Brian Chan - Dobsonfly (CP Tutorial)

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esato
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Brian Chan - Dobsonfly (CP Tutorial)

Post by esato »

Brimstone wrote:
esato wrote:That would not be possible, as I don't know what he looks like :lol:
I look like my avatar. It is an infrared image of me
Master (Brimstone, I'll call you master from now on),

how does one learn to fold from CPs ? Is this an ability one can only learn with experience ?
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Post by Brimstone »

esato wrote:how does one learn to fold from CPs ? Is this an ability one can only learn with experience ?
Hi

thanks for your kind words but I don't deserve them. I consider myself just an intermediate forlder.

There are several threads that mention cp's in these forums and they probably will give you a better answer than I can do.

Ok, anyway I think you are right on your assumption. CP's are learned only through experience and after that, you have to have a lot of imagination for they do not show the finishing, only the base and many times there are over 100 steps from the base to the finished model.

Take Miyajima for instance. I've solved many of his cp's, I mean taking them to the base, but I've only been able to get to the final model about 3 or 4 times.

Check Elaine's (Wolf's) cp's tutorial http://www.spinflipper.com/origami

Anna mentioned that a good beginners cp is a dobsonfly at http://web.mit.edu/chosetec/www/origami/dobsonfly

My advice is: start with the side that has the lines up. Mountain fold all the lines on the cp. Then start from the borders. 99 % of the times the fold closer to the border will be a mountain fold. Then most of the other creases will alternate valley, mountain but of course is not that easy. And don't make the mistake that many do (I included) of trying to solved the mega complex models of Miyajima, Kamiya, Hojyo, etc. They are difficult models in themselves even with the diagrams so let alone the cp's.

Good luck
esato
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Post by esato »

Brimstone wrote:
Anna mentioned that a good beginners cp is a dobsonfly at http://web.mit.edu/chosetec/www/origami/dobsonfly

Good luck
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

If that is supposed to be easy, I give up !! That is definately not for me !
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Post by origami_8 »

Why doesn't anyone believe me?
It's really simple it only looks difficult. First you divide the paper into fifths and divide those fifths into eights again. So you have an 40 by 40 grid (be sure it is valley-mountain-valley-...). Insert the diagonals, collapse everything into a base, form out the wings and thin out the legs. That's all. Surely it costs some time, but you really don't have to figure out something on your own, as soon as the model is collapsed into a base, you see how to finish it.
Last edited by origami_8 on March 4th, 2009, 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TheRealChris »

Anna, don't get blinded by your folding experience. :)

and to the question for a simple CP:
I have done a bigger version of Hideo Komatsu's frog
http://people.freenet.de/origamichris/ablage/k-frog.pdf
it's easier than the fly and you can already spot the frog, when you look at the CP.
oh, the original CP can be found at komatsu's page
http://origami.gr.jp/~komatsu/gallery/frog.html

I really think, that's a good beginners CP.


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Post by wolf »

origami_8 wrote:Insert the diagonals, collapse everything into a base, form out the wings and thin out the legs. That's all.
For box pleated designs, there's actually an easier way that doesn't involve the full precreasing. Instead, redraw the CP and take out every other crease, so you end up with half the precreases. Fold a waterbomb base around one of the centre points, then construct the edge points with reverse folds and Elias stretches. This gives you a base whose flaps whose aspect ratio is half that of the original CP. Then, sink each flap in half to get the original CP again.
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Post by origami_8 »

Sounds very complicated to me, also it's not very puristic.
Last edited by origami_8 on March 4th, 2009, 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
esato
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Post by esato »

origami_8 wrote:Why doesn't anyone believe me?
It's really simple it only looks difficult. First you divide the paper into fifths and divide those fifths into eights again. So you have an 40 by 40 grid (be sure it is valley-mountain-valley-...). Insert the diagonals, collapse everything into a base, form out the wings and thin out the legs. That's all. Surely it costs some time, but you really don't have to figure out something on your own, as soon as the model is collapsed into a base, you see how to finish it.
Hi, Anna.

It's because of this model that I created the topic about box pleating. I want to try folding this one. But I have a few doubts. What are those curvy lines in purple ? Do they need to be folded or are they just an indication of what the regions of the paper represent ? When folding this model, is it ok that a grid is formed when we fold the vertical creases or should that be avoided ?

TheRealChris:

I've successfully folded the frog, and it was fun!
I don't know if i did it right, but the final result looks, at least to me, exactly like the pictures. When collapsing I had to make a sink. Is that right ? I'll try to post pictures later.
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Post by origami_8 »

esato wrote:What are those curvy lines in purple ? Do they need to be folded or are they just an indication of what the regions of the paper represent ?
Do you mean the blue circles? They are just an indication of the important edges of the model. So you can see that the six bottom edges will become legs, the area in the middle will become body & tail the four half-circles at the sides will become the wings and the four little circles on top will become the antennae.
esato wrote:When folding this model, is it ok that a grid is formed when we fold the vertical creases or should that be avoided ?
I'm sorry but I don't understand the question.
It's working exactly the same as in the little example about box-pleating I gave here.
Last edited by origami_8 on March 4th, 2009, 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
esato
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Post by esato »

origami_8 wrote: Do you mean the blue circles? They are just an indication of the important edges of the model. So you can see that the six bottom edges will become legs, the area in the middle will become body & tail the four half-circles at the sides will become the wings and the four little circles on top will become the antennae.
Yes, I mean the blue circles (I am kind of color blind :))
I understood correctly then, they are not to be folded.
origami_8 wrote:
esato wrote:When folding this model, is it ok that a grid is formed when we fold the vertical creases or should that be avoided ?
I'm sorry but I don't understand the question.
It's working exactly the same as in the little example about box-pleating I gave here.
Never mind. I think I understood your instructions. I'll find out tonight !
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Post by esato »

Before I give it a try, does anyone have a picture of the base, without finishing ? Without folding it I find it very impressive how fan like pattern transforms itself into a bug !!

Is the base collapsed using only the diagonals, and we are supposed to use the mountain/valey folds after that when doing the finishing ?
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Post by origami_8 »

I've done some fotos:

Image

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Last edited by origami_8 on March 4th, 2009, 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
esato
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Post by esato »

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you !!!
Anna, you are a saint.
I can't thank you enough.

Danke schön.
esato
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Post by esato »

Ok, I've tried to fold it using photocopy paper. I managed to fold the base, but it's impossible to achieve a good finishing with this kind of paper.

It's a long step from the base to the finished model, isn't it ?

Anna, did you use tissue foil ?
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Post by phil »

I folded it the first time with printer paper the result was very messy, I then used tissue foil it works alot better. After you get the base there are many different ways to do the final shaping. I narrow the jaws using the method Robert Lang uses on his longhorn beetle from Origami Insects Two. I rabbit ear the legs out to the side and crimp them to form the joints. The wings are made by pulling out the internal layers of the flaps starting with the smallest, although I do the front wings different.

A little of topic but, Here is a picture of a real dobsonfly I cought in July when I was visiting my Father in-law in Virginia. It's a really neat insect.

Image
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