Author Topic: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers  (Read 25570 times)

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Offline CQ_Cumbers

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kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 07:48:38 »
kbrenders
Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers

I am now offering a service to 3D render your keyboard-layout-editor keycap set designs within 2 hours - check it out at kbrenders.com. I currently charge $5 for every render, so if it fits your use case it can be significantly faster and cheaper than many comparable offerings.

Currently, it supports six keyboard layouts - Triangle (Full Size), Mech27 (TKL), Espectro (96%), M65 (65%), Klippe (60%), and Mech Mini 2 (40%) - and three keycap profiles - SA, DSA, and GMK. Only legends that are visible in kle-render will show. Final output is photorealistic, unlike kle-render, because kbrenders actually ray traces every request in blender instead of compositing 2D images. Try it out and tell me what you think! I'd especially appreciate any feedback on what new features would be most important for keycap set designers.

You can see sample renders as well as read more about how kbrenders works at kbrenders.com




« Last Edit: Tue, 20 July 2021, 09:56:49 by CQ_Cumbers »

Offline MikeTheTiger

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 07:59:31 »
You need to render that LEGO keyset. LOL. Looks cool!!

Offline Oblotzky

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 08:19:43 »
neat  :thumb:

Offline Coreda

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 08:52:12 »
Renders look pretty swish. Nice one.

Offline xondat

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 08:53:03 »
Looks sweet. That TKL model needs some work though ;)

Offline Traveler

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 12:21:05 »
This looks nice! Do you have any interest in turning it into an executable or releasing the source so people can run it on their local machines? That would help with server costs not getting out of hand. But if your goal is to keep to yourself in case you decide to turn it into a paid service later on that's totally understandable.

Offline Kafka

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 12:35:26 »
GMK legends need to be a bit bigger I think

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 13:49:33 »
Looks sweet. That TKL model needs some work though ;)

I think the TEK80 model is pretty accurate to the actual board - you can find photos of it online and it really does look like that.

This looks nice! Do you have any interest in turning it into an executable or releasing the source so people can run it on their local machines? That would help with server costs not getting out of hand. But if your goal is to keep to yourself in case you decide to turn it into a paid service later on that's totally understandable.

With regards to open sourcing, I do plan on charging maybe $10 per render once I have all the bugs ironed out and more options available. Also, I have it built out as a collection of autoscaling cloud microservices - getting it to run on one computer locally would require a lot of rewriting.

GMK legends need to be a bit bigger I think

I'll update the template to increase the GMK legend sizes. kbrenders and kle-render.herokuapp.com use the same code for generating legends, so you can preview how the legends look using kle-render before requesting something with kbrenders.

Offline Eturior

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 14:23:22 »
You should try the smooth shading option in Blender. I don't know how good it would look with the geometry of the keycaps, but those flat faces could be fixed  ;)

Offline donutcat

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 15:45:47 »
Looks really good for something that's going to be freely and easily available for potential set designers to utilize. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these renders around than just KLE mockups in the future.

Offline EightDiagram

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 16:09:32 »
kbrenders
an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers

I just built a new cloud service that will 3D render your keyboard-layout-editor keycap set designs within 24 hours - check it out at kbrenders.com

Dude. Thank you.

Offline ye_cole

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 19:12:30 »
what the actual ****. i love you.

Offline ye_cole

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 19:22:27 »
Do you have plans to make it so that it can just give us a blender file so you don't have to waste server resources to render?

Perhaps at a lower price in the future compared to just having the server render it.

Offline ye_cole

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 19:23:35 »
Also, your GMK legends are out of line. They should be center left for mods.

Offline AuthenticDanger

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 21 November 2017, 20:28:31 »
DSA is coming, right? I'd certainly be interested in using this for an upcoming group buy if I could get DSA renders.
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Offline ReadmeDotTxt

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #15 on: Wed, 22 November 2017, 00:04:58 »
This I like. Like, a lot.

Offline muni_chang

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 25 November 2017, 00:26:30 »
appreciate :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Offline rrrsss

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #17 on: Sat, 25 November 2017, 15:45:08 »
Do you have plans to make it so that it can just give us a blender file so you don't have to waste server resources to render?

