I’ve been printing for less than a year, since right around last Christmas, and somewhere in that short stretch of time I fell hard for this hobby. Somewhere in that same stretch, I also fell for Zookis. If you’ve spent any time on MakerWorld browsing articulated animal figures, you’ve probably run into them too: capybaras, dragons, pandas, foxes, a whole stylized menagerie with a consistent, vivid, “collectible” look that’s instantly recognizable once you’ve seen a few. Apparently, a lot of other people have noticed too, since enr‘s MakerWorld profile currently sits at 9.9k followers and climbing. It’s a similar lane to Cute Flexi Maker, the no-code flexi tool from Valeria and Mattia I featured a while back, though enr‘s approach takes a different path entirely: rather than building a tool for other people to design their own creatures, he’s building one continuous universe himself, one Zooki at a time. I reached out to enr, the designer behind them, hoping for a few minutes of his time. What I got back was a genuinely thoughtful breakdown of how the whole thing actually works, in his own words, and it’s worth sharing close to verbatim.
He opened with a disclaimer worth respecting: “I don’t usually do interviews, and I’ve never felt especially comfortable with that format, but I’d be happy to tell you a bit here about what led me to create the Zookis and how I work on them.” What followed was more candid and more complete than most formal interviews manage.
From local markets to a universe of his own
Before Zookis existed, enr was selling 3D printed items the old-fashioned way: in person, at local markets and fairs in his country. At that stage, he wasn’t even selling his own designs exclusively. “I was selling different models, including designs from well-known creators and other artists,” he explained. Alongside that, he’d started putting together a small collection of articulated creatures he called Miniz, and the response told him something important. “I quickly realized that this type of product worked really well with people: it caught their attention, was easy to understand, and people connected with the characters very quickly.”
That observation became the seed for everything that came after. “From there, I thought: if this concept works so well, why not create my own collection from scratch? Instead of only selling printed pieces, I wanted to build something of my own that I could also offer to other makers through a commercial license.”
The early Zookis models landed well immediately, but enr noticed something about the broader landscape that pushed him toward a more ambitious direction than just “more cute animals.” Articulated creature designs were already everywhere. If Zookis were going to mean anything, they needed a reason to exist beyond being well-executed versions of something that already existed. “I also saw that there were already many articulated animals and creatures out there, so I wanted the Zookis to be something more special. I didn’t want them to be just cute figures to print, but characters with personality, stories, and their own world. That’s how Zoora was born.”
A world, not a catalog
This is the part of enr‘s answer that elevates Zookis above most things you’ll find in the same category on MakerWorld, and it’s worth sitting with. Zoora isn’t a backdrop or a marketing gimmick bolted onto the models after the fact. It’s the actual organizing principle behind every release. “The idea is that each Zooki has its own story within that universe, and little by little, all those stories are connected to each other.”
He’s also layered in something most collectible-figure projects never bother with: intention behind the storytelling itself, not just the existence of it. “Now, I also try to make sure they don’t just entertain, but also leave a small lesson or moral at the end. I like the idea that whoever prints or collects a Zooki feels like they are entering a world, not just downloading a file.”
That distinction, entering a world versus downloading a file, is doing a lot of work. It reframes what you’re actually getting when you print one of these. You’re not just adding another animal figure to a desk shelf. You’re picking up the next page of something ongoing.
The actual workflow, start to finish
When it comes to the physical design process, enr balances his own creative instincts against a constant stream of community input. “I design creatures that I already had in mind, but I also listen to suggestions from followers, subscribers, friends, and people from the community.” That pipeline runs deep enough that he’s rarely starting from a blank page: “Right now, I have many requests and several designs already prepared, so I can keep uploading content consistently.”
The pace itself is genuinely impressive once you hear the numbers. “My minimum goal is to publish two models per week, although lately I’ve been managing to upload almost one per day.” Zoora currently sits at 43 distinct Zookis and counting, the most recent being Skye, a bald eagle, and at his current pace that count won’t stay accurate for long. For anyone who’s tried to ship anything creative on a consistent schedule, that cadence is no small thing, especially while also writing connected lore for every single piece.
His quality-control process is methodical, and it answers the exact question I’d originally wanted to ask him: how does he know when a design is actually ready? The answer is a real, repeatable checklist, not a feeling. “When I finish the first version of a design, I print a test in a single color. At that stage, I check that the size fits well with the rest of the collection, that the articulation works properly, that there are no issues, and that the model is easy to print.” Only once every one of those boxes is checked does the piece move forward. “Once everything works correctly, I prepare the colored version, print several units, and use them both for photos and to sell or give away in person.” There’s also a small but telling detail about who he’s actually designing for: “I also like makers to clearly see how the model looks when printed before downloading it,” a level of consideration for the end user that doesn’t always make it into a creator’s process.
The community is the other half of Zoora
Once a model goes live, enr‘s involvement doesn’t end. “After publishing a model, I try to read and reply to all the comments. Sometimes someone who prints it notices something that I missed, and in that case, I try to fix it as soon as possible.” It’s a genuinely active feedback loop, not a one-way broadcast, and he’s explicit that the project isn’t really his alone. “For me, that community side is very important, because the Zookis don’t grow only because of me, but also because of the people who print them, share them, and give me feedback.”
That’s the whole picture, really: a designer who stumbled into the right idea by paying attention to what connected with people, then deliberately built something deeper once he saw the shallow version already existed elsewhere. A world that grows one creature, one story, and one comment thread at a time.
Thank you to enr for taking the time to answer, despite, by his own admission, not usually doing this kind of thing. If you haven’t explored Zoora yet, Zookis are on MakerWorld under @enr.es, and you can follow the universe expanding in close to real time on Instagram at enr.es.