Mitsubishi Endeavor Origami Commercial

I just saw a unique thing on TV today, it's the commercial of the 2006 Mitsubishi Endeavor that features origami, with trees, a dragon, and deers. It's similar to the United Airlines "Dragon" commercial during Super Bowl 2006 which also had paper as the star. This video is hosted and brought to you by the Mitsubishi Motors company, it is available thru their website:

Origami Commercial - http://www.mitsubishicars.com/endeavor/tvcommercials.html

Paper Craft for Beginners Video

I just finished doing a beginners video that demonstrates how paper models are done. This was shot with a web cam so pardon the quality. The original video was 1.4GB, then I compressed it to 64MB, and then another, that ended up at 19.4MB using the Xvid codec. That's the smallest size I can encode the video without compromising the quality too much. The paper model I used in this demo is the Kabuki Bear by Moichi.



Kabuki Bear - Download - http://www.boreas.dti.ne.jp/~moichi/

On the following days and weeks to come, I will also do instructional videos on other paper crafts and origami, so just stay tuned for that.

Before I begin explaining this video, please note that all of this notes are based on my personal experiences and that technique varies from person to person.

Part 1 - Cutting - This is really the simplest part but you should also be careful at the same time, try to look at the entirety of the model before you start cutting, note that I did not use the cutter for this project, In my experience in paper crafting I have seldomly used the cutter for cutting the outlines of the models, I mainly used narrow tip scissors for all of this. I do however use the cutters if there is something to be remove or cut from inside of the paper model and for very minute detailing. Once you have cut the paper models, its time to move on to. . .

Part 2 - Folding and Creasing - This part can either be really easy or really difficult depending on the paper model, there are three techniques that you should be familiar with when doing paper crafts, the mountain fold, valley fold, and tubulars. ( I will be doing a demo on this in my next video). When folding you should learn to use your power of observation and visualize at the same time to enable you to easily determine which part goes together.

Part 3 - Gluing and Assembling - After you've folded and creased the parts this is where visualization comes handy, once you've figured out how to put them together, start putting a small amount of glue on the glue tab. The best to determine if you've put the right amount of glue is when you press the glued surfaces and no glue comes out. After you've glued and assembled them together, relax, pat yourself in the back and enjoy your new paper craft model.

Tip: If your hand starts sweating, make sure you dry them real well before continuing, you don't want to smear the ink on your paper model.

Hiroji Chiba - PAPERART-C (NipponTV Interview)

Interview and behind-the-scenes look at Japanese papercraft designer Hiroji Chiba presented by Oha!4 News Live, NipponTV.

The interview is in Japanese, but for most of us that can't understand what they're talking about, you'll see a glimpse of how he works, from prototype to finished papercraft.

Mr. Chiba is a regular contributor at Canon Creative Park and has his own site called PAPERART-C.

Launchpad and Shuttle Papercraft [Related Posts]
Grand Piano Papercraft
Violin Papercraft

Sumimasssen - Stop Motion Papercraft Video

Sumimasssen is a short stop motion animation made out of paper (uses papercraft / paper toys), it tells the funny story about intercultural difficulties between foreign and Japanese culture.

Presented at the Kyushu University, Nakamura Lab. Graduation Work Exhibition. Planned & Produced by: Jakob Florczyk, Tibor Weissmahr, & Camila Zarate.

It looks like they used templates from Cubic Character.

Hat tip to Adi Bass for the link.

Elio Papercraft by Rob Diaz

Here's a funny stop motion film created by Venezuelan-born / Spain-based animator, Rob Diaz, it uses papercrafts for its characters and props.

The title of the film is "Elio", and features a pudgy bald guy (Elio) who is sweeping the floor, he starts listening to his iPod and something happens ^^

The best thing about this is that Rob has also released the templates for Elio, we've got Regular Elio, Fancy Elio, and a Blank Elio for the customizers out there.

This film was entirely done with a Nokia XpressMusic 5800 and is Rob's entry to a local contest. If you like it, show your support by voting for Rob at this link (look for Elio under the DEF category).

Elio Papercraft by Rob Diaz [Download]

AWS Piccolo & Critter Papercraft [Related Posts]
Wallace & Gromit - Cooker Papercraft
Chicken Little Papercraft
"The Seed" Stop Motion Papercraft
Paper vs. Paper

They Might Be Giants, "I'm Impressed" - Robot Papercrafts FTW

Cool video by Rob Shaw (Bent Image Lab), starring papercraft robots ^^ Et tu, Brute? Hat tip to reader Lany for the tip.

They Might Be Giants, "I'm Impressed" [via Vimeo]

Clank Robot Papercraft [Related Posts]
Make Your Own Newsbot Papercraft
WALL-E Papercraft Robot
Super Robot / Mecha Anime Papercraft
FLCL Canti Robot Papercraft

Urban Paper Launch Party Was A Success!

Congratulations to Matt Hawkins and the rest of the designers involved, here's a peek at the party. Oh, and if you haven't bought one yet, the title is "Urban Paper: 25 Designer Toys to Cut Out and Build" and available at Amazon.


