Light Tracer Render to the Rescue
Last year we were hit with the news that Keyshot would be changing to a subscription model and that we would be losing access to our old versions by the end of 2025. I had been Keyshot quite a bit for client presentations and product rendering, and it was expensive so I stuck with version 9 since it seemed to do everything I needed. However, I could not stomach the new subscription cost on top of all the other software subscriptions I was paying for (a topic for another time). Even worse was the fact I was losing all access and support for version 9 - I needed an alternative.
I looked into using Blender, Marmoset Toolbag, and Substance Painter - all excellent programs, but I found the workflow too time-consuming for my needs. In Keyshot, my workflow was straightforward - polypaint the models in ZBrush, click a button to send everything over to Keyshot, drag over a material or two, tweak some lighting, maybe add a label for tampos or decals, and render. Most of the time I don’t need to bother with UVs for texturing so the process was very simple, and that was not the case in these other programs for the most part.
Last year I stumbled across Light Tracer Render by Light Engine LLC. Recently, Light Tracer was upgraded to version 3.0 and to be honest, I sort of forgot about it until recently, but after yet another email from Keyshot begging me to subscribe I remembered to try it again, and was very impressed.
First of all, the pricing is extremely reasonable. Light Tracer has both a subscription for as low as $8.99 per month and a perpetual license that covers all version 3 updates for $139 (this is listed as a special price, down from $179 but there is no indication of when this pricing expires).
Light Tracer feels like a light version of Keyshot, but for my purposes, it has everything I need and feels very fast. If you are experienced with Keyshot much of it will feel familiar. Materials can be dragged and dropped onto the model, lights, and HDRIs manipulated, and settings use responsive sliders that update in realtime. Light Tracer feels very responsive, even on my laptop and I feel like I can get high-quality renders very quickly compared to Keyshot. I am no expert on how rendering works and don’t know if there is some fundamental difference here, but it just feels fast and easy.
Keyshot users should be able to dive right into Light Tracer and feel at home right away.
The workflow from ZBrush to Light Tracer is similar to the Keyshot workflow, though not as convenient. After polypainting, I decimate the model with the polypaint information and export it as FBX before manually importing it for rendering. Not as easy as just clicking a button, but hardly a burden. If you have multiple materials, for example, plastic and metal, it helps to combine the like materials into separate subtools in ZBrush before exporting for easy material assignment. I will be doing a tutorial video soon to walk through the process!
My favourite part about Light Tracer was setting up lighting. I always struggled to get this right in Keyshot, or at least I felt like it was very tedious. Here it seems more intuitive. Simply click on an HDRI in the library to set some basic lighting (or import your own if you like), then drag in some lights and manipulate them on top of the HDRI map to see their effects. The fast rendering makes is easy to see what your lights are doing and I was able to get the lighting shown below very quickly.
A quick render test using a stock HDRI, a neutral key light, and a warm and cool rim light. Easy.
I still have more things to explore in Light Tracer but I will be ditching Keyshot for all of my toy and collectible rendering needs. It’s fast, produced very good results, and the workflow is still simple allowing me to spend less time prepping models and tweaking settings. If you are interested in trying it out there is a free 14-day trial available here. And if you want an easy way to plop a model into a scene for a quick render, I’ve saved the scene used to make the image above which you can get for free in my store.
