, KeyShot 4. There’s a lot we’ve put in this release to increase the quality of visuals and the speed at which you are able to create renderings and animations. That’s not just boilerplate marketing speak. It’s also not something that’s improved simply by decreasing the amount of time it takes to render out an image or animation (even though you will notice improvements there.) Speed also comes in how you’re able to work with and update your 3D data within a rendering program and how you’re able to set up materials and lighting for your scene. We’ve addressed all of those aspects and think you’ll agree, that KeyShot is the fastest, easiest way to
KeyShot 4 Features and highlights
I’m sure you’re anxious to see What’s New and/or Try out the new version. When we started gathering input from users for the development of these release, we knew these four areas is where we needed to focus the development efforts. This version is focused on:
- 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 KeyShotVR’s in KeyShot.
Top Enhancements
There are so many new features and updates that went into this version. Be sure to download the What’s New document (pdf) that explains all the new features and how they work. The top enhancements for KeyShot 4 incorporate new capabilities across every area of the KeyShot experience, from import and applying materials to model updates and file output. The featured highlights include:
- Live linking between KeyShot and Creo, Solidworks or Rhino
- Physical lights
- Pantone® and RAL colors
- MoldTech® textures
- Rounded edges
- Translucent material enhancements
- View and model sets (Pro)
- HDRI light editor improvements (Pro)
- Render passes including layers (Pro)
- Stereoscopic viewing (Pro)
- Improved import
We had some great feedback from users about KeyShot 4 during beta. Peter Kossev from Pixel Mathematics, Inc. had this to say…
“Developing a software (whether is for rendering or not) always represents big challenges, one if which is how to increase the number of functions, make it more sophisticated while maintaining the same simplicity of use, speed and quality. KeyShot 4 is a brilliant example of how we are getting a lot more capabilities, while the level of simplicity, robustness, quality and speed remains as excellent as we have been getting from Luxion.”
and Dries Vervoort of Ideal Stelrad Group Ltd. and our Customer Spotlight this month sent us this…
“I must say the new light source materials are a fantastic addition (especially IES support!). I’ve been reworking a scene that I made in KeyShot 3 by adding IES lights and area lights. The quality of the lighting and the speed of rendering seem are improved significantly from the basic emissive material in KeyShot 3 and I absolutely love the reworked translucent material! I feel that now -using surface color, subsurface color and translucency multiplier- I can get the exact look I have in mind within a few minutes and the diffusion of light materials through translucent objects is amazing.”
You can read the full press release, with additional quotes from users here and you can view the complete What’s New, with additional What’s New .pdf download here. We hope you enjoy all the new features in the new version of KeyShot. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing all the visuals you create.
