Hi all;
The release of KeyShot3 prompted me to finally come out of the closet and admit that I'm actually a Steampunker. Always have been, but I kept it quiet- only my wife knew, and as you know, wives know everything! You've already seen my Edimobile Portable Talking Box, and I have a number of projects from my "pastispresentisfuture" series to share over the upcoming months.
My "Steampunk Table Lamp" is based on the simple premise that the best way to deal with the ever growing nuclear waste crisis is to use it for something practical, like powering lighting fixtures, toasters and flat-screen vision boxes. It also demonstrates the massive amount of infrastructure, engineering and science lies behind our most simple tasks that used to be performed with kerosene and firewood. It does not have a switch, so it can't be turned off for 24,400 years, when it finally dims out.
Anyway, I am totally blown away by the quality end ease of KeyShot 3! Good job!! The depth and density of color, especially in the shadow details, is amazing. Most interesting is that you are almost unaware of KS as you use it, it's that intuitive. The last shot shows how I mapped the five SolidWorks parts for KS. I used a split-line to divide the base so I could properly align the wood grain as it would be in a segmented turning.
All materials out-of-the-box, tweaked only for scale. HDR is the "Luxion Conference Room"- must be a strange place!
Comments welcomed, and I promise not to lock this post. Next I'll post the backstory to my nuke waste obsession, the product of which is now in the Smithsonian Institution National Numismatic Collection.
Bill G
www.GouldStudios.com (http://www.gouldstudios.com)
Very nice Bill. I'm a big fan of Steampunk and Dieselpunk. Can't find anything I would change.
I purchased ver 3 yesterday and noticed my existing scenes and colors look better - haven't been able to put my finger on it yet - maybe KeyShot will publish some details. Could it be they increased the ambiant occulision to get more shadow in the "cracks"?
Ed
Nice work Speedster, and I have to agree with Ed, shadows look sharper ... or is it just my head?
Love the story behind the render.
Thanks for the comments, guys. I don't know what's behind the mysterious stuff going on in the dark and secretive Luxion Laboratory, but I do know it's a game-changer. The proof is the new quality and color/shadow depth when renders are printed. I opened an old KS2 file from my print series, and it immediately looked better, even in the startup HDR. I applied all new but similiar materials and a new HDR, rendered it and then printed it. No Photoshoping, although I print from PS. I use a high end Epson 4880 eight-color printer, and Brilliant museum media. Wham! The print was awesome. The blacks and shadow detail is all there, with no level adjustments. I'm going to have to revisit my most popular prints and bring them into the 21st Century with KS3!
Bill G
What can I say....except WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those images are a thing of beauty. Top notch stuff from a top notch guy.
Thanks for sharing and showing how great the new Keyshot 3 render engine is. They did something for sure. All I can say it's a keeper in my book.
Thanks for sharing.
Tim
Thanks, Tim!
Couple of interesting things about the KS3 materials. The insulators are "Porcelain", which is also spot on for ABS as an SPI B1 mold polish. Change the color and you're good to go for any ABS. Also, most of the illumation is from the emmissive, with a lot of bloom added. The HDR "brightness"was cranked down to 0.220, and I set gamma (settings tab) to 1.6 to kick the shadows. The dome is Glass > Color Density; note in image 2 how it refracted the brass base ring.
Most exciting is how everything except your dog's name can be renamed! And how easy it is to manage your library, add folders and sub-folders, swap things around and copy materials. What I REALLY miss, however, is a "Reset" (on materials) and an "Undo Material" (used to be Ctrl+Z) button- I understand these will be coming back. If not, I plan to start an "Occupy Luxion" movement!
Bill G
Amazing!!!!
Looks great Bill!
We did indeed add a little magic :) The lighting calculation is still the same (as the physics of light has not changed), but we have improved the color mapping of textures to better fit your monitor parameters. I am glad to see it did not go unnoticed :-)
Henrik
Henrik- we figured you'd been up to something! I use an EIZO 22" color-calibrated monitor, and man, it just explodes now!
Bill G
Does KS3 come with a hardware insurance ? I don't want anything to explode here ... :-\
So cool. It's like "steam punk" meets "nuke punk"....or something. Could be used in a video game.
Simply stunning!
Love this Bill! Rockin' cool. Did you happen to see "Steampunk faith" post by Jonfer? http://keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=2566.0
Only comment I'd have is that in the top image, the backplate looks a little blurry compared to the crisp model. Besides that WOW. colors and texture combos are just the best.
Posted one of the images to the KeyShot Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/LuxionKeyShot
Yep, that backplate is pretty rough. Found it on the web, at fair, but not great, resolution. Cropped the heck out of it, and messed around with walls and stuff. Wish I had a better one. But the lighting sort of matched what I was after. Actually, this all started when I was just fooling around and winding down from a difficult medical device project- needed some "relaxation"!
Bill G
Nice! Love the idea too.
I must live under a rock - had to look up what steampunk was.. :-\
I stumbled on this blog. These guys are right here in Colorado. Check out In the clouds. http://sulkybros.com/blog/
Cool! Those are the guys who did 'My Robot Nation'!
"Steampunk Faith" by Jonfer is my favorite, and says it all. There's amazing work being done in the Steampunk genre.
Check out the work by a true master, Art Donovan. http://artdonovan.typepad.com/blog/ (http://artdonovan.typepad.com/blog/). He curated the world's first exhibition of Steampunk Art, at the Museum of Science and Technology at Oxford University. The biggest attendance since the museum opened in 1863.
Also, www.steampunkworkshop.com (http://www.steampunkworkshop.com).
And, just for you, Egon: www.raygungothicrocket.com (http://www.raygungothicrocket.com).
OK, back to work!
Bill G
Raygun Gothic! Another awesome project and site. The story and images of that is just the coolest, as are all the graphics they've made to promote it.
Hope you don't mind Bill. I posted about the Table Lamp on the blog as well :) http://blog.keyshot.com/the-spectacular-steampunk-design-sweetness-of-bill-gould/