Procrastinate
I have found myself lacking motivation to focus on my academics lately. I attribute this to a sense of (temporary) closure to many arcs of my research work. For example, my joint research on qualifying human observation accuracy was recently presented at the CogSIMA conference in Miami Beach. So rather than get back into work that was started a while back (or work on my dissertation proposal which still needs a defined topic) I decided to create the “Son of Grumm” paper toy seen above. Ironically he is standing on a paper that I should probably have been reading instead.
I got the template for the model from an amazing book I picked up at Urban Outfitters on sale. Grumm isn’t the first model I’ve created, but he’s my favorite so far, especially because he didn’t have any curved cuts. I find that putting together these models is quite enjoyable; it’s a nice combination of relaxing + rewarding (when you’re done). My next step is to assemble the Howl’s Moving Caster model; however, I’m also reading up on creating my own models using pepakura designer freeware. I’ll need to come up with a good idea for what to design first though. I also think that from a usability/human factors standpoint, if I can get this software to work out well it could become a useful tool for rapid prototyping of 3D objects. Excelsior!
Back to reading the paper for now though – Son of Grumm has taken his spot guarding my trackball.
Read More...Pepakura + Howl’s Moving Castle = Huge $$ Savings
Ever since I saw Hayao Miyazaki’s movie Howl’s Moving Castle I have wanted a model of the amazing moving castle itself. I even was lucky enough to find one in the bathroom of a bar in Japan I visited (“darts”) and saw that the models that japanese artisans created for their anime movies were quite amazing. The problem with these models however is that they cost around $600 for even a small model of the castle on eBay and even more from specialty shops. Subsequently, my original searches for a decent sized castle model left me with only a sense of failure and disappointment…. until recently.
I was browsing the internet for paper cranes (I think that was it at least) and I stumbled across the world of papercraft, aka pepakura. Papercraft is essentially just paper models that you cut out pieces to and then fold (and sometimes glue) to assemble. Ironically, I have 8 papercraft models of various random figures/monsters sitting on my desk that I’ve created and custom software that lets you design papercraft models using Solidworks files you create; however I never thought to look up more intricate model templates for download. Anyways, while I was reading up on pepakura I came across the holy grail i’d been searching for – a large scale (26 pages of full-color pieces) model of Howl’s Moving Castle. To my great delight the model appears to be a fairly decent scale, is full color, and is (in my opinion) even better than the $600 resin models you can purchase. The best part? Building the model myself will make it all the more enjoyable (and the download was free).
So i’ll be starting into my Moving Castle Papercraft next week hopefully (decided to have the parents print the 26 pages of color so I could get it on cardstock and not destroy my color ink cartridges). I’m sure i’ll document the process and hopefully add a follow-up post once its complete. Also, if you’re interested in creating one yourself you can download the PDF template for free (just Bing it) or shoot me a message and i’ll send it to you myself.
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