KeyShot Animation Masterclass

Here's the problem.

Static renderings are table stakes for most visualization professionals. Animation is the skill that sets people apart, commands better rates, and opens doors that a portfolio of still images simply can't.

But most designers never make it past the intimidation.

The word "animation" can conjure up images of Hollywood studios and teams of specialists. A 19-hour course doesn't exactly help with that first impression. And learning a video editing application on top of KeyShot? It's easy to talk yourself out of it before you even begin.

Here's the truth: if you can render in KeyShot, you are closer to creating professional product animations than you think. The tools are the same. The principles are related. What's missing is a structured path that builds on what you already know.

What Product Animation Is Actually Used For

Before diving into how this course is structured, it helps to understand what product animation is used for. In my experience, there are two main categories.

Instructional animations

Are used to demonstrate how a product works, explain a process, or communicate features and benefits. Whether used as instruction manuals, standard operating procedures, or product launch support materials, these are made for both internal and customer-facing applications.

Marketing animations

Are used to make an impression. By combining product features with engaging visuals, the goal is to stop the scroll, intrigue the viewer, and drive them to take an action. These show up on product pages, in social media campaigns, and in brand content.

Both types are valuable. Both are teachable. And this course covers the skills you need to create either one.

Who This Course Is For

Professional, Employed

‍You're a designer or engineer working full-time for a company that makes products. Adding animation means you can celebrate the work of your design team, make your supervisor look good, and give the marketing department something to be jealous of. It might even earn you a raise or move you into a full-time visualization role.

Freelance

‍You're a designer or visualization specialist looking to grow your business. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok prioritize video. Companies regularly spend significant budgets on product launch content. If you can deliver professional animations, your billable rate reflects that.

Student

‍You're preparing to enter the workforce and want to stand out. Concepts and problem-solving skills matter most, but getting a potential employer to stop and look at your work is the first challenge. A portfolio with strong animations gets attention in a way that static images alone often can't.

Why Animation Skills Matter More Right Now

Shortly after I began offering animation services to my clients, something shifted. I started working with better clients. I was able to charge more. And I was creating work I actually wanted in my portfolio. None of that happened because I got lucky. It happened because I chose to offer higher value services.

Companies are increasingly replacing expensive video production with rendering and animation. It's faster, cheaper, and more flexible. Every product launch, every marketing campaign, every instruction manual is a potential animation project. And in a world flooded with AI-generated content, the designers who can produce precise, controllable, professional animations will stand out in ways that matter to clients.

During my three years as KeyShot's Global Training Specialist, I taught design and engineering teams in person at companies including Apple, Tesla, Peloton, and Intel, along with dozens of others. Since then, professionals from many of those same companies have gone on to enroll in my courses independently. I built this course on everything I learned from those experiences, condensing years of trial and error into a single, structured path from beginner animator to confident professional.

Everything Covered in This Course

Chapter 1 — Animation Foundations

‍Big-picture thinking about animation, how to create visual interest, and how to study professional product videos to develop your own eye.

Chapter 2 — CAD Preparation

‍What to consider when preparing your 3D model for animation, including detail, naming conventions, assembly structure, local vs global organization, lights, set dressing, and export settings.

Chapter 3 — Storyboarding and Planning

‍KeyShot UI and preferences for animation, file management best practices, animation sequences, CPU vs GPU rendering considerations, scene setup, and how to build and review a storyboard.

Chapter 4 — Creating Part Animations

‍The animation timeline, turntable animations, fade animations, translation and linked animations, rotation and pivots, keyframe animations, motion easing, physics simulations, mirroring, and local vs global animation.

Chapter 5 — Camera Animations

‍Every camera animation type in KeyShot explained: translation, dolly, inclination, panorama, orbit, zoom, twist, depth of field, camera paths, camera switch events, and camera shake.

Chapter 6 — Light Animations

‍Animating sun and sky arc, environment rotation, and environment brightness.

Chapter 7 — Material Animations

‍Animating area light brightness, spotlight brightness, color fade, animation nodes, and video map animation.

Chapter 8 — Camera Technique and Transitions

‍Techniques and transitions for designing how your cameras behave throughout an animation to create a polished, professional result.

Chapter 9 — Blocking In the Animation

‍Building the first draft of your animation by blocking in all sequences from the storyboard.

Chapter 10 — Render Settings for Animation

‍CPU vs GPU rendering, real-time render settings, EXR format, render output and options dialogues, the render queue, handling 32-bit files, and render time calculation.

Chapter 11 — Introduction to Non-Linear Editing

‍What an NLE is, why you need one, which one to use, and how to prepare your sequences for editing.

