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The KeyShot Material Masterclass is a self-paced online course designed to teach you the best way to create custom, photo-realistic materials in KeyShot from scratch. This course will help you understand the smallest building blocks and how to use them to create accurate, realistic, beautiful materials.
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.
Luxion, the makers of KeyShot, offered me a position I had applied for. 😲🎉
But I still had a lot to learn.
✔️ At Luxion, the Global Training Specialist taught me how KeyShot’s material and sampling system wprls, along with its limitations, quirks and optimal workflow.
✔️ I was able to ask questions to the software developers and Chief Scientist whenever I was confused about something.
✔️ I also bought and read a handful of books about 3D rendering, computer graphics, photography, lighting and cinematography so I could have a better understanding of how materials interact with light in the real world.
Years of study, practice and learning from other bright people helped me become the Global Training Specialist at Luxion.
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.
My KeyShot training courses are used by designers, engineers and other creative professionals at some of the most beloved and respectied companies in the world.
KeyShot has become an industry-standard rendering tool when it comes to product visualization. If you're a designer hoping to stay relevant in the field or looking to land your first job, it helps to know the tools the pros are using.
Feature-based videos are bite-sized quick-reference videos that are great for brushing up on a specific material, node or tool in KeyShot.
Project-based lessons are longer and more in-depth videos designed to take you through real-world scenarios.
This document contains all the visuals and key insights covered in the lecture-based lessons.
Oftentimes, one of these slides will be all you need to jog your memory of an important feature within KeyShot.
KeyShot Package Files (.KSP) will be supplied so you can follow along with the course material.
1. The MatLAB - Explore new material types.
2. MatLAB Models - Create detailed, common materials.
3. The Bathroom Scene - A fully-loaded interior setting.
4. MatLAB Bonus - 10 essential materials for designers... from scratch!
For those who can’t open the KSP files, I'm including the 3D files I personally modeled specifically for this course.
This way, you can still follow along with the video lessons. And if you wish to use the models for personal or commercial use, you can!
Not pictured (Bathroom & MatLAB models)
This course is brand new! So while we wait for the testimonials to roll in, check out what customers think about my other Masteclass courses.
"Will’s Masterclasses are unmatched in providing well rounded knowledge of KeyShot and its capabilities. During my first internship after college I took Will’s rendering course. The skills and insight I gained impressed that company enough, they helped create a new full time role for me as a Product Visualization Specialist."
"I had a real rush job for my client. Got the info at 5:30am, did the CAD work, updated the assets in KeyShot and thanks to your courses, finished the renderings at 4pm. Thanks, I never would have gotten it done if not for your lessons."
"I am delighted with Will's courses. Threy're an excellent investment, and I recommend them wholeheartedly. I feel empowered and can now make informed decisions using the program. The way that I engage the Keyshot program has changed!"
"Great course, helping me to refresh and systematize knowledge of KeyShot. Perfect density of information in each topic and speed of presenting. Thoughtful structure and working tips, clearly based on personal experience of Will, - make it truly helpful and enjoyable!"
"Excellent class. You must have spent many hours putting this together into a seamless presentation and it shows. The level of detail is excellent and appreciated. I've already learned many things I never knew existed, and have revamped the way I look at and use the software.
"As an industrial designer that has been working professionally for some time now I was surprised by how much more there was to learn. It feels like I finally understand how best to use KeyShot efficiently and to get the results I need."
"I was thrust into using KeyShot at a new job with zero training. The Masterclass took my limited knowledge and extend what I learned on YouTube to the next level. It helped me prepare for projects, organize tasks and understand the importance of planning before applying material and colors to imported products. I refer constantly to areas of the course when challenged with new designs. Great investment in my training."
"The KeyShot rendering masterclass helped me land my first job as an industrial designer. It was almost impossible for me to land interviews before taking this course. Because my rendering skills were so poor, I was unable to find work. Half of the design studios I reached out to were interested in my portfolio after I applied my newly acquired rendering skills. The fact that some of the best design studios wanted to hire me was astounding."
"Will is well spoken and moves through the material at a good pace. The combination of FBL and PBL is a great way to learn because it allows you to understand the potential of the tools and then apply them in a practical scenario. This learning style makes it easy to go back to the tools/concepts learned in the course and feel confident about applying them to my own work. For those looking to level up their renderings, Will's Masterclass courses are a great investment!"
"You know I really love the both instructional and in action part of Will's courses. Being hands on, it’s easy to learn while doing it, but leaves room for bad habits to develop, like creating a bunch of unnamed layers in PS. By showing how you do it, and your step by step, and honestly being raw and making mistakes, helps me to be a problem solver using your techniques. Very valuable. Also I love the long videos, I appreciate you didn’t trim them or leave it up to interpretation."
"Up until now, I've taught myself KeyShot. I have found Will's Rendering Masterclass course invaluable to discover. The course has taught me lots of neat things and I'm not even finished yet. The lessons are presented perfectly and at the perfect learning pace. I just wish I had purchased it years ago. It's worth every penny if you want to improve your rendering skills."
"The KeyShot Rendering Masteclass is an excellent course, well planned out and comprehensive. The sections covering building and applying textures were especially informative. My favorite parts were focused on the Material Graph. I think more experienced users will get the most out of this course."
If you've taken any of my other courses, then you know I'm a big proponent of project-based lessons as a means to learn new skills.
By working though a real-world project, you get exposed to unique challenges that aren't encountered when working with optimized example files.
Join me as I create an entire bathroom interior. Together, we'll learn how to problem-solve, optimize the scene, handle bright day-time lighting and add realism to bring the scene to life.
First, we'll create a bunch of materials in a studio setting while obsessing over the details that make the material look real. We'll save these custom materials to our library.
Next, we'll apply those custom-built materials to our bathroom scene.
And after setting up cameras, we'll make any last adjustments the materials need, as well as making materials for the surfaces in the bathroom.
Finally, we'll light the scene, render out the images and do some light post production in Photoshop to finish up the images.
While these bathroom images might look pretty simple and straight-forward at a glance, the materials contain many small details.
When viewed at a distance, the details seem to disappear. However, they play a critical role in the realism of a of a rendered image.
Notice the little details that come to life when we look a bit closer at those bathroom scene renderings.
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:
