After a lot of cutting and struggles I finally got a prototype going for which I can improve the template and continue forward.
Here is the pattern I made to look nicer in Illustrator after I cut it out!
I put the cat together with the help of some tape. Strong glue would be a lot better. I'll use my 6000 glue for the next one. I marked spots that needed a tab with a blue marker, and spots that needed a tag removed with a gold marker so I could fix it in illustrator.
Looking back I wish I had made the back a simpler shape so it would be easier to fold, however I can definitely make it work as long as it's the first thing that I fold and glue. Overall I really like how this came out! It would be a lot easier to make with bigger paper but the size, I think, makes it really cute!
Here was another wonderful chance to play around with Rhino! I really love this program and can see myself using it again and again! Here I created a many faceted form and then unwrapped it to make a foldable piece. (However I still must take them into Photoshop and add tabs for gluing)
1. Kitten
2. Alien Pyramid
3. Bizarre Form
4. Boat
5. Little Dragon
6. Display Box
7. Nervous Raptor
8. Archway
9. Fox
10. Heart
I came across multiple difficulties and successes during the creation of these! Putting it together was simple enough once I figured it out, however I found it difficult to understand how to properly join and cut out portion without manually putting the pieces in. The biggest struggles for me was unfolding the pieces. It was difficult to make sure that the pieces didn't overlap, and some of them I had to outright make into a separate piece to cut out because it was too difficult to include. Another issue was trying to keep it at a decent ratio to a piece of paper. With more complex pieces like the dragon I had to focus on just unwrapping it without overlapping pieces, but the more simple ones I could unfold in a more organized manner. I really loved the complexity you could achieve by manually creating pieces! Osnap was really helpful in that I could create my own guidelines and build shapes by snapping them in place.
I think I might be going a little far with a couple of the forms in this project ^^' This is a tough program but I'm really warming up to it! It can be really tricky but I'm learning some things about it! They won't all be this complex (I wish I have enough time to do some really cool forms) I can really see having some fun with this program! I think I might buy it so that I can make some more paper projects beyond this one! Maybe even do some commissions of people's characters in paper form? It'd be fun because then I could send them the paper file instead of shipping!
Today's blog entry features a certain art process which I have the utmost admiration for. Paper crafting is something that requires precision, patience, a steady hand, and proper planning. Today we are specifically looking at Zim and Zou's brightly coloured paper craft creations! The main feature today is their work called Back to Basics, which includes highly colourful version of many retro technologies that many of us grew up with.
Before I continue I would like to link their website!
This is a process video that they have made showing just a portion of the work they had to put into it.
Here are the two setting up the photoshoot
It is really amazing to see these creations before they are fully put together! You can really see the work put into it
The artistic duo stated that this project has taken about a year to be completed and it currently sits in the Chicago Design Museum. This is totally understandable even just by looking at their work. Look at the delicate detail on the camera, and all the delicate lines on the polaroid camera. The video even shows that it is all created with rulers and Xacto knives, not with some special equipment. The colourfulness of this project really brings forth something unique. It really brings out the details in these retro pieces which would normally be looked over with their natural colours. It also could symbolize the brightness that sometimes our nostalgia can bring to a memory, and how when we remember things, sometimes we make it more "colourful" than it actually was. That is another brilliant thing about this piece, Zim and Zou do not seem to discuss the meanings behind their pieces leaving it up to the viewers to ask whether there actually is a meaning or not.
As a person who has had to recently learn the process of cutting paper with a Xacto knife for a project, I can say with a little added experience, that Zim and Zou are truly incredible artists. Paper craft in general requires a great deal of forethought and precision. It is not a guessing game. Every cut, and every action is pre-conceived. This is because paper itself is not very moldable like clay, but instead you have to piece it together precisely, as such, if something is off it can be difficult to fix. It seems that most of the creative process is spent on the planning ahead of time. Now the cutting itself has to take a lot of patience and precision. It is very easy to stray with the knife. Another note: the artists are very ecofriendly, stating that they only use PEFC papers and that they use as much of their scraps as possible.
I absolutely adore bright colours! This is originally what attracted me to the work of Zim and Zou's paper craft. As to this work specifically, I love the detail put into this piece. I think it is absolutely amazing! No detail is missed and it is so accurate to the real thing. I also love the nostalgia that this piece brings me, and it makes me wish that these products actually existed in these colours. I also love paper craft, I love the sharpness of its creations. It usually has harsh shapes and lines that clearly define the parts of the creation. I love defined features so much, that my drawing style tends to lean to more definition of features than less. The attention to detail is astounding and inspiring, and is something that I am working towards having more of.
I've created 25 different geometric patterns in Adobe Illustrator to practice some new tools I've learned! I honestly really love the pen tool. I usually use Photoshop for my artwork but Illustrator is a great deal better for more steady, perfect shapes!
After looking at my concepts from my last blog post and asking feedback from classmates and friends it seems that my original concept of Caterus was the most liked which I had no issue with as I held a certain fondness for it as well! The credits for original object used are underneath the final product images.
Here is the original concept meshed using Tinkercad!
I have shown a certain number of people this project I got a bunch of feedback! Many of them said that they quite liked the concept of turning Cerberus into a cat. Also, many people liked the fact that I added skulls onto it since it was a guardian of the gates of Tartarus! Someone added that I should add more skeleton elements to this design, such as a backbone, and that got me thinking on the track of making a more creepy design. I started to add more spikes and a backbone. I quite like this idea more than the original because the design now looks more unified in its theme rather than just a cat with skeleton heads. I sculpted in some elements as well as the remix to try and make a more connected design.
Below is the final unified Caterus design created in Meshmixer!
Original Objects:
I had to use premade models in order to remix in the first place! Here are photos as well as links to the original models that I remixed. All of these I found on the site Thingiverse.
After finishing the remix I uploaded my project to Thingiverse where anyone can download it, 3D print it, or even remix it further! I had to update my entry, and for some reason the Thingiview did not come back. I am going to try and figure out why Thingiverse decided to remove it.
Caterus and Remix Culture
Remix culture is truly incredible and I am glad that I live in a time where a large variety of media is easily accessible! I remixed different skeleton pieces with a leopard body to show Cerberus's connection with death. I also felt that using elements such as the spinal cord and the cat skulls made the cat more creepy which would be a great deal more fitting for a guardian of the underworld. I remixed the elements to make something even more than Cerberus, instead of a dog with three heads simply exchanged with a cat, I wanted it to feel more terrifying, maybe even perhaps sitting somewhere in the uncanny valley. It looks like a cat, but parts of it are still rather off.
All the objects use have different symbols and ideas that we put behind them. Spinal cords and skulls tend to represent the idea of death in our minds. They also tend to be what we consider the basis of life in a way, a basis for the rest of the body to be formed around. Leopards/cats tend to hold a certain elegance and beauty to them. Cats are also considered cute, and cuddly, however, cats can also be considered eerie and mysterious. By combining the skeletal elements with the cat, I feel that it brings out the more creepy symbolism of cats. (Even though Caterus is still rather cute in my eyes.) But beyond creepy, the combination of the skull and cat brings out more than that. It brings out a feeling of power, as if this creature were a god of death. The juxtaposition in death's raw elements and a playful feline, make a powerful looking creature with both mystical powers as well as stealth. I quite like the mystical feeling the elements contrasted create. I tried to juxtapose a living creature with a dead one to create the idea of an undead element, showing something much darker at play. As well, cats are very energetic and full of life, so combining that with death also creates the idea of power and magic.
