4 Tips to Make Money with 3D Printing & 3D Modeling
Marcus Ritland is the author of “3D Printing with SketchUp”, and a 3D printing consultant at his business, Denali 3D Design. In this article he shares his experience to help aspiring designers excel in the world of 3D printing. If you dream about starting a career in the field of 3D printing and 3D modeling, here are his four main tips for you to get started.
Tip 1: Participating in an active community will help you learn much faster than on your own.
“One of the best choices I ever made was to enter an i.materialise challenge. Although I didn’t win the contest, as a result of participating, I learned skills that have helped me earn thousands of dollars. Learning these skills has also helped me provide valuable services to my clients.
As a twenty-something, I was looking for a way to earn extra cash online. I used to really enjoy drafting classes in school, so I pursued CAD opportunities. SketchUp quickly proved to be my favorite tool of choice with its free version, video tutorials, and a fantastic online community to absorb knowledge from.”
Tip 2: Inspiration is a powerful emotion! Find ways to see what smart people in your area of interest are doing; learn from them and build on their work.
“In addition to doing paid SketchUp gigs online, I kept a lookout for contests and challenges to expand my skills. Sometimes I won a prize – more often my prize was improved skills and a project for my portfolio, which over time proved more valuable than any contest prize.
In 2010, i.materialise hosted the Google SketchUp & i.materialise 3D printed lamp Design Challenge. This was my intro to 3D printing, and I could not tear myself away from the design gallery on the i.materialise Flickr page. I spent many hours seeing what was possible, and then learning the specifics of how to design for 3D printing.”
Tip 3: Publishing your work is an excellent way to help others and build your reputation. You can start your own site or guest-post on someone else’s website. Blogs are always looking for quality articles to publish.
“After making half a dozen concepts that I didn’t like for the lamp challenge, I settled on a star-shaped design, hastily rendered and uploaded on the final day of the challenge. When the winners were announced I wasn’t among them, however I was hooked on 3D printing. I continued refining my lamp design, and had it printed. I’m guessing this new design would have had a better shot at the prize.
Immersing myself in the technology that was evolving from an expensive tool for big businesses to being affordable for the general public, I continued learning and trading my newfound design-for-3D printing skills for cash.
Fast forward 2 years. With many people learning how to model for 3D printing and asking questions in online communities, I distilled my experience into a set of 8 Tips for 3D printing from SketchUp. The article became – and still is – a popular reference for SketchUp users. Please read it if you haven’t yet, it will certainly help you!
As a result of that article’s popularity, Packt Publishing reached out to me to write a book on using SketchUp for 3D printing, and in April 2014, 3D Printing with SketchUp was published.”
Tip 4: Building a great 3D printing portfolio is a natural side effect of participating in contests and freelancing.
“In addition to providing design and consulting services to small businesses in the 3D printing space, I also sell 3D printed jewelry on i.materialise and other websites. Did you know that jewelry is one of the hottest markets for 3D printed products?
Rod of Asclepius Pendant in 14K Gold
A final benefit you should be aware of is building your portfolio. When I applied for a 3D printing operator job, I brought along both a paper portfolio and a 3D printed portfolio of projects that I had completed, both from entering contests and freelancing. After the interview I was offered a job on the spot. I ended up declining – the pay was OK, but not great – and I decided my freedom was worth more to me than a 9-5 job.
From my time in the industry, I can assure you that designing great models is a highly sought skill with pay commensurate to expertise.
So if you are at all interested in the 3D printing space, or even thinking about pursuing a career in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, or Math), you would do well to enter this current challenge (and any other one you can find). Every day that goes by, 3D printing is becoming a greater part of all of these disciplines. You may be surprised at the opportunities that present themselves!”
