New Vanity Scene Shows the Power of Caustics in KeyShot

We’re excited to bring you new scene to demonstrate the power of caustics in KeyShot 9. At first glance, there’s nothing too out of the ordinary about this scene. It’s simply a few cosmetic products on a countertop. They’re items you may see off to the side of a bathroom shot, but also items that may be used for detailed product shots. It’s these types of products, however, that have some of the best form and materials to demonstrate the properties of light. First, here’s a complete shot of the scene:

Do you notice it? Caustics is the way light rays are reflected off a surface or through an object. If you have rendered these types of products or just have an eye for lighting, it may pop right out. It’s a detail that some may not notice but, more often than not, caustics make the difference between visuals having a very realistic look or not. Here’s a side-by-side comparison showing a two-minute render in KeyShot’s GPU mode with and without caustics enabled.

 

Now do you see it? It’s subtle, but you’ll notice in the reflection of the caustic from the perfume bottle in the powder box mirror. These reflections/refractions of caustics is something that most renderers struggle with and would not be visible in most renderers.

And it couldn’t be easier to apply. Caustics are enabled in KeyShot with one-click from the KeyShot Lighting tab. When you toggle it on, you can also see how caustics affect the realism of other objects including the shadows, depth of color, and interaction of light between objects of different materials. Even better, you can expect very close results when using either CPU or GPU to render your final image.

It’s just one more way we’re improving KeyShot to help you create the most realistic images. You can download the Vanity Caustic Scene and other scenes in the KeyShot Scene Library and you can find even more models on KeyShot Cloud.