The 3Doodler is such a fun and simple concept that it often evokes the reaction: “That’s a great idea! Why didn’t anyone think of that before?”

We first heard of 3Doodler through the various tech blogs that cover the latest in 3D printing. The 3Doodler pen draws on the excitement surrounding 3D printing by billing itself as the world’s first 3D printing pen, and indeed its genius comes from the fact that it functions like the plastic extruder from the head of a 3D printer but in a handheld, user-friendly form.

3D printing has been a game-changer in the world of prototyping. I began to follow it closely in January 2012, when the MIT Media Lab started using 3D printers to rapid-prototype projects for New Media Medicine’s Health and Wellness Innovation Activity. It was astounding to see the physical improvements in the prototypes, as opposed to the year before.

The 3Doodler pen is quite unique from traditional 3D printers for two main reasons: ease of use (no need to learn 3D modeling software) and price point ($100). While being handheld makes it inherently less accurate for prototyping, it’s getting use as a means of rough sketching models. More so, being able to draw freehand in 3D space is pretty incredible… hence our fascination with the 3Doodler pen. Our first few doodles were extremely simplistic, but once we started to get the hang of it, we started creating more interesting structures and figures.

Our video concept was simple. We wanted to show the 3Doodler as an evolution of the pen into 3-dimensional space. To do this, we put the 3Doodler in the context of past pen styles and technologies, from quill to fountain pen, to ballpoint. It was a challenging, but fun shoot and Andrea did an excellent job as our talent and hand model. Check out some of our doodles, and behind the scenes photos from the shoot!

Edit: We’ve gotten quite a few questions about the music selection for this video. The track is “Revolution” by Phil Gardiner.