KeyShot

This rendering software enables creation of product renders much more intuitively than I expected. It's surprisingly interactive and easy to use. There is certainly a learning curve involved but compared to a competitor version I've tried it's much simpler. There are a lot of custom controls and adjustment fine tuning features. There is a solid asset library included which is cool. And HDRI editor is awesome. Once you know how to utilize keyframes and timelines the animation is another creative feature which amazing possibilities. The textures are excellent and you can customize them in great detail. The use of drag and drop makes this software much more user friendly than others and together with the simple interface make it fun to use. There are many file types you can import with many extensions as well. And I love the integration add-ons possible such as Rhino and Solid Works. This greatly enhances the creative and realistic possibilities for use of this software.

I've read reviews that when working with multiple elements scenes aren't as realistic as other rendering software. And that the depth of field can look grainy which is unfortunate however I personally did not notice this in my trial of the software though I can appreciate the experience and eye for detail which would recognize such issues as these. It's quite a large download and installation and uses quite a lot of resources, so it's best to test it out on anything older and perhaps dedicate all of it's resources to testing. Unless I am mistaken, I believe it only uses the computer processor to render, so having utilize the graphics card would be beneficial.

I was blown away by the renders I've seen by others using this software so wanted to check it out first hand. I am more than surprised at not being overwhelmed by the features and very happy with the ease of use. I understand there can be more professional or advanced rendering software and I've tried several but I was too overwhelmed as a beginner to get a feel for them while learning in my free time. This is not the case here it was quick to learn and fun to use. The pricing is not cheap however and I have other priorities to take care of, but it's on my list of software to purchase in the future certainly. If there was a monthly cloud version like Adobe offers I would be all over it as soon as possible.