Perhaps at a lower price in the future compared to just having the server render it.

agreed! this would help you alleviate the cost!

Offline iHateKnives

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #18 on: Mon, 27 November 2017, 05:12:02 »
It's displaying 'application error' atm :'(
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Offline CandyKeys

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #19 on: Mon, 27 November 2017, 05:26:04 »
This is sick.

Still room for improvement but very good!
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Offline vinzlr

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #20 on: Mon, 27 November 2017, 13:21:12 »
Do you have plans to make it so that it can just give us a blender file so you don't have to waste server resources to render?

Perhaps at a lower price in the future compared to just having the server render it.

I would love this!

Offline tristinDLC

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #21 on: Tue, 28 November 2017, 04:27:32 »
Great project!


What are the colors used on the last green/yellow board? I'd love to be able to replicate that myself.

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #22 on: Sat, 02 December 2017, 08:03:36 »
Hey, I didn't realize that I ran out of hosting hours last month, so kbrenders was down for the past few days. It is back online now, and I've added support for DSA keycaps as well as additional templates to the site. I'm also planning on adding 40% and 96% keyboard models to the site sometime in the next few weeks.

Offline MMKB

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #23 on: Sat, 02 December 2017, 23:29:47 »
This is to me like the wind tunnel to Wright Brothers.
        

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #24 on: Sat, 09 December 2017, 19:02:17 »
I can't afford the costs of running kbrenders anymore, and have no idea how to properly charge people money for it, so kbrenders is shutting down forever. I wish I could have kept it up for longer but I hope you found it useful. In the meantime kle-render.herokuapp.com will stay up until the end of this month before shutting down permanently as well. If you need renders for your sets in the future, I can vouch for the quality of thesiscamper's work.

Offline Traveler

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #25 on: Sat, 09 December 2017, 20:02:41 »
I can't afford the costs of running kbrenders anymore, and have no idea how to properly charge people money for it, so kbrenders is shutting down forever. I wish I could have kept it up for longer but I hope you found it useful. In the meantime kle-render.herokuapp.com will stay up until the end of this month before shutting down permanently as well. If you need renders for your sets in the future, I can vouch for the quality of thesiscamper's work.

That sucks, but I understand. Thanks for providing while it lasted! Definitely looked like a good project and hopefully it can be revived some time in the future.

Offline THRILLHOIAF

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #26 on: Sat, 09 December 2017, 20:08:19 »
I will miss KLE-Render like crazy,

Its too bad KLE and KB couldnt just have a paypal donation button where you could put in any any amount from  $1 or more for each render

Let your users choose the price!


Thanks anyways CQ_Cumbers! SA By the Sea wouldn't be where it is today if it werent for these services!

Offline luismonterieart

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #27 on: Sun, 10 December 2017, 04:56:20 »
Very cool project dude  :thumb:
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Offline mudcakehoney

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #28 on: Sun, 10 December 2017, 05:23:42 »
Oh I’m so sorry to hear that. I second the donation button.

Offline maylily

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #29 on: Sun, 10 December 2017, 06:26:56 »
I can't afford the costs of running kbrenders anymore, and have no idea how to properly charge people money for it, so kbrenders is shutting down forever. I wish I could have kept it up for longer but I hope you found it useful. In the meantime kle-render.herokuapp.com will stay up until the end of this month before shutting down permanently as well. If you need renders for your sets in the future, I can vouch for the quality of thesiscamper's work.
Do you have 3D model of 2 sets of SA and GMK full?
I have a need to buy two sets: 3

Offline KaosJ

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #30 on: Sun, 10 December 2017, 06:29:16 »
Sad  :(   

Would renders on requests be an option? 

I think you can charge X or get tips from people for that 




Offline aspenc4

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #31 on: Mon, 11 December 2017, 08:01:49 »
That’s really unfortunate, you have s great thing here. :(


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Offline lordgiblite

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #32 on: Mon, 11 December 2017, 09:29:40 »
I am sorry you couldn't keep it going CQ_Cumbers  :'(

Thank you for the amazing service and for communicating this unfortunate news.

