The People Behind Innovation Printing
Zach Schmidt
Owner / Operator
Bryce Huber
Owner / Operator
02
Designing a prototype in CAD software
Next comes CAD, where we design the first prototype of a product. Some more complex products are broken down into pieces, with some having over fifty different parts.
This is typically the most time-intensive part of the process, where many of our designs can take well over 100 hours to get a working prototype.
03
Print testing and design changes
With a prototype designed, we move on to the first 3D print test. The first part we focus on is if the product matches the original reference. We will often go back and change the design dozens of times after the first print.
With a finalized design, we move on to optimizing the print, for each individual part. This helps us improve the quality and prepare for the final step.
04
Post-processing and quality checks
For the last part, we focus entirely on the quality of the product, making sure it holds up to the original reference.
This varies greatly for each product, with several techniques used for the right situation. Sanding, painting, part weathering, and surface smoothing are some of the ways we ensure the quality we want to see.
01
Source research and sketch planning
The first step for each product begins with research into the in-game design, as we gather all of the information available about it. Size, small details, animation styles, are all noted here.
With the details of the original in place, we start with paper sketch drawings to brainstorm ways to incorporate all of that into a real product.
Our design process
that every product goes through
Learn about who we are
Curious about why we do this and the passion behind it?
We both ended up taking a drafting class together in high school on a whim. That was where we discovered not just CAD modelling, but also 3D printing, as there was a printer in the classroom. The ability to design anything we could think of and make it real captivated us both immediately.
The first product I designed from scratch was a d60 die. It's featured in the slideshow above. The school computer kept crashing trying to process the file after so many edits, and the 3D printer the school had didn't handle the shape very well. Even with all the flaws, it was still amazing getting to see what I designed on the computer in my hands.
Since we were kids, we have both been passionate gamers and, of course, nerds. Games, math, and science were the things we surrounded ourselves with. This lets us combine all of those and more, showing off what we enjoy every day to the world.