By Nate Schmidt
From Eleanor: This is the second entry in our series highlighting design inspiration and know-how from the Shapeways Crew community members. Nate Schmidt is a signal engineer living in Jacksonville, Florida who uses 3D design and printing as a form of expression and sells his creations on Shapeways as LHDesign.
I was driven by a personal tragedy to learn 3D design. I have always been attracted to the feeling you get when creating something, whether it be through wood working, gardening, or cooking. I work as an engineer, and have never really considered myself artistic or really even creative. I now find that designing has a therapeutic effect on me. I find it’s relaxing to lose myself in a design and, for a time, shed off some of the stress and worries of daily life.
Learning a software package was the next step in my journey. Right away I chose Blender. I was so impressed with all it could do, the community that supports it, and, of course, the price (it’s free). I soon discovered that learning how to design was a bit more of a challenge then I had expected. I’m sure any of the Blender users out there will understand where I’m coming from. I was so frustrated for the first week or two, that I almost quite right then and there. I was like a child who was ready to run, but still hadn’t learned to crawl yet. I had this great idea in my head, and all I had to do was get the stupid software to realize it! I stuck with it and while I love Blender now, but we had a rough start and the learning curve is very steep.