Saturday, May 31, 2008

Simple End to the Month: Rabbit Head

I still managed one more model. Its quite simple, just a combined boxpleating and 22.5 degree angle model on a 4:4 grid. The CP made me laugh a couple of seconds ago when I noticed that I had made the whole thing upside down. Photobucket The ears are on the bottom and the nose is on the top. It shouldn't be too hard to get the details, only the nose needs to be widened and closed, the ears opened up and shaped and the bottom corners of the head folded behind. Rabbit Head, Ryan MacDonell Rabbit Head, Ryan MacDonell

Saturday, May 17, 2008

And Another Repeated Subject

This model came as a doodle, which I haven't done in a long time. I started off trying to folding something for the french forum's challenge, "Folds in Mouvement", or action models, but I didn't really have any idea where I was going with it. So I ended up randomly folding the model until I came up with this CP, somewhat based on a bird base.
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At first, I had no idea what to do with it. I inside reverse folded the fin sections, and then I knew what the model could be. All I had to do then was fix the tail and curve it, as well as make the fins smaller. I based the form loosely on Fumiaki Kawahata's Shachihoko (which turns out to be a carp with a tiger's head).
Fish 2, Ryan MacDonell
Fish 2, Ryan MacDonell

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Le Petit Prince

I recently read the book "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupéry for the first time.I don't know about the english version, but I was greatly confused by the french version (and I did understand). It is possible to read it online, if you search, and you may want to go and do that now. I might give some spoilers by accident.
The whole story seems to be about a hallucinating man that can't draw (or so he says, although I like the drawings). I decided to fold the little prince simply standing, and wearing his scarf. You may notice that his scarf is almost always blowing in the wind, except for in one picture. For the CP, I used boxpleating (this doesn't mean that I'm returning to folding everything using it) and a grid of 16:16.
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The legs are the bottom left and center, and the scarf is at the top right hand corner. The arms is where it starts to get weird. One arm comes from right below the scarf, and the other comes from the hair section. The hair has to be crumpled around to resemble the princes short and somewhat spiky hair.
Le Petit Prince, Ryan MacDonell
Le Petit Prince, Ryan MacDonell

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Old Subject, New Model

Some may remember that the first model that I posted on this blog was a kiwi. Well, the kiwi is back, and this time he stands up on his own and he actually looks a bit like a kiwi! I decided to refold the kiwi because this months challenge on the engligh origami forum is "Life in Oceania", which is a challenge to fold one of the many special species from Oceania. Sadly, only Gauthier has actually folded anything for the challenge yet.
This model took me three tries to design. First, I tried it with a 3/4 blintz, and then twice with the feet from opposite corners. My second try with feet from opposite corners ended up being the best, even though the legs were massive. I just folded them underneath to deal with that problem. Here is the kiwi CP:
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As you can see, my reference point this time is a 22.5° angle along a line folded from the corner to the center point. The tail part has two parts on the CP, but it doesn't really do anything. The head comes from the top corner.
Kiwi 2, Ryan MacDonell
Kiwi 2, Ryan MacDonell

Friday, May 9, 2008

And Then Comes the Diplopod

As mentioned before, I recently did a large project for Biology class. At the end of each project, everyone had to have an evaluation to see whether everyone actually understood, and my partner decided to make a game called Arthropodapardy (like Jeopardy). I got to make the prises for this game, which consisted of an ant (Class Insecta) and a horseshoe crab (Class Merostomata). I didn't have enough time to make the last, a millipede (Class Diplopoda) but I ended up doing it right after my presentation. It ended up really basic, but also accurate. The legs are just the ends of each body segment. You can see what I mean by looking at the CP below, from a 4:1 rectangle.
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The leg parts are just crimped body segments that are separated from each other. This model can actually be made out of whatever rectangle you want to make it out of, although I find that 6:1 or 8:1 works best. It should be made with proportions in multiples of two, for best results. The model actually wont curve without thinning unless you pull one side of the body segment for each spot that you want to curve.
Millipede, Ryan MacDonell
Millipede, Ryan MacDonell

This is my 100th design! Amazing what one can achieve in two years (minus two months).

Thursday, May 8, 2008

One of the Stranger Arthropods

I recently had to do a very large project on kingdom Arthropoda, which came out as 7 pages and 2 more pages for the reference list. Insects alone took up two pages! However, during the project, I realized what I want to fold: a horseshoe crab, of course. Horseshoe crabs are interesting animals, not being crabs at all. In fact, they are closer related to arachnids then to crustaceans. They have ten legs and their mouth in in between all their legs. I decided that I want to fold the full thing, complete with the legs, mouth, and gills. However, I had to start simple otherwise I wouldn't even have the shape. So I started with a kite base and made only the cephalothorax, abdomen and telson (tail). Here is the CP that I used:
Horseshoe Crab CP

It is a fairly simple CP, and doesn't require that much shaping afterwards. The cephalothorax needs to be shaped, and the abdomen needs spikes. The telso is better if thin, too. As mentioned above, I'm going to try and make a second horseshoe crab that is much more detailed. However, it might take me a while...
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