Sad  :(   

Would renders on requests be an option? 

I think you can charge X or get tips from people for that 

Can I second this? I would love to support you if I can, I really wanted to tip you from KB already ;)



Offline ashwinv11

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #33 on: Mon, 11 December 2017, 11:44:33 »
Seriously. Big thanks CQ_Cumbers, your service really pushed me to finish designing my set! Cheers and thanks for all the fish

Offline ye_cole

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #34 on: Sat, 16 December 2017, 17:10:26 »
F. :(

Offline ideus

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #35 on: Sat, 16 December 2017, 17:57:48 »
It says application error.

Offline KeycapKid

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #36 on: Sun, 17 December 2017, 02:04:56 »
Also getting "application error". Renders look great though. Hope it's back up soon. Good work.

Offline zekkin

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #37 on: Sun, 17 December 2017, 06:18:20 »
It was taken down due to server costs.

Offline TerryMathews

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #38 on: Mon, 18 December 2017, 21:41:35 »
I can't afford the costs of running kbrenders anymore, and have no idea how to properly charge people money for it, so kbrenders is shutting down forever. I wish I could have kept it up for longer but I hope you found it useful. In the meantime kle-render.herokuapp.com will stay up until the end of this month before shutting down permanently as well. If you need renders for your sets in the future, I can vouch for the quality of thesiscamper's work.

Dude, it's not any of my concern but what stack were you running kbrenders on, and could you possibly re-engineer it to run locally? It seems to me, you're taking an HTTP POST containing some options and a JSON, then returning the results via e-mail. There's nothing there that requires cloud computing.

You created a pretty great tool, it'd be a shame to see it die like this.

Offline gutsack

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #39 on: Tue, 19 December 2017, 14:53:10 »
Also curious about how to make this feasible for running locally, and up for helping transition it to some open source repo if you're up for it. I think this sort of thing could be really helpful for the community!

Offline ashwinv11

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #40 on: Wed, 20 December 2017, 00:51:04 »
Also curious about how to make this feasible for running locally, and up for helping transition it to some open source repo if you're up for it. I think this sort of thing could be really helpful for the community!

Also interested! Open sourcing also comes with the added benefit of more features via community contributions

Offline spacewolf

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #41 on: Thu, 28 December 2017, 14:54:24 »
I can't afford the costs of running kbrenders anymore, and have no idea how to properly charge people money for it, so kbrenders is shutting down forever. I wish I could have kept it up for longer but I hope you found it useful. In the meantime kle-render.herokuapp.com will stay up until the end of this month before shutting down permanently as well. If you need renders for your sets in the future, I can vouch for the quality of thesiscamper's work.

I cant imagine people wouldnt pay to keep this going, patreon style... If you arent interested in keeping it going, I may be. The sourcecode for kle-render is available but kbrenders is not... what can we do to make that happen? I dont want to simply set up a patreon page and host it myself if that's something youd want to do yourself.

I noticed you havent replied here in a while, so I dont know what to expect, but I know the community doesnt want to lose kle-renders

Thanks!

What the world needs is hosting that other people can pay for.

Offline dinojaemin

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #42 on: Wed, 10 January 2018, 10:59:42 »
I think paypal donation or charging for the service is reasonable. We are (unless I am) ready to afford for kle-render and kbrenders. Your tools are allowing people to design their keycaps easly. I saw a lot of people using kle-render in the massdrop keycaps contest in whiich the dsa 2077or something have won. I HOPE them to COME BACK ASAP. Though I respect your intent.

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #43 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 06:47:48 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.

Offline MikeTheTiger

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Re: kbrenders - automated 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #44 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 09:05:52 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.

That's great to hear. Now let's get back to putting out Classic Space... ;)

Offline mudcakehoney

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Re: kbrenders - automated 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #45 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 13:53:57 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.
That is great to hear! When uploading a layout to you do you need it to match the output? ie if I were to send you a TKL would you be able to make a 65% out of that it does it need to be 65% to begin with?

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - automated 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #46 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 14:17:25 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.
That is great to hear! When uploading a layout to you do you need it to match the output? ie if I were to send you a TKL would you be able to make a 65% out of that it does it need to be 65% to begin with?

