Watch us push the envelope at the Materialise World Conference
This year Materialise will be holding the bi-yearly grand conference in our hometown Leuven, Belgium called the Materialise World Conference. Unfortunately the event won’t be open to the public but in return we will make sure to bring the event as much as possible to your screen.
It takes place from the 18th until the 20th of April with an extensive program for all who love 3D printing. What we at i.materialise will be doing is covering all the biggest (non-confidential) stories from the event and present them to you through our blog. This could come in the form of a written blog post or in some case through a nice video. Either ways, you will be well updated on the latest achievements of our company.
At the same time, we will broadcast the fashion show on our website that will highlight our top 20 from the Hats off to 3D Printing Contest. I strongly doubt that this will be a live broadcast, but nevertheless you will most likely receive the footage within hours of it actually
Calling out all designers to create Runway Magic
The 15th of February is only 11 days away, which is still enough time to create that decisive entry for the Hats off to 3D Printing Challenge. Today I would simply like to remind all of you lovely designers out there of the great rewards the top 20 designs will get:
- The winner will receive an i.materialise voucher worth €500 and will also be on display in the MGX flagship store in Brussels
- The two runner ups will receive an i.materialise voucher worth €250
- The top 20 designs will make their runway debut at the Materialise World Conference and receive exposure on the Materialise and i.materialise website
- The top 20 designs will also receive a copy of their 3D printed designs
Are you curious to know what kind of entries we’ve received already? Have a look some examples below.
The next question is… Do you have what it takes to stand up against these designs and take a shot at getting your work 3D printed and showcased? Do you feel that you have got it in you to create
Our impressions of the Brand New Tinkercad
Tinkercad is an impressive browser based 3D printing modeling tool that has brought happiness and joy to many creative minds. Its intuitive interface and its powerful tools have made it possible for countless 3D print hungry individuals to bring their creations to life. Today they have just made that experience a whole lot better.
With a major new version on their website, designers around the world can now create better 3D prints with an even better interface and, with much more ease. The new release looks stunning and feels just the way you’d want it to feel.
Considering I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Beta version of this new release, I spent some of my time having a look at it. My first reaction was “Wow! The new version looks smooth.” It was like opening Google SketchUp for the first time, it just felt right. With the short amount of time that I had at my disposal, I managed to create the following items without too much hassle. And I am not a Tinkercad speci
How to open your own Shop at i.materialise
Want to show off your design talent and make some money at the same time? Offer your designs for sale in our gallery and once a month, we will pay you a fee for every one of your items sold.
Let me quickly show you in 3 short steps how that can become a reality.
Step 1: Setting Up your Gallery Items
As soon as your models are shipped, you can sell them in our gallery. They show up in your profile under gallery items . Click the edit button to fill in the title of your design, add a description, assign it to a category, add tags and add a picture.
Step 2: Offering your item up for sale
The next step is to offer your design for sale… You do this by simply highlighting this in the appearance box. Don’t forget to set your desired designer’s fee. This will determine how much you will earn with each sale.
Step 3: Keeping an eye on your sales and cashing in your earnings
You are all set! As soon as an item is sold, it shows up in your sales. You can start promoting your
Five Reasons to come and see us at Rapid Pro-at-home
i.materialise will be present at the Rapid Pro-at-home event from January 25th until January 26th. For those of you that are lucky enough to be within the region of Veldhoven, in the Netherlands, this might be the ultimate opportunity to come and visit us. Below you’ll find five great reasons why you really should stop by and say hi!
Get introduced to our services through our presentation
For those of you that have not 3D printed with i.materialise before and want to know more about what it is that we do, we have a presentation that will be given on multiple occasions during the two days that we’re present. It’s a great way to get introduced to our services and find out why we’re the perfect support partner for your 3D printing dreams.
