Pepakura - Andrew Ward

So, I started with my high poly model. The goal was to reduce the mesh and unfortunately none of the methods that Professor Scott showed were working well with my sculpt so I opted to do a controlled reduction. I brought the model into Topogun, a program made specifically for reducing mesh. From here I brought the sculpt down by hand.

 

After this I reduced the mesh using an auto reducer inside of Maya and layed out in Pepkura Designer. I went through several iterations of this in order to get it print friendly.

This project proved rather difficult for me. Due to personal issues my time was limited and all the small flaps that had to be put together especially in the smaller face section proved extremely difficult due to tremors I have in my hands. Unfortunately, my whole goal was to get this together in the limited amount of time I thought I had do to those personal issues, so I didn't realize I had forgotten to take some pictures of it initially as I started. 

I learned a great deal from my first attempt at something like this, There were a lot of things I would avoid doing on a second go around throughout every step of this project. Look forward to doing this again.

Ivy Donnette: Pepakura Model

I created a new model that would make more sense in a large size for this project. During my undergrad I created a 2" copper hollow-form dice with screws as the pips which was the starting place for this dice. I chose to build off the idea of a dice because of their inherent tactile quality and I wanted to play on that by enlarging it exponentially. 

The new model gave me a bit of a hard time when I uploaded it to Papakura due to the way I constructed the model. After several frustrating tries to make the model unfold in a way that made sense, I decided to separate out each mesh instead of trying to unfold the object as a whole. This change also made construction pretty simple.    

Because a dice is something people want to pick up and roll, I wanted to play on that by adding a rough texture to the dice’s exterior. I thought about using sand paper but felt that there was a better option. I decided on coarse sand that would then be painted. Amanda suggested mixing sand with glue as a way to adhere sand to the cardboard but I was concerned that the glue would prevent the texture of the sand from being as rough as I want it so I decided to brush glue onto the box then sprinkle the coarse sand onto the glue.

The sand also allowed the tape and seams fade away. I didn't want it to look like separate objects taped together. After the dice was covered in the sand, I spray painted it gold. The gold paint creates a feeling of importance and value even though it’s just cardboard. The phrase I thought of as I covered the dice in gold was “false decadence”.    

Paint and sand has chipped off as I transported it to campus and as I struggled to wrangle the dice out of my car. I wanted the dice to be perfectly covered but realized that the mangled and chipped edges added to the reality of the false decadence.    

A.K. Marder - Final Pepakura

Pepakura Hand_380mm - Atec 6389

To begin, this is not the first cardboard Pepakura I have done for this specific model.  I have created one at a 5ft scale and it's maquette was at a 2.5ft scale.

So for this next round, I will be creating another cardboard PEP sculpture, 380mm tall but I do not intend for that to be the end result.  For previous studies, I have found using the cardboard PEP as a form or base for other applications to be a fantastic resource.

Example:

Using .125in clear acrylic, I will begin experimenting laser cutting the facets created in Pepakura minus the flaps.  Doing this, the perforations will be vector engraving lines that act as score lines.

Final Cardboard Pepakura at 380mm height:

Now that this is built, the intentions of re-creating it in acrylic is not plausible.  There are over a dozen sections of flexion.  Acrylic does not flex.  That being said, my only option if I want to continue the path of working with acrylic, I will have to re-design my entire model to have more precise, flat, poly faces.  

Or.

Don't do acrylic....still up for debate.

The Compromise: I used a different model.

Using this model, it simplified many of the issues the hand model encountered.

The Process: Never having worked with acrylic in this fashion, there was lots of experimenting.  I decided to use the laser cutter to instead of perforate for the mountain and valley lines, I would score the bends with the laser cutter and then use a heating rod to enable a clean bend.

The Assembly:  This took multiple attempts using different types of adhesives.  My first attempt was with Weldon Acrylics #4, it's a chemical that is applied using a syringe and fuses the acrylic.  However, it requires as much contact and surface area as possible...which is not what I could offer.  My second attempt was with Loctite silicone sealer, used for tiles and windows.  It worked nicely but I was too impatient for the drying time and it also has some flex so the bonds were not as strong as I needed for certain areas.  In the end I caved and use hot glue on selected points where I needed the strongest bond and then used the silicone sealer for the rest of the area.

In the end....the acrylic is not as clean and un-mauled as I would prefer but it was somewhat of a successful process.

Not final piece - silicone sealer still drying so I used masking tape to hold things in place