When I first discovered KeyShot, I was blown away by the easy drag-and-drop materials and simple lighting. But as a product designer, I ran into a few problems.

Do any of these sound familiar?: 

❓ Have you ever needed a material that you couldn't find in the KeyShot library?

❓ Have you downloaded a 3D model to use in your KeyShot scene just to find the included materials didn’t work in KeyShot?!

❓ Or maybe your materials just don't look as realistic as you need them to.

Annoying, right?

You're not alone. KeyShot makes it easy to start, but photo-realism... that's another challenge.

Whether I’m designing something new or trying to render an existing product, the material has to look right. If it doesn’t, the rendering will look fake or I run the risk of miscommunicating the CMF.

And in today’s highly competitive digital-first world, we can’t afford to have lousy looking materials in our renderings.

So, what did I do?

❌ YouTube content was thin back then.

❌ The KeyShot Cloud Library can be hit or miss, but I often emerge empty-handed.

❌ Online forums can be helpful but posts aren't always up-to-date with the latest software version.

❌ And since I didn't know the right way to use purchased textures, the results were lackluster.

I repeated this cycle many times until something happened. 

Since going through the process of learning all about how KeyShot materials work and how materials work in the real world, I’ve come to enjoy crafting new materials.

Today, the Material Graph is like an extension of my mind. It’s easy for me to look at a material in a photo or in the real world and imagine what it looks like as a network of nodes in the KeyShot Material Graph.

Another benefit of knowing how all these materials work is being able to work quickly. Seldom do I waste time trying out a bunch of material options.

And if I do need to make use of third-party textures, it’s a big time-saver to just download what I need, pop them into the Material Graph, make a few adjustments and be done!

KeyShot is more fun to work with when you really understoand how the material system works!

I realize not everyone has the same opportunity to work for KeyShot or spend years studying its intricacies.

Nor would I want you to! Learning through trial and error is incredibly inefficient.

This is why I created a course to shortcut your learning.

Rather than spending years like I did, you can gain key insights in a matter of days.

How it’s different
This is my third and biggest masterclass course offering to date! Rather than just demonstrating how to create a few common materials, I wanted to make a product that is like nothing else available. This course is organized into 3 distinct sections:

Section 1 - Foundations
Section 1 focuses on laying a solid foundation for the rest of the course contents. Because everyone has a different level of experience, I set out to cover all information relevant to both beginners and intermediate users. Chapters in Section 1 cover topics like terminology, naming conventions, KeyShot material types, many topics related to texture formats, mapping, gamma and more.

Section 2 - Material, Texture & Node Index
Section 2 covers an in-depth look at every single material type, procedural texture and Material Graph node available in KeyShot. Think of this as an index that you can quickly refer to whenever you need to brush up on how a specific material, or node works in KeyShot. You’ll become a Material Graph wizard in this section.

Section 3 - Project-Based Lessons
Section 3 is where the project-based lessons begin. Chapters in this section will help you build up muscle memory through practical applications of previously covered material. Here, you’ll learn by following along and creating dozens of materials from scratch, adding imperfections and even rendering out an entire bathroom interior scene. Here, you’ll gain practical experience and gain lots of best practices for working on a project from importing to post production.

 

When you purchase the KeyShot Material Masterclass, I’ll be including some extra bonus material to help you elevate your skills even further!

Bonus Chapter: 14, Creating 10 Common Materials From Scratch

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create the following materials in KeyShot: 

 

If you want to take the guesswork out of materials in KeyShot, the Material Masterclass will help unlock your potential.

You know that old saying, the devil is in the details? That couldn’t be more true than when dealing with materials. At a quick glance, most materials look simple. But upon closer inspection, there are lots of small details that contribute to the overall appearance.

This means, the success of your rendering relies on getting the smallest of details right. This course will show you how to nail all those small details.

The KeyShot Material Masterclass is a one-stop-shop for all things materials in KeyShot.

Here’s a reminder of some of what you’ll learn when you enroll in this course: 

 ✔️ What every setting in every material does

 ✔️ How to know which material you should use

 ✔️ The pros and cons of using image-based and procedural textures

 ✔️ How to use every procedural texture in KeyShot

 ✔️ The best way to create materials in the Material Graph

 ✔️ How to create custom libraries of your own materials

 ✔️ When to use a bump, normal or displacement maps

 ✔️ How to UV unwrap a surface for proper texture mapping

 ✔️ What gamma correction is and how it can ruin your renderings

 ✔️ Why and how to linearize textures in KeyShot

 ✔️ The proper PBR material workflow for KeyShot

 ✔️ Seven different ways to create material imperfections

 ✔️ How to create dozens of different materials from scratch

 ✔️ Efficient workflow for rendering an interior bathroom scene

 ✔️ Ways to create dynamic interior lighting

 ✔️ How to use tone mapping to make your lighting look right in KeyShot

 ✔️ Top post-production tips to make an image look bright and correct

 ✔️ How to reduce fireflies and noise in-render and in post-production

I worked very hard to create a course that condenses years of my learning into something you can complete in a few weeks even if you have a full-time job!

I didn’t hold back any secrets or techniques in this course. It’s basically everything I know about materials in KeyShot. I hope you’ll take the plunge and start leveling up today.