Josh Makeshift and the New Gold Standard 3D Printing Content Creation

In the beginning, 2007 or so, 3D printing videos were almost wholly absent from the web. Then, here and there, makers started to upload pictures of their rickety RepRaps and their results. In 2009, Erik de Bruijn, who would later co-found Ultimaker, uploaded a video of his RepRap printing a chess piece. That is the kind of video that is emblematic of the era. There were some videos by researchers and 3D printing firms, too. But it was all relatively obscure.

Then we had a smattering of people making videos, mainly of their own print successes and failures. Thomas Sanladerer and MakersMuse all started around eleven years ago. The 3D Printing Nerd’s first video, ten years ago, shows a Flashforge Creator Pro actively 3D printing. Later, he exemplifies the “big head” era, where an enthusiastic person explains the things they have downloaded and printed. Josh showcased models that you may use in your daily life, while MakersMuse did a lot of reviews, and Thomas focused on upgrading and making your printer work.

There were, of course, many others out there, but these are still among some of the top YouTube creators in the 3D printing land. Their production values have increased dramatically, and they’ve found their own formats. From a dimly lit head taking to a webcam, these guys have studios and videos of their makes and experiences. They are our guides for buying printers and declogging our extruders. Now they get millions of views and are recognized as people at events. I love seeing how these individuals have evolved in their 3D printing knowledge and production skills.

It seemed like they were unassailable. In the hype days, they had many imitators who are now doing something else. Then we had a bunch of marketing-savvy people compete with them through gimmicks and slickly produced channels. After that, people printed out visually interesting models and posted them on YouTube Shorts to garner millions of views. As far as I can tell, the video below showcasing different-sized Benchies is the current most popular video on YouTube, with over 593 million views.

There have also been creators with only a glancing interest in Additive who have done well with the technology. Adam Savage’s Test Lab receives receives a lot of traffic from reviews and 3D printer explanations, for example. A more interesting example to me is Scott Yu-Jan, who makes astoundingly good videos about 3D printing and tools generally. His desktop organization videos are very well-made, and he is now branching out into tutorials that show how he creates some of his 3D printed projects.

Joel Telling, CNC Kitchen, and Thomas Sanladerer were surely placed well within our limited but passionate 3D printing community. Scott is looking to entice others to 3D print and show newbies how and why to make things. The earlier generation is what I call process-motivated people who get 3D printing and want to learn how to Master it—RepRap-ish. Scott, meanwhile, is Output-Motivated. He cares about what you can do with the technology—very Bambu Lab.

Now, a new creator, Josh Makeshift, has come on the scene, and I believe he exemplifies a new era. There is a definitive storyline, concept, and path for the viewer in place from the very beginning. He still has a personality, but this is not the main attraction here. And rather than print out a thing, review a printer, or degunk your nozzle, he’s explaining how to design and engineer a thing. With very well-made videos, Josh Makeshift starts from the beginning and shows you what inspired him to make a certain item. He talks about the problems along the way and shows you the blind alleys he avoided. He talks to you about design intent, why he made certain choices, and why an alternative would be better. He’s not teaching you how to print properly; he’s teaching you how to design and engineer things.

I know that people have done this kind of thing before. And I know that others are doing similar things now. But what I’m trying to identify here is a new trend. This trend features slick, well-made educational storytelling videos that show people how to engineer solutions using 3D printing. The combination of didactic and entertaining elements is very engaging. But, Josh is not only showing a thing he downloaded, he is showing the entire path to the thing he made coming into being. Then he goes through the iterations, explaining how he tried to make it parametric, why he engineered it in a certain way to fit smaller print beds, and so on. I think this is a fantastic development. It is emblematic of the maturity of the desktop 3D printing market. We’re no longer praying for a first layer to work, but we’re moving towards designing solutions for everyday life ourselves. Rather than making tiny things, Josh is trying to make much larger things, such as doors for Ikea cabinets, as well. And rather than just showing off someone else’s Lion, he’s making a modular Ikea furniture add-on system that you can change parametrically.

We asked Josh and he told us that,

“I come from a software engineering background and had the chance to work closely with some incredible design teams. One of my favorite projects involved building a service for seniors which taught me a lot about designing with empathy. Over the years, I felt the urge to build more tangible things, and 3D printing became that outlet. I love solving everyday problems, and I hope to design something that feels useful, thoughtful and something that people genuinely want in their space.”

Josh only has four videos so far, and makes them one month apart. He also has only 8,000 subscribers, so we don’t know where he’s headed and if he’ll continue producing the same great content. Generally, I think we can look forward to a new era of 3D printing applied to real life, which I can’t wait to see unfold.