Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Luxion unveils KeyShot 3.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlhsXz08MwY
KeyShot 3 in action. The upcoming 3.1 update adds a new metallic paint material and HDR editing.

Luxion has announced that the next update to its KeyShot real-time rendering and lighting software will add a new metallic paint material and support for interactive HDR editing.

KeyShot 3.1, due out later this quarter, also adds support for network rendering and expands the software’s inventive keyframeless animation system, introduced in version 3. Full details below.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Luxion, the leading developer of advanced rendering and lighting technology and makers of KeyShot®, the first real time ray tracing and global illumination program, is announcing KeyShot 3.1 and with it an all new 3D rendering and animation options.

Keyshot 3.1 marks the first major update of the release that introduced a patent-pending animation system, a revamped user interface and over 600+ new materials. There are an amazing amount of new features in this release that brings designers, engineers and 3D professionals faster and easier ways to create stunning 3D images than ever before. With this update we introduce time-saving new features and improvments including a new, unique metallic paint material, interactive HDR editing that allow real-time editing of the lighting environments, material templates that allow 3D professionals to ‘auto-paint’ their models, network rendering to queue render jobs and spread them across multiple computeres and new compatibliity with the 3DConnexion 3D Mouse.

Improved Metallic Paint with real flakes
With KeyShot 3.1 we bring a next generation of metallic paint material that contains visible metallic flakes whose distribution and size can be controlled. This is a unique one-of-a-kind material that creates the most accurate representation of car paint in the industry. This is included with KeyShot 3.1 and as with all materials included with KeyShot, doesn’t require any special configuration. The 3D professional simply drags, drops and adjusts color to their liking.

Interactive HDR image editing
KeyShot 3.1 Pro introduces the ability to edit any applied lighting environment in real-time within the KeyShot interface. This allows you more control over the lighting of your scene from brightness and color to location of lights. Functionality includes:

  • Adjustment of hue and saturation of HDRI
  • Editing of existing lighting information through introduction of innovative pin system
  • Creation of new lights
  • All edits to the HDRI update inside KeyShot in real-time

Material templates
KeyShot now recognizes materials that have been set in other 3D software. This new feature automatically assigns materials to the models on import according to the colors and materials assigned in the originating 3D software, drastically decreasing the time it takes to set-up renderings and animations. Key features include:

  • Automatic template creation based on material assignment inside KeyShot
  • Option to create templates manually
  • Support for multiple templates per session
  • Support for multiple CAD systems as well as plugins (Initially, not all CAD systems may be supported)

Animation improvements
The all new, patent-pending animation system that was introduced in KeyShot 3 will also be greatly enhanced. Key improvements include:

  • Drag and drop a single animation onto multiple parts
  • Mirroring of single or multiple animations in the time line
  • Multi-selection of multiple animations in the time line allowing fir interactive adjustment

Certification of KeyShot with 3DConnexion devices
We are proud to announce that KeyShot 3.1 will be officially certified to work with all of 3DConnexion’s devices.

Network Rendering
In addition, we are now offering the ability to speed rendering times with a unique, simple to use, easy to administer Network Rendering Tool. Network rendering is a new, optional add-on for KeyShot 3 Pro that allows 3D professionals to queue their rendering and animations spreading out tasks across multiple computers. Key features include:

  • Easy setup and maintenance
  • Network render queue will queue render jobs rather than rendering jobs simultaneously
  • Add and remove slave machines during rendering
  • Automatic balancing distributes the render job intelligently according to number of cores and processor speed of the individual computer
  • PC and Mac compatibility for master, slave and render queue.

Availability
KeyShot 3.1 will be available later this quarter.

Visit the KeyShot website