Yes, it needs to match the output. There should be a link underneath the KLE JSON field to a template that will provide the most accurate legends and key sizes for the keyboard you selected. If you submit a different layout to the layout of the keyboard it may work, but is unlikely to produce the desired results.

Offline Data

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #47 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 14:25:45 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.

I understand the need to charge for this service (and agree unconditionally) but the option to get a free thumbnail preview, so you can get at least a general impression of what you're buying, would be awesome.

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #48 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 15:20:27 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.

I understand the need to charge for this service (and agree unconditionally) but the option to get a free thumbnail preview, so you can get at least a general impression of what you're buying, would be awesome.

The renders are ray traced on a separate machine that I don't keep running all the time, so even small previews would require waiting a day and cost me basically as much as a full resolution image. However, you can preview how legends would look using kle-render.herokuapp.com (it uses some of the same code) although it isn't photorealistic. I will be adding some DSA sample renders to the website very soon as well.

Offline lordgiblite

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #49 on: Fri, 02 February 2018, 23:47:18 »
It appears I was wrong about shutting down forever - after a significant redesign kbrenders is now back online!

I've added two new keyboard layouts - the Mech Mini 2 (40%) and Espectro (96%) - as well as DSA support. Also, while I offered kbrenders for free before, this was not sustainable, and I'm now charging a $10 fee per render. I hope this is still accessible for everyone who wants to use kbrenders.

I understand the need to charge for this service (and agree unconditionally) but the option to get a free thumbnail preview, so you can get at least a general impression of what you're buying, would be awesome.

The renders are ray traced on a separate machine that I don't keep running all the time, so even small previews would require waiting a day and cost me basically as much as a full resolution image. However, you can preview how legends would look using kle-render.herokuapp.com (it uses some of the same code) although it isn't photorealistic. I will be adding some DSA sample renders to the website very soon as well.

Thanks for the tid bit of information on the legends, I know I would be heartbroken to find out I got awesome renders with bad legends. I am so glad this is back up and running though, you are the best.



Offline foxlive

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Re: kbrenders - automated 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #50 on: Mon, 05 February 2018, 22:18:45 »
Hey!!

This kbrenders look like a very nice tool. But again it appears to be offline for me. I totally understand that the cost of making 3D raytracing render online is high, but what about making the tools opensource and release it on like github so we can use or own power to perform the render. It would be an amazing tool for those who want to make 3D renders of keyset idea they have but don’t have that much 3D skills (I’m really more a 2D boy, lot of experience in photography, vectorial design, but 3D I never touched and I am still quite confused about it  :-X )


Thanks about considering this !  :thumb:
               

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #51 on: Tue, 06 February 2018, 08:06:25 »
Hey!!

This kbrenders look like a very nice tool. But again it appears to be offline for me. I totally understand that the cost of making 3D raytracing render online is high, but what about making the tools opensource and release it on like github so we can use or own power to perform the render. It would be an amazing tool for those who want to make 3D renders of keyset idea they have but don’t have that much 3D skills (I’m really more a 2D boy, lot of experience in photography, vectorial design, but 3D I never touched and I am still quite confused about it  :-X )


Thanks about considering this !  :thumb:

How does it appear offline to you? Are you having trouble accessing the website, or are you unable to submit a render, or are you not receiving the email, etc? Perhaps it was simply taking a while to load because of the sample renders? If you are having trouble using kbrenders please don't hesitate to report them on this thread.

With regards to open source, getting everything to run locally would require a great deal more work, as I structured everything as a set of cloud microservices. It would also negate much of the convenience of a service versus a set of files. Furthermore, I have already spent years on this project and will likely spend more, and so would like the possibility to eventually profit somehow even if it is not the primary goal.

Offline foxlive

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #52 on: Wed, 07 February 2018, 03:32:21 »
Hey!!

