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Over at SolidSmack, they’ve got the latest press release and details on the newest Luxion Keyshot feature: Animation support.

KeyShot 3 delivers an all new, patent-pending animation system making product and camera animations easier than ever before. In addition, KeyShot 3 delivers significant improvements to user interface and workflow with improved asset management and part interaction. KeyShot’s import pipeline has been significantly expanded to now support Parasolid®-based file formats such as NX, Solid Edge and SolidWorks on both PC and Mac and also includes over 400 new materials and over 40 new lighting environments.

It’s available as a $500 addon to the existing KeyShot, and features the same simple interface they’ve done so well with in still imagery.  Definitely go read the release if you’re a KeyShot user.

via Luxion Drops KeyShot 3 Bomb, Animators Rejoice – SolidSmack.com.

Graphics keyshot, luxion

KeyShot really is an amazing piece of software, and I’ve loved seeing what’s come out of the new integration with Solidworks and PTC Creo.  SolidSmack has a nice writeup of the new KeyShot2.3 release, and a few sneaks at what’s ahead for KeyShot3 (namely, support for Animation).

Animation will be sold separately according to this forum post. Some other features you’ll see are:

• Animation add-on module
• Reflection and Specular maps
• Export materials also exports textures and bump maps
• Alpha maps
• New library layout
• New material library
• Rename parts
• Select multiple parts at once
• New importers: NX, SolidWorks (Mac), Solid Edge (Mac), Parasolid, JT
• and more…

Read the full article for some fantastic example shots and more details.

Rendering in KeyShot. The New Features and What’s to Come. – SolidSmack.com.

Graphics keyshot, software

SolidSmack brings us news that PTC Creo 1.0 has finally hit the streets, and coinciding with the release is the announcement from Luxion that KeyShot 2 is ready to go from day 1.

“We are excited to offer the first visualization solution for Creo”, says Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Luxion. “This demonstrates a strong commitment to our joint customer base. Creo customers immediately have the ability to use the best rendering solution in conjunction with the world’s most advanced modeling solution.”

High-end rendering in CAD Modeling is frequently forgotten in the pursuit of easy & fast.  It’s becoming more important, and lots more obtainable thanks to offerings from companies like Bunkspeed and Luxion.  Having it integrated so tightly on Release Day is a big win for PTC and Luxion.

Read more…

Graphics keyshot, luxion, ptc, software

Last week, Luxion announced the immediate availability of KeyShot 2.2, the newest version of their impressive rendering package.

“Version 2.2 is a huge improvement for all Keyshot users,” says Kevin Quigley, principal at Quigley Design, a provider of high-end product development services to many well renown manufacturers and a beta tester of this new version. “Not only does Keyshot 2.2 import  SolidWorks 2011 and CATIA v5 files, but  there are some great improvements made to other translators as well, with more options and faster import.”

In addition to import of SolidWorks and CATIA files, they’ve improved several other format imports like SketchUp and Inventor.  Also, they have an impressive boost of 15x for some of the more complex materials, which should make some of your bigger scenes render even faster!

“The new scene manager tree makes applying and editing materials much easier,” Quigley continues.”Combined with the new part highlighting it makes moving around and editing more complex models a simple task. Not only that but the render times continue to tumble! On some models I noticed a reduction of 50% in render times between 2.1 and 2.2…..and 2.1 was already fast! I won’t be able to use the excuse ‘waiting for the render to finish’ anymore!”

Get the full details after the break.

Read more…

Graphics keyshot, luxion, software

Luxion has just announced at AU2010 that they now have native support for Autodesk, AutoCAD, ALIAS, Inventor, and the FBX interchange format.  This integrates it with pretty much every piece of Autodesk modeling and design software out here, turning it into a great out-of-core high-quality rendering solution.

The support for these applications and standard file formats is an immediate result of Luxion’s acceptance to the Autodesk Developer Network.

“Being part of the Autodesk Developer Network is very exciting for us and our customers,” said Dr. Henrik Wann Jensen, Cofounder and Chief Scientist of Luxion. “The Autodesk install base includes many leading companies around the world that have an immediate need to create high-quality photographic images in a very short amount of time. We are happy that we can start to support this community directly by integrating KeyShot with Autodesk’s applications.”

Read more…

Graphics autodesk, keyshot, software

Over at SolidSmack, they’ve got a great review of Luxion’s new KeyShot2.0.  They open with a quick cliff-notes on the history (the Luxion/BunkSpeed drama) and quickly transition into the new features of KeyShot2.

If you were a Hypershot user, you know how easy it was to create a quick rendering. KeyShot blows that away and not only makes getting a rendering easier, but also makes the workflow to get that rendering easier. You have three areas where you do the majority of your work. The Realtime window, the Library and the Options. You size the model in the Realtime window, drag and drop materials and environments from the Library and adjust your light setting and material in the Options. The settings in both are split into tabs so you don’t have boxes littering your workspace. It makes for a set-up you can jump around in smoothly without going mad wondering what to do next.

I had a chance to see it demonstrated in the Intel booth at SIGGRAPH, and for a pure-CPU renderer it’s pretty impressive.  Of course, they had it running on a 24-core machine, so obviously it’s going to be fast, but I was glad to see this in his review, which they left out of their SIGGRAPH presentation:

Part of the disagreement that divided Luxion and Bunkspeed, is what processors should be used to create the renderings. Bunkspeed maintained that utilizing the GPU was the way to go, while Luxion maintained the CPU was more capable. True, you can usually get more CPU power for the money, but there are realtime benefits and power the GPU also provides. So, this will change with KeyShot 2.1 where support for additional GPU rendering is added.

This is the true direction of this argument: Merging the CPU & GPU into hybrid solutions, exploiting the power of both sides to their fullest.

via KeyShot 2.0. All the Raw, Realtime Render Juice You Can Squeeze [Review] >> SolidSmack.com.

Graphics keyshot, luxion, software