Interview with 3D Printed Kids' Toys Challenge Winners

3D Printed Kids' Toys challenge ended some time ago, but it's never too late to turn back and remember the ones, who did an amazing job. I want to introduce you four talented guys - Kids' Toys Challenge stars. They are sharing their experience, dreaming about the future of 3D printing and giving a lot of valuable advises. Meet them - David, Ridwan, Ajay and Tibor.

CGTrader: Could you introduce yourself for our community in one sentence?

David: I’m from the beautiful little country called Slovenia in Europe and I'm a M.Sc. Mech. Engineer, a freelancer and owner of the company, where I do most of my work such as 3D modeling, CAD Engineering, Strength analysis, Visualizations, SolidWorks training and so on.

Ridwan: I'm a 3D product, mechanical designer and freelancer.

Ajay: I'm a creative designer and for me modeling is as important as a heartbeat - i can't live without design.

Tibor: I'm freelancer - innovations and design such as automotive and product designs are my hobbies.

CGTrader: Let's go back to the past: how did you get started in 3D modeling?

David: My first introduction to 3D modeling was in the early years of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in the University Of Maribor, Slovenia. There I was first introduced to Catia, Siemens NX, SolidWorks, Rhinoceros, Abaqus (you can model in the first step of the analysis), AutoCAD and other CAD Packages. Then in the later years of my studies I mainly worked with Catia and SolidWorks as a member of the Formula Student competition team Slovenia, where I learned a lot about real-life engineering and those two CAD Packages. In the last couple of years, while studying abroad in Technical University Graz, where I have gone more into depth in Automotive Engineering, I have also worked for 2 years in a leading Automotive R&D Company, where I have mainly used SolidWorks for my Modeling, Engineering and Representations.

Ridwan: I heard about 3D design being at St. Michael College Srakarta high school and learned to draw the parts and mechanical components in the field of mechanical engineering. After the graduation I worked in 3D software reselling company and became interested in drawing. I've been learning about the product design by myself.

Ajay: I've started designing from my college times. We were learning 2D drawing on A2 and A1 paper by using different kinds of pencils. After that, I decided to learn about 3D software, so I chose Catia (software) for my creation tool. I found myself in automotive industry designing so many out of the box concept designs and products, which are still successfully running in the market.

Tibor: It happened a few years ago, before the end of the high school. Actually, I accidentally found a design contest on the internet and that's how I started with 3D modeling.

Printor 3D Printable Internal Combustion Engine by David, 1st place winner, Best Model Category

CGTrader: You seem to be really dedicated to your work! What are your main achievements in 3D modeling?

David: I would say that the first bigger engineering project I got for designing and engineering of custom car wheels for a startup customer was the biggest achievement in my 3D modeling career, as it has given me the opportunity to start up my own CAD services company PanCAD.co. Now I have my own SolidWorks license. With it I can provide professional grade CAD services to my customers. I haven’t participated in too many CAD competitions for now but I have still won some prices. For instance the 1st place in CADCrowd Wheel Design Challenge, 2nd place in GrabCAD Protomold Challenge, 1st place in this competition (thanks again) and now I’m also in the finals of the GrabCAD Cleveron Drawer Challenge!

Ridwan: Nominated in several international competitions is a pride.

Ajay: I have been participating in so many different competitions just to motivate myself and get feedback from other designers to improve my skills. I was appreciated by so many designers for my design concept made for the competition on GrabCad (I got a prize for it).

Tibor: Well, my main achievement is to learn something new every day, try to complete my projects, which I've started and my dream is to have my own small design studio and a team.

CGTrader: I believe our community would be excited to hear what are your sources for the daily inspiration?

David: I get my daily inspiration mainly in music and abstract art, but also a lot from nature and science. I love nature and science. I like reading science news, posts, blogs and good old fashioned magazines as well as watching science documentaries. You can learn a lot of good engineering practices just by looking into millions of years of natural evolution. You could also get a lot of design inspiration on sites like Behance or Google Image Search if you’re searching for something specific.

Ridwan: Google!

Ajay: I surf over the internet, grab so many ideas and try to combine them. I believe that internet is a golden mine for every designer!

Tibor: If you spend a day in an exciting way, you don't have to search for the daily inspiration, inspiration comes by itself.

Brainstorming Art Bulb by Ridwan, 1st runner-up, Best Model Category

CGTrader: Let's go back to the Kids' Toys competition: why have you decided to participate in this challenge?