This kbrenders look like a very nice tool. But again it appears to be offline for me...
More
I totally understand that the cost of making 3D raytracing render online is high, but what about making the tools opensource and release it on like github so we can use or own power to perform the render. It would be an amazing tool for those who want to make 3D renders of keyset idea they have but don’t have that much 3D skills (I’m really more a 2D boy, lot of experience in photography, vectorial design, but 3D I never touched and I am still quite confused about it  :-X )


Thanks about considering this !  :thumb:

How does it appear offline to you? Are you having trouble accessing the website, or are you unable to submit a render, or are you not receiving the email, etc? Perhaps it was simply taking a while to load because of the sample renders? If you are having trouble using kbrenders please don't hesitate to report them on this thread.

With regards to open source, getting everything to run locally would require a great deal more work, as I structured everything as a set of cloud microservices. It would also negate much of the convenience of a service versus a set of files. Furthermore, I have already spent years on this project and will likely spend more, and so would like the possibility to eventually profit somehow even if it is not the primary goal.

Thanks for your answer. I did not try again but yes I cannot load the website, it appears down for me. I will check again. For the open part, I totally understand that you don’t want to spend any more time making it portable to run localy and I also understand that with all this work you want to make some profit with it. I am still thinking on some keyset idea, and I think I will use your service in the future. At this time if I don’t succeed to submit some render I will contact you directly.  :D
               

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #53 on: Wed, 21 March 2018, 09:20:31 »
Just so you know, I've recently made some major updates to the service.
  • The rather bulky TEK80 keyboard has been replaced with the Mech27
  • A 60% layout in the form of the Klippe has been added
  • Custom legend images that cover the entire keycap are now supported. As always, you can preview how they will appear on kle-render.herokuapp.com
« Last Edit: Wed, 21 March 2018, 12:02:26 by CQ_Cumbers »

Offline phorx

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #54 on: Wed, 21 March 2018, 09:29:54 »
Neat!  I hope this removes some barriers for some keysets makers.

Offline koduh

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #55 on: Wed, 21 March 2018, 11:31:09 »
Just so you know, I've recently made some major updates to the service.
  • The rather bulky TEK80 keyboard has been replaced with the Mech27
  • A 60% layout in the form of the Klippe has been added
  • Custom legend images that cover the entire keycap are now supported. As always, you can preview how they will appear on kle_render.herokuapp.com

fixed the link. its a hyphen not underscore.

 kle-render.herokuapp.com

Offline jimirolln

  • Posts: 282
Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #56 on: Fri, 23 March 2018, 11:47:47 »
i made a mistake assuming the tool would not rearrange the keys but i am having trouble figuring why the custom style wasn't applied...also the render was spammed to my email...i am willing to chalk the ten up as a learning curve but if you could help me trouble shoot the custom style i would greatly appreciate it...ty
« Last Edit: Fri, 23 March 2018, 19:26:37 by jimirolln »

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #57 on: Fri, 23 March 2018, 19:20:17 »
For future reference, I would like to make clear that if you use a layout template that matches that of the keyboard you selected, and do not add, delete, or rearrange keys, the legends will appear exactly as they do on kle-render.herokuapp.com, because the exact same code is used to generate them. Please check your layouts before you submit them. Also, it is an unfortunate limitation of the approach I have used that custom CSS styles will likely never be supported, as the parsing is done in python and does not use a browser layout engine

Offline jimirolln

  • Posts: 282
Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #58 on: Fri, 23 March 2018, 19:32:36 »
ty...and thank you for responding to my email...it was helpful...i thought the render was good...and the tool is very impressive...i just got into code this year and took a hard detour with this hobby i have become addicted to...else i would love to help you work on this render bot...i think it is absolutely amazing...could node.js be implemented to solve the custom style bug...new fonts in the kle tool is really the only reason i play with the editor
« Last Edit: Sun, 25 March 2018, 03:56:24 by jimirolln »

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #59 on: Thu, 19 April 2018, 07:14:41 »
I've made some more changes to kbrenders recently:
  • A full-size layout is available in the form of the Triangle keyboard
  • Most renders should now take less than an hour to complete
  • I've tried to make the website more readable and emphasize the need to use templates

Offline THRILLHOIAF

  • Posts: 169
Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #60 on: Thu, 19 April 2018, 12:11:39 »
I've made some more changes to kbrenders recently:
  • A full-size layout is available in the form of the Triangle keyboard
  • Most renders should now take less than an hour to complete
  • I've tried to make the website more readable and emphasize the need to use templates

This is fantastic!

