High-Fidelity Keyshot Renderings

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some help with getting my keyshot rendering skills improved. I’m pretty knowledgable about how to use the program but I’m still not happy with a lot of my renderings compared to others. Here’s a few examples of the level of fidelity and style that I’m looking for.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/18574681/OHM

Does anyone have any tips or tutorials to help me get my renderings to this level? I know a lot of these involve some photoshop post processing to get this look. I have my portfolio link in my signature so you can take a look at where my rendering skills are currently at. Thanks ahead of time.

I assume you have checked out all the Keyshot tutorials and webinars? Those have been very helpful for me. I would also recommend the forum on their site as it has some good tips.

This older post on Grab has a few tips as well

I remember a keyhot process thread popping up on here a bit ago with some good tips and workflow things

Have a look at the KeyShot youtube channel. Even if you don’t use their product, there’s some really good information. In general, I believe that the renders you are looking at were made with several passes that were blended afterwards. That way you can get a nice specular highlights or reflections on the shiny surfaces but keep a nice flowing form on matte surfaces.

Clean renderings, good shaders, and usually a little faked screen reflection add some bling.

Make sure that the CAD you’re using is well detailed and properly tesselated - just adding small radii to all your edges will add a nice bit of detailing. Also don’t be afraid to remember that you don’t need every part of your rendering perfect in one pass. Making use of Keyshots clown and depth passes can make it easy to mask off parts and composite them into something that looks really sharp at the end.

If you spend too much time trying to get everything perfect in one pass you may not get anything the way you want.

Thanks for the tip! I watched that entire video and learned a ton. I don’t know why I never thought of doing separate passes for different materials.

Now I just need to find the time to go back and redo all of my renderings (ughhhh).

Dont underestimate the post production process in rendering (photoshop). Utilizing separate passes, and masking off different materials will allow you to really dial in the details. Typically you are going to need some contrast adjustments all over the place, and I like to tweak all my materials separately.

One of the biggest things that I focus on in a white sweep rendering is the reflections. If you notice on the examples you sent. The strong highlights really give a sense of definition to the products. They convey the the curvature or flatness of a surface, as well as add in cues of material properties and visual interest. I will set up dummy lights behind and in front of products to place reflections and highlights where needed.

Below is a quick example of a rendering that shows how much post sometimes goes in. You can see how painting in some highlights and shadows creates a much more dynamic image. The product may be unrealistically shiny, but the client wanted that type of look for their packaging and displays. The darker the material, the less heavy you have to be on the highlights…