{"id":21246,"date":"2015-06-18T14:39:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T14:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=21246"},"modified":"2015-06-18T18:51:37","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T18:51:37","slug":"why-im-a-maker-mirko-haenssgen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/why-im-a-maker-mirko-haenssgen","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m a Maker: Mirko Haenssgen"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Thursday we will be highlighting the design inspiration of our community member, Mirko Haenssgen from Germany. Check out Mirko’s shop, with the adorable Clumsycorn characters, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Tell us a little bit about yourself<\/em><\/p>\n

My name is Mirko Haenssgen. I’m 29 years old and from Germany living in Hamburg. I started my career in the entertainment industry almost ten years ago, where I learned a lot about 3D design, but I got hooked on it during school. My studies in IT at the university of applied sciences in Leipzig (HTWK-Leipzig) have probably also lead to a deeper engagement in combining 3D design in conjunction with programming and multimedia applications.<\/p>\n

What inspires you to create?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh that’s nearly everything, it could be a dog or a car when you come home from work. It could be a line from a song. One should never underestimate the power of conversations \ud83d\ude42 Most of my ideas in recent years originated in great talks that quite often ended with the phrase: “What if…?” or “Why not…?” But of course there are more traditional sources as well: Comic books like the “Merlin” or “Nichtlustig” series, animated films, traditional sculptures or video games can also be great sources for new ideas.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite part of 3D printing?<\/em><\/p>\n

Haha, it’s probably the end part when you are able to physically touch what was formerly just virtual on your screen. But I also have to admit that it is interesting when you realize during the design-process that you need to change something because it is not (yet) manageable for the 3D printers, like changing a pose because some parts are too thin, or do not work in the real world. From a designer’s point of view that’s very challenging since you need to come up immediately with an alternative idea which is as good as the old one. It keeps the brain working \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

What does being a maker mean to you?<\/em><\/p>\n

We live in a fascinating time and can “create” something with the help of a computer, which was probably not possible 20 years ago. That’s extremely impressive. For me it’s really about holding something in your hands. Not just being able to see it but also to touch it. So, being a maker is to let your ideas come alive and if people love them it’s even better.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your favorite design (it could be yours, or someone elses). What about it really speaks to you?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well there are plenty of it but I think what made my jaw drop was the recent design of Davide Sher’s 3D printed zoetrope<\/a>.
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I mean, it’s quite a cruel topic, but it is just an amazing piece of art that not only simply freezes your design in one moment into one pose, it is an animated piece of art three dimensionally and physically existing in our world not using any other media like screens or other stuff. All you need to do is to rotate it fast enough.<\/p>\n

When I have to pick a favorite Clumsycorn, it’s definitely “Puky” – It’s a hard night<\/a>. It was one of those ideas that came up after we talked about how unicorns… unipigs would party, what they would drink and what they would look like if they exaggerated it. A friend of mine mentioned that he would love to see how rainbow-vomit and unipigs go together so it was just a matter of time until I came up with the 3D pose, because the idea was already finished in my mind.<\/p>\n

Coming back to Clumsycorn (http:\/\/www.clumsycorn.com<\/a>), it is the realization of an idea I had for quite a long time and which I feel is possible to do right now. Clumsycorn is kind of an ironic interpretation of the unicorn-hype. Therefore the Clumsycorns or ‘corns are different with kind of a baffled (and of course clumsy) personality. I also want to make the customers and viewers smile because I think that this is something that is pretty often neglected when it comes to 3D sculptures and figurines. Currently I’m not working on new poses but on the character-rig for animated clips a friend of mine and I developed together. I really hope to push the idea a lot further and to produce more 3D prints in the future.<\/p>\n