In my experience, quite a bit. Diving into product animation has been hugely worth the investment.

Shortly after I began offering animation services to my clients, I noticed some big improvements. I began working with better clients, was able to charge more and I was creating work I actually wanted to put in my portfolio.

Of course, I had to work hard to make all this happen. But all of that change took place, because I chose to offer higher value services.

Based on my experience, there are two major categories of product animations and both can provide immense value. 

KeyShot is a very approachable software that prioritizes ease-of-use. And since it's very CAD-friendly and capable of producing both stylized and photo-real images, it hits that sweet spot of capable yet beginner-friendly.

You'll learn many of the skills I used to create these animations over the past few years.

There's a good chance you fall into one of three categories:

1. Professional, Employed - You're either a designer or engineer with 3D modeling or rendering skills and you work full-time for a company that produces products. Whether you work at a startup or a Fortune 100 company, it's critical to communicate functionality, design intent and create engaging presentations. Make your supervisor look good. Celebrate the work of your design team. Make the marketing department jealous of your animations. Maybe even get a raise or move into a full-time visualization role.

2. Full-time, Freelance - You're either a designer or a rendering specialist. Maybe you want to leave design behind and focus 100% on visualization. Either way, adding motion to your portfolio is a way to break through the noise. Instagram, TikTok and other platforms now prioritize video. Let's say you learn how to make great product animations. Congratulations, your billable rate just went up. Based on my experience, many companies are willing to spend $20K-$50K on product launch videos. Whether you're promoting your own work or someone else's, there's no denying that having animation skills will give you a leg up.

3. Student - Pretty soon, you'll be graduating and entering the work force. You'll be on the hunt for a great internship or full-time position. Sure, your concepts and design problem-solving skills are the most important. But getting the attention of a potential employer is critical. You could have the best portfolio in the world, but if you can't get someone to pause and look at your work, you'll  never get the opportunity. I even heard from a student who was not getting replies back from companies after submitting a portfolio. They took my Rendering Masterclass, re-worked all the renderings in their portfolio and re-applied to several studios and actually landed a position at a top design studio. If you can create animations, you'll stand out against your classmates as well as other job applicants.

Regardless of where you are in your career, you'll find that many principals taught in this course apply to projects you either have or will encounter. For example, wondering about how to reduce render time in KeyShot?

The lesson below shines a light on how to reduce render time by wrangling in those real-time render settings.