Video Coverage by SpankyStokes

Photos:

SpankyStokes [photobucket]
Scott Shaller [flickr]
Filippo Perin [flickr]

Thanks to reader banya for providing the links.

Zero Punctuation Papercraft - Yahtzee & Imp

Mister fast talker himself Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw gets his very own papercraft. Well, not exactly him but his famous cartoon avatar from his ultra popular video game review series, Zero Punctuation (produced by The Escapist).

This Yahtzee papercraft also includes the imp creature - a recurring character in his videos and also appears on their logo. If you have no clue as to what you've just read, here's the latest Zero Punctuation review (as of this post) for you to check out.

Sorry bout the vid, I'm having problems embedding it, you'll just have to click here to see it.

Zero Punctuation Papercraft - Yahtzee & Imp [Saschacraft]

Nico Nico Douga Papercraft [Related Posts]
Niku Mansei Cow Mascot Papercraft
Amazon Danbo Papercraft
FBC Pinton Papercraft
Clippy the Fire Kid Papercraft

"The Seed" Stop Motion Papercraft

With funding from Adobe and a lot of time and patience, here's a sublime short film from artist Johnny Kelly called "The Seed". It uses a mix of stop motion papercrafts and 2D drawn animation.

A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.

and here's the "making of" vid

The papercrafts were made by Elin Svensson.

Awesome Stop Motion Cardboardcraft

Bubblicious from Rex The Dog on Vimeo.

I'm stuck at the office counting the minutes down and this made me smile, hat tip to reader Jane for this one.

Papiroflexia

Papiroflexia (Spanish for "Origami") is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands.

Created by Joaquin Baldwin at the UCLA Animation Workshop, 2007. Original Score written by Nick Fevola.

Papiroflexia [Site]

The Uphill Roller

Today we'll be having a papercraft automata model of a mechanical paradox that was first presented in 1694 through a published recreational volume called "Pleasure With Profit". You may know it by familiar names such as, the Uphill Roller or Double Cone Incline. In it we have a set of shapes which is comprised of a cylinder, a double cone, and an inclined plane. First we tested the cylinder, and it rolled down the incline, just as gravity would dictate. But when we put the double cone on the bottom of the incline, it seems to defy the rule of gravity and it actually rolls up. This kind of thing might look magical to the untrained, but for those of you who where present in class when this was taught or discussed, then you already know the simple explanation to it.

Ok, I'll try to explain it as easy as can be, this apparent paradox is explained by demonstrating the property of the center of gravity of bodies, which tends naturally to move downward. Since the rails diverge, the center of gravity of the double cone, placed on the axis of rotation at the maximum diameter of the device, does not rise when the entire body seems to move up; on the contrary, the center of gravity descends. For a more detailed and better explanation, with video and trigonometry equations - check this page. And here's the papercraft automata version, from our good friend at paperpino.net

Anti-Gravity Double Cone [Download]
Thanks to Cliffy for creating the short video.

The Japanese Tradition - Origami

Funny skit that shows what origami can do, from simple to complicated works of art. In it, is the paper folding student trying to outdo his old master scene. The video is in Japanese with no subtitles and split into two versions. One is the abridged version (above), which only has the funny skit and the other is the complete version.

The Japanese Tradition - Origami [complete video]

Three Girl Rhumba - Papercraft video

Slow day today, I haven't finished the new model I'm going to post, so here's another papercraft inspired video from another not-so well known band. Last time it was punk, with some paper action, now we've got house music - the sort of music you'll here when your partying in Ibiza. It's got lots of papercraft models, some hako, a paper airplane, and a great set of dioramas. What more could you ask for? it's paper heaven...Not. So here it is, Three Girl Rhumba, from Klonhertz.

Klonhertz: Three Girl Rhumba [Video]

Paper Float - Neputa Festival

Neputa originates from a mixture of ancient customs based on an old Japanese legend about two stars that meet in the sky once a year. As time has passed, the festival has become more and more beautiful and entertaining, and now includes traditional taiko drumming and huge paper lanterns on wheels, called ote. On the evenings the ote are pulled through the streets of Hanawa, followed by drums, flutes and children with small lanterns. On the last night of the festival, they are lined up on a bridge, set on fire and floated down the river. Impressive.

Paper vs. Paper

The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Run, Corpse Bride, Wallace and Gromit, and Robot Chicken these are some of the popular movies and shows that used stop-motion process to animate their characters to life. Stop-motion is a film process whereby a single frame of an object is shot, the object is moved slightly, and then another frame is shot. When the frames run continuously it creates an illusion of fluidity in the motion of the object being filmed and they appear to move by themselves. Here's "Extra Strong", a stop-motion short film created by Giovanni Braggio, Lorenzo Latrofa, and Fabio Santomauro (Italians) featuring some paper on paper action.

In Love With The Riot

Accidentally found this video and thought I'd share it with you guys, it has papercrafts on it so I guess that counts as relevant, I like the papercrafts and the music is up beat. The only thing I could find about this group is that their called "Bring Me The Fucking Riot...Man", yes that's the name of the group and their a Swedish punk band. So if you like this sort of music, Rock On!

BMTFR Official Site? [bringmethefuckingriotman.se]