3D Printing Competition at CGTrader

3D model marketplace CGTrader is hosting a 3D printing competition. The company is looking for innovative 3D printable models and are giving away great prizes, including two Ultimaker 3D printers, 3D prints, gift cards from Sculpteo, Filaco, Stash, as well as an opportunity to sell designs in 3D printing store iMakr in London.

In order to participate, designers need to create 3D printable models in .STL format and upload them for sale or download to CGTrader. Further information on the competition is available here: http://www.cgtrader.com/challenges-and-competitions/3d-printing-competition-2013.

We talked with CGTrader’s Dalia Lasaite about the competition and the marketplace.

On 3D Printing: What is CGTrader and why are you running this competition?

Dalia Lasaite: CGTrader is a designer-friendly 3D model marketplace for artists and designers. We aim to offer the best conditions for both sellers and buyers of 3D models – the authors on our marketplace receive over 90% of royalties, and can interact directly with the buyers, thereby landing additional jobs or establishing relationships. On the other side, the buyers enjoy direct contact with the sellers, low prices, as well as high quality of the models. Our aim is to make sure that talented designers can make a living off creating and selling professional-level, high-quality 3D models. The 3D models traded on CGTrader are used in a variety of fields, including games, visualizations, ads, architecture, simulations – and now, increasingly, in 3D printing.

The 3D printing industry is rapidly developing, and we noticed increasing interest in this technology from both buyers and sellers on our marketplace. In order to encourage our designer community to step into this exciting field, we decided to start this competition and challenge them to create 3D printable models. While majority of 3D designers have primarily worked in digital domains, they typically have very strong 3D modeling skills and unlimited creativity, but may have not tried using a 3D printer or designing for 3D printing – so this competition was a natural step and had a very positive reception.

On 3D Printing: We’re not quite halfway through the competition yet. Are you seeing any submissions that excite you yet?

Dalia Lasaite: We’re always amazed by the creativity of the 3D designer community! The submissions started rolling in recently, but we’ve already seen a whole spectrum of models from useful to beautiful to crazy. Steampunk-based alphabet letters, parts for coffee machines, Escher sculptures, graffiti spray gun, cars, characters, toys – you name it! And of course, there is the Robohand, whereby you can actually print the whole prosthetic hand – definitely changing the world for the better. There are a few submissions representing the first 3D printable model of designers – and it is great to see how willing they are to learn and pick up this technology.

On 3D Printing: You’re giving away an Ultimaker 3D printer. Why that 3D printer?

Dalia Lasaite: Yes, and not one – but two 3D printers! We’re very excited to work with Ultimaker for this competition. Ultimaker printer is one of the best printers on the market right now. It has a large build volume, is very fast, and delivers high-quality prints. When organizing the competition we discussed it with several experts, and all recommendations pointed to Ultimaker – so it was fairly easy to choose.

We also have other awesome sponsors – including 3D Print UK, iMakr, Sculpteo, Filaco, Stash – the winners of this challenge will be very lucky!

On 3D Printing: What’s the future hold for CGTrader?

Dalia Lasaite: CGTrader aims to be the largest 3D model marketplace for professional level, high-quality 3D models. It is hard to say how the 3D printing industry will develop during the coming years – but our goal is to help designers monetize their creations, and provide the buyers with a wide selection of 3D models directly from designers. At the same time, we hope to contribute to the growth of the industry by providing a place to trade 3D models and encourage more designers to try their hand in this field.

Thanks to CGTrader for this interview!

Enter the CGTrader competition before June 30th to qualify.