I have a couple questions pertaining to KB and KLE-render

Does KBrenders support ISO and Norde renders?

I tried doing some simple KLE-renders of an iso kit and a norde kit but a lot of the icons came up as x'd out boxes,

I assume thats just because SA font does not support most of the norde/uk symbols/letters

just wondered if maybe it was different for KBR

great stuff though my friend :)

Offline Coreda

  • Posts: 772
Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #61 on: Thu, 19 April 2018, 13:01:36 »
Really glad you could transform the original service/idea into something more maintainable and still affordable :thumb:

Offline FearsomeCubedWarrior

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #62 on: Sat, 09 June 2018, 09:55:45 »
Does it support different SA profile? I was thinking about 40% 1234/3 keyset but not sure, if the tool will render alphas as R1 properly if I change the original MM2 template.

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #63 on: Sat, 22 September 2018, 12:12:58 »
I've recently added a major update to kbrenders - support for arbitrary keyboard-layout-editor layouts! If you select a specific keyboard, kbrenders still requires a template, but if you select "Freeform", kbrenders will render any layout that works in kle-render, without a case. This should be useful for rendering uncommon keyboard layouts, kit designs, or anything else you can think of fitting into keyboard-layout-editor. There are still no plans for supporting non-uniform row profiles or custom CSS, and depending on how large your layout is renders may take more than 2 hours to complete. However, this update should nevertheless make kbrenders a significantly more versatile tool for set designers.

You can see more Freeform render samples at the bottom of kbrenders.com

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« Last Edit: Sat, 22 September 2018, 13:04:44 by CQ_Cumbers »

Offline vosechu

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #64 on: Fri, 25 January 2019, 18:58:45 »
Any chance we could get a planck case at some point? Also, love that you're doing this! Very happy to put some money into it.

Offline vosechu

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #65 on: Sun, 31 March 2019, 23:22:41 »
Wanted to post that I've gotten extremely good feedback from these renders. Thank you so so much CQ!

Example render:
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IC with feedback thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/akgqxj/ic_sp_sa_fluffy_clouds/ef4p3qm

Offline Moridin

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #66 on: Fri, 18 October 2019, 03:47:08 »
Does anyone have any sample kit renders (GMK)? No keyboard, just kits laid out.

Offline MMKB

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #67 on: Fri, 18 October 2019, 14:08:48 »
kbrenders
Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers

I am now offering a service to 3D render your keyboard-layout-editor keycap set designs within 24 hours - check it out at kbrenders.com. I currently charge $10 for every render, so if it fits your use case it can be significantly faster and cheaper than many comparable offerings.

Currently, it supports six keyboard layouts - Triangle (Full Size), Mech27 (TKL), Espectro (96%), M65 (65%), Klippe (60%), and Mech Mini 2 (40%) - and three keycap profiles - SA, DSA, and GMK. Only legends that are visible in kle-render will show. Final output is photorealistic, unlike kle-render, because kbrenders actually ray traces every request in blender instead of compositing 2D images. Try it out and tell me what you think! I'd especially appreciate any feedback on what new features would be most important for keycap set designers.

You can see sample renders as well as read more about how kbrenders works at kbrenders.com

(Attachment Link)
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Excellent job setting up the rendering engine & website! I will place an order as a donation.
        

Offline MdotMaxson

  • Posts: 274
Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #68 on: Fri, 18 October 2019, 15:37:36 »
This looks nice! Do you have any interest in turning it into an executable or releasing the source so people can run it on their local machines? That would help with server costs not getting out of hand. But if your goal is to keep to yourself in case you decide to turn it into a paid service later on that's totally understandable.

I would highly doubt someone charging 10$ a render is about to make their service open source. Clearly trying to profit. That seems super high to me. I mean most ICs have like 5-10 renders. Then that doesn’t count what if you do the render and from that output  decide to tweak the colors or legends or etc. Then if you run an IC like an IC should be run and actually accept feedback from the community ( seems as if no one actually plans to take criticism in ICs lately; might as well call it an announcement post AP instead of IC) then you will thus need more renders to show community you listened. Easily could hit 150-300$ just on renders.