Meet the people that assist you on your designs
When you’re working on something personal, it’s always important that your project goes well and nothing can be more comforting than personally knowing the people that help you throughout this p
Last week of 2011: Our printers need a break, our people keep on going
As mentioned in our previous blog post about the year in 3D printing, we can say with total confidence that 2011 was a big year. Not only was it a big year for the entire 3D printing industry, but also for us at i.materialise. We have seen our monthly orders increase with almost 300% and our turnover has more than quadrupled. For this we want to thank you, our dear customers and creative designers.
Of course, such wonderful labor has taxed all of our hard working machines and so we’ve decided to give them a well-deserved holiday break between the 23rd of December and the 2nd of January of 2012. After all, we don’t want them to turn against us and start a whole Terminator revolt. To be honest with you, we are already taking the necessary steps to avoid this by giving them some extra space in our new (still under construction) building.
Another important date is the 27th of December. On that day there won’t be any access to our website, our blog and any of our online services a
When Dreams are Materialised
Meet Ritik, an 11 year old young man with a creative heart and dreams of a 3D printed world. Our first encounter with Ritik was at TEDxKids in Brussels a year ago. It was on that day that Ritik made his first contact with 3D printing and it became quite clear that it was like love at first sight. After receiving an introduction, Ritik’s creative mind began to work overtime. “Could I print an iPod? Or what about a car?” he thought to himself. The answer to his question was eventually found in creating a pair of 3D printable glasses. With a fixed idea in mind, Ritik now started the design process in an easy to use software application called 3DTin.
Little did he know that his design would eventually make its way to the Antwerp based M HKA Museum where it would be exhibited to demonstrate what an 11 year old kid could do with this innovative technology.
But Ritik’s story doesn’t end there. After his first contact with his new passion, Ritik received the great news of his fat
How to Win the Spotlight in a Museum
In September we organized a unique design challenge with the Antwerp based museum of M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp). You could participate as a youngster or beginner, as an illustrative artist or as a 3D designer. With that said and the information out in the open, our brave challengers got their gloves on and got to it. After long hours of working on their designs, we received the entries from our participants ready for judging time! And so, together with a judging panel of the M HKA museum we came to a unified decision on the winners of this challenge.
With well-deserved congratulations, we present to you their works of art that will be on display at the M HKA from the 19th until the 29th of December.
For the category of Designers
For the category of Youngster & Beginners
For the category of Illustrative Artists
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen and as usual we’d like to thank all of the participants for their lovely entr
Who is….(y)our Support Engineer?
My name is Darya, I am 24 years old and I am a customer support engineer at i.materialise. Meaning, I’m one of those people who are e-mailing you every day saying that you are about to get your desired 3D printed models and I must admit that I’m more than excited to be one of them! I’ve been working for Materialise for almost 2 years and my way to get to i.materialise was more than unusual. I started my career as a part of the HR team at the Materialise Ukraine office. It was the very first time that I came in contact with 3D printing and it became an amazing discovery to me. I was impressed and proud to work in such a company and told everyone about King Tut’s replica made by Materialise. As soon as a vacancy for customer support engineer at i.materialise opened up, I jumped at it to become a part of the world of 3D printing and I did not miss it. Everyone was surprised with such an unusual shift from HR to support, but here I am!
There are several things that bring it clos
Exhibiting Dutch artist Eric van Straaten
Some of you might already have seen his work in the past. While some of you might have seen his recent work on our flickr account. But for the lucky few amongst us, Eric van Straaten’s work awaits us at PAN Amsterdam 2011. His great works of art will be on display from the 20th of November till the 27th of November at the RAI Parkhal on the stand of Majke Husstege.
At the exhibition you will find seven of Eric”s recent achievements. Amongst them, the images below which were 3D printed in our multicolor material: his primary weapon of choice.
If this kind of art is your cup of tea, you can always view what the great artist is up to on his personal website.
Multicolor is a great and affordable material for also other models than these of Eric. Detailed characters can be brought to life in color just as well as architectural models. So if you have a great design planned and your mind is thinking in color, don’t hesitate a second longer and give this material a tr
