The Pepakura Project

The last thing I expected with finishing my first semester this year in school was a frustration that arrived without the ominous loom of a project being due. It is here though, and it feels worse than the gut wrenching agony of forbidden love, or stomach flu, both being a terrible affliction anyways. No, it feels like a cold, hollow emptiness in my girl-suit skin, so instead of lying around like a manatee (as most Christmas breaks would allow me to). I need to do something. Enter the Pepakura Project!

I've been thinking about things I have wanted to experiment with lately and I have been thinking about building a scene and animating it with stop-motion somehow. That is as far as I have gotten. I've been thinking about the FUTURE and instead of being terrified I feel like I should take some action, so I don't want to half-ass this- going to think, document and do. I found the Pepakura program (found here: http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) in an article about things every geek should know (yeah) and I have never tried papercraft but it is something I have always wanted to. What makes it appealing to me as an animation tool right now is that the program has the ability to take a 3D mesh and 'unfold' it to a papercraft template, including the textures. I'm not a huge fan of 3D animation in general and I like this idea of using it to aid a more traditional form of animation.

Today was testing out the programs to make sure they work.


I imported a Maya file of my first ever model, a very shitty spaceship. OH YEAH. Pepakura seems to be compatible with quite a few 3D programs, but not Maya files specifically, so I had to export it as a .obj file. Importing it triggers the program to simplify it further and get rid of any smooth faces. Clicking unfold created the pattern for printing and cutting. Very simple so far. Hopefully will remain so in terms of the program!

I've never felt so desperate to work like this, it really does feel terrible. I hope I keep it forever.