Photo Realistic 3D Rendering and Video Animations in KeyShot

When you have your 3D Model file, you can import that in your Key Shot platform. Keep in mind that the geometry you have designed your 3D modelling software is very important. You have to be aware about the co-ordinates in that software. If you know them, then you can easily align the 3D model into your Keyshot platform with the same co-ordinates used in the 3D modelling software. If you don't do this, it will be a problem when you make video animations.

However, you can import the 3D model and move, rotate and scale it.  In the next lecture we will learn about how to navigate the 3D models in Key Shot software.

3 Types of Keys are used in navigation of 3D models.

1. You can use your Mouse Left Button + Drag the 3D Model to rotate it. You can notice that on the Key Shot the "Tumble" is selected. That means your mouse left button can tumble the 3D Model. Same can be applied if you select "Pan" or "Dolly" in the bar.

2. Mouse wheel Up/Down: This can allow you to Zoom our or Zoom in the 3D model.

3. Mouse Middle Wheel Button + Drag: This way you can move the component in different directions by moving your mouse in different directions.

After you have imported the 3D model in the Key Shot platform we have to save them. Because while we are working on software it requires considerable RAM from our computer. Thus it may crash sometimes. To protect our works it is necessary to save the files.

We can save the 3D model by clicking "Save As" option to save as a .bip file. If you want to re-open the files in future from your computer we can obtain from that file.

But, if you want to save all the materials, textures, settings, changes and animations we have to click "Save Package" option to save as a .ksp file. Therefore, we can open the same setup from other's computer as well.

In the rendering process, it is necessary to apply the materials in order to obtain the realistic views of our 3D Models. It is very easy to apply the materials in Key Shot, simply we can press 'm' on our keyboard to make the materials tab available. Then we can search the material on the library and drag and drop to the corresponding part. Here we apply different materials to different parts. Thus when we are designing the 3D models we have to design each part in a 3D model separately and them we have to assemble them together to produce the final 3D model. That assembled model is imported in the Key Shot and applied materials to each part.

In Key Shot we have an option called Link Materials. If we are having several numbers of screws/ nuts they require a same material to be applied to them right?. Thus, we can link all the screws/nuts to apply the same material on them. To do this we have to select all the same material parts on the scene tab by clicking them each while pressing the Control/Command Key on our keyboard > right click that parts > Go to "Materials" > Click "Link Materials". This way all the selected parts will be linked together. Thus, if we apply the material to one of the linked parts the same material will be applied to all of the parts.

Even though if we apply the right material it is not sufficient to show case our products realistically. Therefore, we have to apply the textures and colors to the 3D model. In our next lecture we will learn how to apply them even if they not exist in the Key Shot Library.

In a real life the materials will have different colors and textures. In this lecture we learn how to apply the colors and textures to our 3D Model.

Colors can be applied to the 3D model very easily we can drag and drop the color to the parts as we desire.

Applying texture will allow to set in 4 different ways. They are very simple to understand.

1. Bump: This way the material and the texture will be mixed together on the of the part to behave as a bump surface. 

2. Diffuse: This way the material and the texture will be mixed together on the part as precipitated surface.

3. Opacity: On the material the texture will be applied as a transparent texture.

4. Label: This way we can apply the images or logos to the parts as label texture. Eg: If we are going to render a smart phone, we can download the screen image and apply it as a label texture. Thus, the display of the smart phone will look like the screen image applied smart phone render.

After the texture your desire is applied, then you can go the environments library to apply the background and the lighting setup to the studio. It is very simple as we drag and drop the environment and adjust the model by navigating it to fit with the background. More advanced environmental light settings will be discussed on the next lecture.

Key Shot Platform is like a studio. After we have set up the 3D model with its appearances, we have to set up the studio. On the studio, we have to add different cameras on different angles to obtain different Photo Realistic Shots. When we are taking the shot, the proper lighting setups are necessary. We can add lights to provide proper illumination to the scene according to the situation we set. They are called as pins on the environments. We can add as many lights as we want. But, the optimum lights may be 2 or 3 according to the situation. We can adjust the pins and position the lights in the environments tab. Under this tab we can select the background as a colored background or image background or studio background. I personally prefer to apply color background to obtain industrial standard photo realistic render.

Adding manual light is essential when we are lighting up a particular part on the 3D model or glowing some thing on the 3D model. As an example if we are designing an LED bulb and wanted to glow the LED bulb we can create a geometry and place it on the proper place (i.e. inside the LED bulb) and apply the material to shape as area light material. Thus, the LED bulb will glow. We can increase or decrease the intensity of the area light.

Find the manually created Shape on the "Scene" Tab > Right click on it > Go to "Materials" > Click "Edit Material" > Change the material as "Area Light" >  (On there you will have the settings to) Edit the intensity of the light in the units of Lux or Watts.

We can Setup photographic settings here. Adjust the light, exposure, focus, bloom etc.

We need to have a high-end capacity computer to the renderings. However, we can make the setup even on the low-end capacity computers as well. We can set up the environments, apply materials, add cameras, etc. We can save them as a .ksp file and we can open the same setup on the high-end computer to proceed for the rendering. Here, in this rendering settings, we can configure about the final output such as File Format of the image(JPEG, PNG, etc.), Resolution of the image, Render layers and passes,etc.

In the render window, if we want to obtain a high quality render we can increase the maximum samples on the options given in the OPTIONS  Tab.

