geekhack Community > Keyboard Keycaps

(Keycap Render Tool) Research: Do you want / have you ever made a keycap set?

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Sonikbotnik:
Hi all. I'm undertaking the r&d of a keycap design rendering app/tool/utility. I'm not calling it an app just yet, because I'd like to approach this with appropriate design thinking methodology, and start off on the right foot. That means gathering data and research.

The issue:
There is currently a barrier to entry to design a custom keycap set. Yes, the designer should possess a requisite knowledge of material, tooling, shapes etc. But I believe anyone should be able to create a presentable colour set without needing to learn CAD to accomplish it.

So to get the ball rolling, I have a survey I'd like you to fill out:

If you successfully launched a set of keycaps from start to finish, please fill out this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7V-jZgT7TY_2e2WlHdX1qewgW15AISJ6QQJWAFg6Bk0T0kQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

If you have not launched a set, but you'd like to, fill out this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7wj66d3sP89Fdpt2Jj9T14pkdVP9A8F5GFU1-9VNKqX4IVg/viewform?usp=sf_link

I'll follow up with key insights, and next steps.

In the meantime, I'd appreciate growing this thread with any tools you know of that in some way help designing keycaps. For example:

- keyboard layout editor http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/ - where it all begins
- http://kle-render.herokuapp.com/ - server-side 2d render by CQ_Cumbers
- kbrenders(https://kbrenders.herokuapp.com/) - server-side photorealistic renderers by CQ_Cumbers
- blender (https://www.blender.org/) - open source polygon modeller


Looking forward to making something great with you folks. For a bit of history, see this thread https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=93494.0.

noSatellite:
This could not have come at a better time for me - I was just playing around with rendering tools today, as I try to get an idea into shape.

Thanks for this!

If you would, can you recommend some sources for Blender? I got familiar with 3DS Max a few years ago, but my license has lapsed and I plan to start down th Blender path soon.

DMacKB:
Heya Zoro there’s also KLE Blender, a plugin to turn kle json into keyboards in blender.

https://github.com/Kirpal/Keyboard-Layout-Editor-for-Blender

I want to write a plugin for Marmoset Toolbag to integrate with it for realtime renders.

Sonikbotnik:

--- Quote from: DMacKB on Tue, 13 March 2018, 08:19:55 ---Heya Zoro there’s also KLE Blender, a plugin to turn kle json into keyboards in blender.

https://github.com/Kirpal/Keyboard-Layout-Editor-for-Blender

I want to write a plugin for Marmoset Toolbag to integrate with it for realtime renders.

--- End quote ---
Hey DMacKB,

I haven't kept up with CAD software for a number of years. Where does Marmoset sit in the competitive market? What language do they support for plugins? And what exactly do you mean by real-time rendering?

Sent from my G3123 using Tapatalk

DMacKB:
Marmoset is what a lot of game artists use for look development: applying materials and maps to a model and lighting it with hdr environment images and regular lights. Then you can add pst effects including realtime Gi and reflections.

Realtime just means that it’s the sort of rendering used in games rather than films, so a light scene will run very smooth if you have a good gpu. You can go ham though and slow it down to a few frames a second if u add a lot. Final render can be hi res and lots of samples to get a very nice result.

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