Then again I have no idea these “designers” make every time they run a group buy. I know they’ll vary since some sell 100 sets and some sell 2,000 sets, but I dunno if they’re making like 1$ per set or is it like 10$ per set? I don’t really care, nor do I want to know.

Offline fatboycarney

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Re: kbrenders.com - an automatic 3D rendering service for keycap designers
« Reply #69 on: Sat, 19 October 2019, 19:29:39 »
This looks nice! Do you have any interest in turning it into an executable or releasing the source so people can run it on their local machines? That would help with server costs not getting out of hand. But if your goal is to keep to yourself in case you decide to turn it into a paid service later on that's totally understandable.

I would highly doubt someone charging 10$ a render is about to make their service open source. Clearly trying to profit. That seems super high to me. I mean most ICs have like 5-10 renders. Then that doesn’t count what if you do the render and from that output  decide to tweak the colors or legends or etc. Then if you run an IC like an IC should be run and actually accept feedback from the community ( seems as if no one actually plans to take criticism in ICs lately; might as well call it an announcement post AP instead of IC) then you will thus need more renders to show community you listened. Easily could hit 150-300$ just on renders.

Then again I have no idea these “designers” make every time they run a group buy. I know they’ll vary since some sell 100 sets and some sell 2,000 sets, but I dunno if they’re making like 1$ per set or is it like 10$ per set? I don’t really care, nor do I want to know.

I wanted to reply to this simply because I am new to this and figured I might be able to shed some light on the value I think a service like this offers. It definitely does not replace 3D artists but I think it fits a niche. If you want to check out my set I am running (a little self promotion) you can see what the service offers.
Yes 10 bucks is not cheap per se but I would say comparatively it is quite inexpensive. I dont have the skills or software to create a render at this quality. If you do look at my set you will see I was able to do 1 render that contains multiple kits to allow me to get something of high quality up for feedback before an artist renders my set. I was also able to get my keys on a board and got some great feedback.

To your other points, I also have no idea how much a designer makes, I really just had an idea, wanted to go through this journey and see how it goes. Its sort of a leap of faith but thus far I have met some amazing people in this community and it just makes me want to give back to it more. I think if you asked a lot of creators on this site they would say the same.

I will also add that at least thus far launching a set (which I am only scratching the surface of) is a fair amount of work, definitely not a turnkey system to get paid (I dont think thats what you were saying i just wanted to add that in for anyone reading from my experience thus far)

So Thanks @CQ_Cucumbers

Offline Pikeo

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #70 on: Thu, 16 April 2020, 14:40:10 »
Are silver the only case colors?

Offline CQ_Cumbers

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Re: kbrenders - Affordable 3D rendering services for keycap designers
« Reply #71 on: Wed, 21 July 2021, 20:27:23 »
I know it's been a while since I've posted here, but I wanted to let people know about a few recent updates to kle-render that should hopefully be useful for designers.
  • The kle-render FAQ now covers how to use transparent PNGs as custom legend images (It's been a feature for a while but was perhaps a bit hidden).
  • Custom fonts are now possible, though there are restrictions and it might take some effort to get them to work. See the github issue for details.
  • The default GMK font now more accurately matches actual GMK keycaps (especially the symbols). It won't be perfect, but should be less wrong than before.
As always, the above changes affect both kle-render and kbrenders, so you can use the former to preview exactly how your legends will look before paying for a full 3D render.
I've also made some kbrenders-specific changes:
  • Front-facing camera angles have been changed to better show the tops of keycaps.
  • Case materials have been added, namely light/dark anodized aluminium and white/black paint.
  • Lighting is now more direct, and a stronger texture has been applied to GMK keycaps.
  • Price has been reduced to $5 per render, though if server costs get out of hand again I will increase it.
Also, if you ever need help getting your KLE layout to work with either tool I'm usually happy to take a look at it. mail@kbrenders.com is the most consistent way to reach me, I do my best to respond but can sometimes be very busy with work.

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