3-D Object Design: Papercraft Objects: Second Phase

This week we were tasked with refining our papercraft prototypes by fixing any issues we had with our initial designs, giving our prototypes a protective vinyl cover, and giving them a design/texture that was created on Adobe Illustrator. The design could be anything we chose. I found that in my initial prototype that it was hard to completely seal my shape because I had to tape very small edges together in areas that were too small for my fingers to fit. To correct this problem in my second version I chose to create a small area at the bottom of my object (this can be seen in the image of my pattern, the cut out area is the small white hexagon) which would be cut out so that I could still reach the interior of my shape in order to fully seal it and make it one solid piece.

The design of my second prototype was inspired by, once again, a sea urchin that has lost all of its spines. Sea urchin that have lost their protective spines will often have a beautifully coloured shell underneath, these shells can have a wide variety of colours that can be anything from a light pink to a dark green. For my design I chose to use purples, and very light pinks and oranges. I tried to mimic the pattern of the sea urchins the best I could, and I think I succeeded. In Adobe Illustrator I created my design then placed it on top of my original outline of my papercraft shape. Using the command "clipping mask" I was able to cut out my final shape with the ornate and intricate design within the outline of my shape.

That was only half of my shape completed though, I still had to create the design for the legs of my shape. I was not able to find any clear reference images for what sea urchin legs looked like so I chose to give the legs of my shape crab claws instead. I know that these are two very different sea creatures but I still found the two different designs to work well together as well as give my piece some humour. Originally I wanted to make the legs orange and yellow but I was finding that colour scheme to be too messy. In the end I chose to go with the red and white coloration often seen on spider crabs. One thing I physically changed about the legs of my shape in this version was that I used actual wire instead of paperclips, which created the framework of the legs (Image can be seen below).

I found this to be an extremely fun project, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the process of taking an object that was created in a three-dimensional software, like Rhinoceros 5, and slowly but surely turning it into a flattened objects that could be cut, folded and glued to make up a real life shape that I could hold in my hands. I look forward to doing more projects like this in the future.

To view the first prototype and its process view my previous post titled "Papercraft Objects: First Prototype"

Original Phase 1 Prototype