Throughout May and June 2025 the KeyShot community in Australia and New Zealand were invited to take part in the LEAP KeyShot Challenge – submit their very best renders to win fantastic prizes. Now that the entries are all in and have been assessed by our expert judging panel, it’s time to announce our winners!
Huge congratulations to the 1st place winner in our commercial/professional category: Sebastian Medrana Casas, Industrial Designer at BCI Furniture!
Commercial Prize Winner: Sebastian Medrano Casas, Industrial designer at BCI furniture
Sebastian’s entry entitled Mural – Spray Gun is a personal project he originally developed as part of the Australian Good Design Awards. After 3D CAD model was imported into KeyShot, rendering and lighting was performed using both a blue and and fuchsia light sources, and material textures applied to enhance realism.
Next up, congratulations to the winner of 1st place in our academic/student category: Samuel Elvey, Student at Monash University
Academic Prize Winner: Samuel Elvey, Student at Monash University
Samuel designed and modelled this unique watch specifically for this competition to showcase what he believes are the best materials and features in the Keyshot software.
Not included in the submission material given to our judging panel for assessment, but very cool nonetheless, Samuel also provided us with apost production animation which he further enhanced by adding out to the video using Adobe Premiere Pro. Check out Samuel’s exploded view animation below.
With so many amazing entries, picking winners was no easy task, so we extend a big thanks to our judging panel who had high praise for the level of talent and creativity on display in the competition submissions.
“Happy to see that entrants implemented technical details such as the use of exploded / cutaway views, depth of field, material details and lighting of the scenes. In particular I liked the captivating use of material effects in the brush detail in one entry, and the hyper-realistic studio lighting effects for the spray gun.” said Robbie Napper, Associate Professor at Monash University Art, Design & Architecture Department.
Dr Pierre Lubis, Teaching Fellow – Industrial Design at the University of Waikato adds, “I was impressed with the quality of the entries, especially from those new students and professionals who are relatively new to 3D Rendering. The winning entries showcased admirable skills in KeyShot such as applying realistic lighting effects, material accuracy, and the use of depth of field. The best entries also exhibited a balanced composition and use of different materials and textures to provide a truly photo-realistic rendering. In one notable example, the material accuracy really stood out to me, especially with the addition of scratches and dents on the casing which helped achieve an exceptional level of visual realism.”
Jans Helneck, Senior Director, Sales at KeyShot was impressed by the detail expressed in many of the renders saying, “Excited to see the wide range of entries and from both novice and experienced KeyShot users, from across Australia and New Zealand. I really enjoyed the photorealism that was achieved and the story-telling that was evident in some of the winning entries, especially when using challenging material effects such as the fuzzy brush, and also the spray gun that demonstrated evidence of wear and tear from previous use (rather than pristine models that are often seen in 3D Renders).”
The team at LEAP along with the competition sponsors, KeyShot and 3Dconnexion thank everyone who participated in the 2025 LEAP KeyShot Challenge. Congratualtions to all involved. And not to be left out, here are some honourable mentions who narrowly missed out on taking out the top prize.
Edward Poropat, Industrial Designer at Alchin Long Group
Edward Poropat, Industrial Designer at Alchin Long Group
Dhwani Jha, Student at the University of Waikato