Chapter 12 — Music and Sound Effects

‍The importance of sound design, understanding music licenses, sourcing audio files, and choosing the right audio for your animation.

Chapter 13 — Introduction to DaVinci Resolve

‍Getting started with DaVinci Resolve: project settings, importing sequences, building a timeline, smooth playback, basic editing, and exporting video.

Chapter 14 — Basic Post Production in DaVinci Resolve

‍Background color, keyframes, text, effects, basic color correction, motion blur, animated backgrounds, and music and sound FX.

Chapter 15 — Finish and Critique Draft 1

‍Audio block-in, adjusting sequence duration, and reviewing and critiquing your first draft to identify what needs to improve.

Chapter 16 — Refining Your Animation in KeyShot

‍Going back into KeyShot to make revisions based on your draft 1 critique, then rendering out a second draft.

Chapter 17 — Introduction to Network Rendering

‍What network rendering is and how to use it to speed up your render times significantly.

Chapter 18 — Updating Your Animation in DaVinci Resolve

‍Replacing draft 1 frames with draft 2 frames, color correction, animated backgrounds, motion blur, audio refinement, lens blur, and additional effects.

Chapter 19 — Final Updates in KeyShot for Draft 3

‍Re-timing animations, adjusting lighting and materials, fixing camera positions, calculating final frame samples, and queuing the final sequences.

Chapter 20 — Using a Render Farm

‍How to use a render farm to handle larger jobs and reduce render times when working at final quality.

Chapter 21 — Final Draft Rendering and Post Production

‍Color correction, denoise, effects, film grain, audio, maximum quality render settings, and encoding the final MP4.

Chapter 22 — Archive and Delivery

‍How to archive your KeyShot and DaVinci Resolve project files and wrap up the project cleanly for delivery.

One Complete Animation, Built Three Times

This course is built around a single ambitious project: creating a professional product animation of the Google Home Mini from scratch, all the way through to a finished, delivered file.

The model is the same one used in the KeyShot Rendering Masterclass. I spent nearly a year building it in meticulous detail for my own portfolio, and it shows up again here because it's complex enough to present real challenges without being artificially difficult.

The project follows a professional production workflow from start to finish. That means you won't just render something once and call it done. You'll build three drafts, critique each one, go back into KeyShot to make revisions, update your edit in DaVinci Resolve, and work your way toward a final result that actually looks professional.

Draft 1 — Block-In and Review

‍After storyboarding and planning, you'll block in all the animation sequences as a rough first draft, cut them together in DaVinci Resolve with placeholder audio, and do a proper critique to identify what needs to change.

Draft 2 — Refinement

‍Back in KeyShot, you'll address everything the critique surfaced: camera positions, timing, lighting, materials. Then you'll render a second draft and update your edit in DaVinci Resolve.

Draft 3 — Final Quality

‍With the animation dialed in, you'll calculate your final render settings, use a render farm to handle the heavy lifting, and render the final frames at full quality. In DaVinci Resolve, you'll do final color correction, add effects, lock your audio, and encode the finished video.

By the end, you won't just have an animation. You'll understand the complete production pipeline, including how to manage long render times, how to iterate efficiently, and how to deliver a finished project.

Everything You Get When You Enroll

The Complete Course

‍✓ 195 video lessons

✓ ~19.5 hours of content (roughly 6 hours feature-based, nearly 14 hours project-based)

✓ Lifetime access — learn at your own pace

Project Assets

‍✓ Fully detailed Google Home Mini 3D model

✓ Magic Box scene file✓ Video map assets

✓ Blank storyboard template (InDesign and PDF formats)

✓ Custom render time calculator

Recognition

‍✓ Certificate of Achievement upon completion

Support

‍✓ Per-lesson comment sections — ask questions, get answers

✓ Direct email access to Will for additional support

What Changes When You Add Animation to Your Skillset

Before this course:

❌ Animation feels intimidating and out of reach

❌ You only offer static renderings, which limits what you can charge

❌ You have no framework for planning or storyboarding an animation

❌ Post-production and video editing feel like a different world entirely

❌ Long render times feel like an unsolvable problem

❌ You have no process for reviewing and improving your own work

After this course:

✅ You can create professional product animations from storyboard to final delivery

✅ You have a repeatable production workflow you can apply to any project

✅ You understand both instructional and marketing animation and when to use each

✅ You can edit, color correct, and deliver a finished video in DaVinci Resolve

✅ You know how to manage render times using network rendering and render farms

✅ You can critique your own work and improve it systematically