NOTE: Please, make sure to reduce your CPU cores in the render window to avoid unnecessary crashes on KeyShot software.

Here in the resources tab I have inserted the 3D model file of the Apple Macbook I used to import on the KeyShot to make the video animations. You can download the 3D model and extract it and import it on your KeyShot Software. Then you can practice these animations from the model.

This is a sample product animation of Apple Macbook. You can watch this video and obtain an understanding about the product animation. You have to watch this video twice. One should be now. Ie. Before we learrn about the video animations in KeyShot. The second time you should watch will be after the completion of this course. Thus, you can think about the video from designers perspective and make some similar product video animations for the industry.

The animation tab is where we play with animations. You can simply press "a" Key on your keyboard to show or hide this animation tab in KeyShot. The basic idea is to make some animations and combine them together. In order to set the animation settings such as Framers Per Second (FPS), Animation Timeline Editings, Mirroring and Duplicating animations etc. we use this tab.

We have 2 types of animations in KeyShot 8.

1. Model or Part Animations

2. Camera Animations

   
   

   Model or Part Animations

Model or part animations are done to the mode or part. Thus, the movement/motion will be happening on the model/part. But, keep in mind that when we move the model in our platform the preset cameras will remain same. Thus, if we setup the cameras before the motion of the 3D model again we have to reset the camera as we desire. Or the technique can be without creating cameras initially and add cameras when we want at different stages. Thus, we can have the perfect animation without confusing with cameras.

Types of Model animations are as follows,

• Turnable : The model or part will turn at an angle on the geometry as we desire.

• Translation : The model or part will move in x or y or z direction or in combination of these directions as we desire.

• Rotational : The model or a particular part can rotate in the geometry. But we have to decide which axis it should rotate. Here we can have either its own axis or with reference to another part's axis. This will be a handy tool to make some closing and opening animations.

• Fade : The model or part will be shown or hidden in this animation. If we want to hide the external surfaces and show the internal components we can hide the external part by applying fade out animations. This animation can also be done from the starting of the animation as well.

The model animations are on the green color on the animation tab while the camera animations are on blue color. If you hide any animation it will be shown as a grey color.

The strategy to achieve technical rendering is to use both animations together. i.e. We can make a model animation and the camera animation working together on the same time. As an example we can place a turntable animation of the model and add a camera translation at a same time. So the it will be cinematic.

Camera Animations

The camera animations are essential to understand. We can setup cameras at different angle and film the situation when the model/part is moving or stable. We can open up the camera tab by pressing "space bar" on your keyboard. Then we can add new cameras on the camera tab. Please make sure to save the camera after you have setup. Otherwise your changes will be lost. the camera set target can be used to point out a portion. Thus, if you zoom in or zoom out the camera will focus that portion.

The different types of camera animations are as follows.

• Orbit: The camera will rotate/orbit the model or the part. We can can how many degrees we wanted to orbit the camera.

• Translation: The camera will move in X or Y or Z direction or the combinations of these directions in the geometry.

• Zoom: The camera will zoom in or zoom out the situation. If we want to focus on the portion where we wanted to zoom in we have to set a camera target on the camera tab when we are creating cameras.

• Dolly: The camera lens will move towards or against the situation.

• Panorama: We can take wide angles of animations by using this panorama animation.

• Path: We can set some control points in the geometry for the camera to pass through while filming. Thus, the camera will move along with the path of predefined control points. This will be very interesting to film cinematic video animations.

• DOF: The cameras lens will focus from on point to another point. While taking this animation, other than the focal points are blurred.

• Inclination: Camera will tilt in order to capture the situation with cinematic effects.

Everything from a designer's perspective

Here, the same sample video I have shown is given with explanations. We have to view this same video again. But this time from the designer's perspective. This time we can think about what are the animations that they have assigned to the model?; what happens to the camera, while the model is moving?; what are the materials they have applied? what will be the lighting setup? How the texture looks like?; what type of animation is applied?; how much is the video length, etc. This way we can learn from others and obtain some refreshing ideas.

Video rendering will take more time in order to achieve better quality outputs. After the output is processed, what happen if we made a mistake in the animation. Again, we have to redo the rendering work after the correction is done. That is why before we spent a lot of time to render, we have to make sure that the animation and camera setups are correct by previewing. Then after, we can render the animation. 

Here, we have to make sure that the work area is adjusted as well as the initial starting camera is selected. Because we may have some camera switch events. They will only occur from the camera what we set as the "from camera" and change to "to camera" that we set. Thus, the initial camera should be selected before clicking the preview or even render the video.

If you reduce the FPS and go to the setting in the animation tab and reduce the time to preview the frames, then the preview will be faster. Then after in your render, you can increase the FPS if you want.

Click the render icon located on the bottom of the software> Go to the Animation Options located beside the Still Image Option.

This is the place where we setup the final output rendered video. Here as similar to the image render setting we can set up the resolution, layer passes, etc.

After the settings are completed then we can click the render icon. Before we click that, we can go to Options and adjust the quality or time to render the video. Here, also we can reduce the Number of CPU or GPU cores in order to avoid unnecessary crashes on the software.

Thank you attending the course until the end. Please provide me 5 Star Ratings. It will be very much appreciated. I will meet you in our next course. If you have any problem or question you can ask me. I am always available for my students to clarify the doubts and questions. My best wishes for you towards 3D Rendering Career!