David: Initially the design was made for the Gears of Innovation 3D Print challenge on another website. The main task was to design a 3D printable model with some innovative gears on it, which can be printed integrated into the model. That’s why my model has gears where the belt and the crankshaft should be. When I have created my account here on CGTrader and started to upload some of my models, I tried to participate in this challenge with this design. After a few weeks, I was very happy to find out that I have won the challenge!

Ridwan: Because I simply love challenges!

Ajay: I love kids and this challenge was about creating a 3D printable game, so this was a real challenge for me! I was trying to remember the games I used to play in my childhood and school times. After that, I was generating ideas on how to make those games 3D printable. At the beginning, I had only one idea, but one day I got inspired and created lots of models for this competition.

Tibor: I made "Pinbrick" project a long time ago and I really wanted to use this project. I was curious to know if there was any chance for my model to be among the best ones.

CGTrader: What are the main challenges you are facing in the modeling process?

David: The main challenge I was facing when I started out was the high prices of CAD engineering software. For instance, you can start out easily as an IT freelancer for $0 as most of the software you need is free or open-source. But if you start CAD freelancing you can just hardly do professional stuff without having to buy $xxxx CAD Software. Another challenge I’m facing is the unnatural interaction with the model, as we still mainly use the old fashioned mouse or 3d mouse and a keyboard. I think it will be a game changer for the 3D modeling industry, when we can shift our human-computer interaction to another level like hand and voice manipulation. You could, for example, hold your virtual 3D model in hands (maybe even feel the structure of the surface of the model through some electric stimuli) and manipulate it and modify it with the movement of your hand and with your voice control. That will be great.

Ridwan: Looking for the idea. It takes really a long time to get fresh ideas.

Ajay: I face challenges every day. Some I can handle easily but some goes out of my control. But all these challenges give me strength and courage to face even more challenges and improve my skills.

Tibor: My main challenge is to make something unique and new. Sometimes it really hard to create something like that. Oh, the worst scenario is when you figure out that competition has already had a perfect model for to become a winner.

Pinbrik by Tibor, 2nd runner-up, Best Model Category

CGTrader: And now let's dream a bit! How do you see 3D printing industry in 10 years?

David: I think the industry will change a lot in 10 years from now and it will shape our lives as we know. I think the first such milestone will be when we’ll be able to buy fair quality 3D printers in shopping centers for under $200. I also believe in the further development of the 3D printing technology. It would be very useful to have 3D printers which can print usable objects from unusable trash like plastic bottles, broken components and so on. This would save a lot of money used for expensive plastic filaments as well as it would reduce plastic and other nature-toxic waste pollution from our planet. In Medicine, where they have already printed organs (liver) from living cells, they will likely continue to print other working organs, which can be very useful for extending people lives. As well as in metal industry, where GE already 3D prints complex avionics grade brackets from Titan powder, which enables them to do more complex and efficient designs. Also there will be a lot going on in the automotive industry where 3D printing can be used to achieve wilder designs of the bodies and interior. I think there is a lot of potential in the food and space industry.

Ridwan: I think it will grow very rapidly as it happened with the computers when the first one was created.

Ajay: In my point of view 3D printing industry will introduce lots new possibilities for designers as well as shortening the speed of printing one model.

Tibor: Well, I think it will replace some production technique and 3D printer will be like any paper printer at home. I can image a massive production with 3D printing.

CGTrader: Your last words: do you have any advises for those who are just about to start their career as a 3D designers?

David: Yes, I would say start off using free software options like blender for 3D design and organic structures or FreeCAD for mechanical design and then move from here.

In the beginning you can also save a lot of time and energy with reusing existing models available through the internet.
Also if you are starting a freelance career, try to search for worthy jobs as some folks sometimes would like to have complex models which can take you several hours to design for few than $10 dollars. It’s nothing wrong if you do a job or two like this to get a reputation, but don’t get stuck in them.
A good Idea is to start off with some design competitions, where you can get a big yield of your work-money as well as quality feedback from other designers in the industry. Never give up!

Ridwan: Never give up on trying new things. Express and pour all your ideas in the design creation.

Ajay: If you want to be a best designer you have to make yourself very flexible and a fast learner. Don't get stuck with, try to explore different directions, push yourself and try to do new things not only in 3D modeling, but also in your daily life. A good designer is also a good inventor as well so keep looking for the new things all around you. You need to learn different softwares, be passionate and think positive!

Tibor: Learn as much as you can about 3D modeling before starting your career and try to protect your ideas from the others.

Portfolio by Ajay, Best Portfolio Category Winner

One more time, congratulations on winning the challenge! More interviews are coming soon!