CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
19 June 2008
Product News
Bunkspeed Releases Free Beta Plug-In for Rhino
Bunkspeed®, a leading global provider of rendering and visualization software for design, engineering, and marketing, announced the beta release of its HyperShot® plug-in for Rhinoceros®.
The stand-alone patent-pending HyperShot application uses Bunkspeed’s technology for real-time photographic rendering. Now this rendering technology operates in conjunction with the 3D industrial design modeler, Rhinoceros.
Phillip Lunn, CEO, Bunkspeed, said “This is an example of how 3D design is supposed to work: The users of Rhinoceros are highly talented designers, engineers, and architects who want the best tools available. The addition of this plug-in makes high-end, photographic rendering easy for them to just simply be creative in 3D, and not have to worry about learning how to use it. This is the way it should be.”
Phil Carrizzi, Associate Professor and Chair of the Jewelry Design Program at Kendall College of Art and Design previously taught his students using another Rhino plug-in for their rendering needs. Carrizzi recently tested an early beta version of the Bunkspeed plug-in on his own projects.
“Hypershot not only gives me much better renderings than what I was using before -- and way faster - but now that it operates directly within Rhino, it makes the decision to switch to HyperShot even more viable for us. Most Rhino users gravitate to renderers as plug-ins, simply because they don’t need to go into a separate application. Now Hypershot fits into that workflow,” explains Carrizzi. “Hypershot is actually a lot easier to use by a long shot.”
In just minutes, users can apply paints, materials, as well as real-world lighting to their Rhinoceros models. Designers can achieve realistic 3D images without leaving their original modeling environment. Because Bunkspeed’s continual rendering process gives users a near-instant, high fidelity preview of the final visuals, users can now make aesthetic decisions on the fly.
“The rapid visualization of what a product will look like with a particular material is extremely fast in the HyperShot preview window,” says Carrizzi. “Hypershot for Rhino is vastly quicker than anything I have ever used.”
Another innovation in Hypershot lies in its easy application of materials. To render, users can simply drag the desired color or finish from the palette directly to the model surface.
“The way you select materials in Hypershot through a drag-n-drop approach is another part of the plug-in which I found is unique and gives it a big advantage over the competition,” adds Carrizzi. “In past renderers, you have to go through all these sub-menus and edit the patterns to find the right finish. In HyperShot, all of your materials are open all of the time where you can see them. You can just grab what you want, drop it in, and see how it looks in a preview render that is extremely accurate. Drag-n-drop makes the process a lot faster and a lot more intuitive.”
Bob McNeel, founder of McNeel Associates, and developers of Rhinoceros, comments on the new plug-in.
“It is exciting for us when our users get the chance to add superb tools to those already in Rhinoceros. Bunkspeed makes a top-notch rendering product that will open many doors for designers of all kinds. We will be looking forward to seeing what our users will achieve with this software.”
Rhino users can download the beta version of the plug-in free of charge at http://www.bunkspeed.com/hypershot/rhino.
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