Check Out the Talented Winners of the 2016 3Doodler Awards!

2015’s first ever 3Doodler Awards were born from the bi-weekly “Doodle Offs” that the creators of “the world’s first 3D printing pen” used to hold. The popular 3Doodler contest returned in 2016, and the winners of the 2016 3Doodler Awards have just been announced! All eight of the contest categories were highly competitive, but somehow the judges reached their final decisions. According to the contest page, entries were “judged on creativity and aesthetics through the lens of fashion and design. Doodles will not be judged on perceived comfort of wear or practicality.”

Macro Award

Starting with the 3Doodler Macro Award is winner Cornelia Kuglmeier, a frequent 3Doodler user. It took her 40 hours to complete this incredible 19.5″ European Peacock Butterfly, and she used different nozzles, with obviously great skill level, to create the very intricate detail of each hair, scale, and strand on the butterfly’s body and wings. 3Doodler said she has always impressed them “with her creative and carefully constructed Doodles, but this year she went above and beyond!”

The runner-up for the 3Doodler Macro Award is Jonathan Reycraft, with his nearly five-foot-tall creatively engineered marble tower. It has two main marble entrances, and a total of five paths the marble could take down the tower.

Reycraft explains, “One path is a multi-level spiral route which passes through two separate funnels, the other winds around to a tiered steps dropping through each chute to the bottom.”

Da Vinci Award

Ala’ Fahmi Sawan won the 3Doodler Da Vinci Award with the innovative and adorable pink and white robot he made for his daughter! The robot is powered with a 9-volt battery, and features hand-made gears that propel it forward. 3Doodler said that they loved the “completely unique design, giving it the edge as our Da Vinci winner!”

The Da Vinci Award runner up, Eduardo Pires, says he was inspired by the man himself, and combined the flying machine and the water wheel, two of Da Vinci’s original inventions, to create his impressive moving Doodle.

Pires explained, “To make a Doodle that moves, I used the strength of the water to rotate the Water Wheel. The rotation movement is passed to the wheel axis. Coupled to this axis, a crankshaft is responsible for creating an oscillatory movement for the flapping of wings.”

Fairy Tales Award

This is the contest’s first 3Doodler Start category; this pen is perfect for creative kids ages eight and up. 3Doodler saw many “creative and whimsical entries” in this category, but the winner, Joanna Conant, is clearly on top with her dragon named Roger. She is quite the poet as well, and even included an original poem about him!

“There once was a dragon named Roger

So brave and not frightened by danger

Then dozers barged in, and destroyed his garden

So Roger blew ’round lots of fire!”

To demonstrate how versatile the 3Doodler Start is, Joanna created Roger using both free-hand techniques and the Start Doodle-blocks.

The runner up to the Fairy Tales Award had an equally impressive and creative entry. Heide Murray was inspired by Slavic folklore to use her 3Doodler Start and create her own colorful version of the “mythical chicken-legged house of Baba Yaga.”

Interior Design Award

3Doodler said that voting was pretty tight, as they saw many “truly incredible entries in this ever-popular category!” But Devin Montes was declared the winner for his smart and creative use of a balloon to make a detailed lampshade with the 3Doodler Start. You can watch how he created this stunning lampshade, which “throws incredible shadows as it lights up the room,” on his YouTube channel.

Mindy Nam was the runner up for the Interior Design Award, with her minimalist and abstract tiger and bat wireframes. 3Doodler says that the wireframes “show creativity, artistry, and a great sense of design!”

Living World Award

This was the most popular category this year, and winner Yuval Mor impressed the judges with this very detailed coral reef, inspired by Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It “captured the movement and life of this reef scene perfectly,” and each fish, along with the reef’s rock, was Doodled very carefully.

Paul Mahoney was the Living World runner up, with a ferocious and adorable Allosaur named “Allie.” The judges say that “Allie” caught their eye, and that while they “can’t know for sure exactly how dinosaurs looked or acted, we feel that Allie captures the spirit of imagination for the Living World!”

Single Strand Award

Heather Baharally proved that a single strand of 3Doodler filament could go pretty far, with her winning, elegant golden flower ring.

Living World category winner Yuval Mor was the runner up for this award, with a simple and chic butterfly, truly “showcasing how sometimes less is more.”

Wearable Award

This is another popular category, and winner Aikaterini Kedikoglou amazed the judges with a beautiful coral reef-inspired Doodled necklace, using a repeating pattern in multiple shades of blue and green.

Erica Gray, whose artwork has been featured with 3Doodler before, was the runner up in this category, with an elegant golden bridal headdress.

Micro Award

This may be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen that was created with a 3D printing pen. Look at these adorable squirrels that Judith Tarres Benet Doodled; how could she not win? What’s even more impressive, she created a stop-motion video of the scene!

Heather Baharally, who won the Single Strand category, is the runner up in the Micro category. Her miniature detailed bee is so small, it fits on top of the 3Doodler itself.

Doodler of the Year

The 3Doodler “Doodler of the Year” award goes to Cornelia Kuglmeier, who also won in the Macro category with her European Peacock Butterfly. 3Doodler acknowledged that her “body of work throughout 2016 has been more than impressive.” She made a tutorial to show how she made the origami crane that garnered her lots of social media attention, and Doodled the full 12 Days of Christmas! She has an impressive Instagram feed filled with Doodled flowers, and much more, that showcase her “incredible creativity, artistry, and amazing ability to capture detail in Doodles.”

3Doodler said, “For all her amazing Doodles over the course of 2016, we are proud to name Cornelia Doodler of the Year.”

All of the talented winners this year will receive a 3Doodler PRO and a year’s supply of plastic filament, along with some other accessories. Keep Doodling, and maybe you can enter the contest next year! Discuss in the 3Doodler Awards forum at 3DPB.com.