In other news: Paper owns!

Some time ago, I got this totally wicked origami-book "Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003". Kamiya is like, a total origami master and he makes the most beautiful stuff. Be sure to google him. And while you`re at it, check Eric Joisel as well.
So I was looking through my bookcase and decided I was finally going to attempt to fold one of his designs myself. Safe to say this a whole different ballgame from the stuff I used to fold like boats, paper planes and the occasional crane. But finally I managed to finish the Eagle Ray design (yay)...at almost 2 times the recommended paper size...
Ayway, here it is (top and bottom view):


As I was folding this, I noticed that the paper I used wasn`t quite suitable for this. I used ordinary sketching paper...the recyled kind (the only paper I had lying around on that size; 25cm square). Which is so coarse it felt like it was breaking on the first folds. Next week I gonna check at the printshop wether they have some finer paper for this.

Machine sketch

Here`s some construction plans for the machine...Still pretty sketchy (...) but I`ll make up the rest of the details as I continue modelling. Oh yeah, the things at the base of the arm are supposed to be cogwheels and NOT flowers...

Change of approach

I was kindoff getting lost in the complexities of meaning I wanted to get into the animation. I had nearly every part of it defined already, leaving so little room for things to just form naturally. This demotivated me, so now its back to the basics. All that I leave standing now, is the machine, the girl and their interactions.
More focus on movement now. For that purpose I made a simple biped-rig. FK and IK controlls both appear in this picture, but an expression hides one or the other set if it doesn`t influence the rig anymore.


...which looks waaaay more complicated in maya`s DAG :]