It’s been a while … haven’t posted anything regular in a… year.
That would have been the year 2011: the year I became for the first time a dad.

So here a little update (for the one person who still reads this blog).

2011 and a little bit before that

I had big plans; I wanted to show everybody that my live didn’t change when I got a kid…
Boy…was I mistaken.
Don’t get me wrong: this has been the best year of my live!!
But the things I wanted to do this year, the plans I made… nothing of that happened.
My daughter happened! and everything else followed HER plans.

I wanted to be a part of her live and not only look after her in the weekends.
My girlfriend and I both decided to have a 4 days work week so my daughter only has to goes to the daycare center for 3 days.
The employer I was working for at that time didn’t want me to work 4 days. I tried to use a dutch-law: they said they would take me to court, etc, etc.
I don’t want to make this post about my former employer (if you want to know more about this story, just ask), so I decide that it would be best for the both of us to find another job (1.5 month before my daughter was born…. I know: I’m still bitter about that).
But here is the good news (remember: the best year of my live) I found a great new job at noprotocol.nl!!!
I could work there for 4 days, they are very flexible and an awesome group of talented people.
AND I didn’t miss anything daughter-related stuff, which I can recommend every dad to do: have a day alone with you kid.

So the first 6 month of the year 2011 is mostly about being a dad (boring stuff for people who don’t have kids, nothing to explain to the people who have them).

Professionally (during the day I’m a Flash Designer/Developer) I learned about Robotlegs, AS3-navigator, LoaderMax, etc. Had some interesting talks with the people of “the bigger boat” (group of freelancers). AND I can do the job in 4 days (sometimes with some creative time-management from my employer and myself) which I knew would be possible, but conformation is alway nice.
In the next 6 months of 2011 I started to think about what I wanted. What makes me happy, what is making me happy right now and what will make me happy in the future. I miss the feeling I had when I started to work as a junior designer: wanting to learn EVERYTHING to become a senior. But now I am a senior… what’s next? Do I want to be a programmer for the rest of my live? Questions that are not answered yet.

I’m also a papertoy designer (something I do at night). This year was not a good year for papertoys: I needed my sleep!
I have done 1 exhibition in Amsterdam and I did an exhibit at Sneakerness Amsterdam (also the first time that I sold papertoys).
Both exhibition was done the rest of the dutch papertoy designers (3eyedbear, Marshall Alexander, Dolly Oblong) and one german papertoy designer (Nick Knite).
For these events I made 2 new papertoys, but they will not be downloadable. Nick Knite and myself wanted to organize a papertoy calendar with papertoy designers we both like… sadly I had to cancel that: no time to start/finish it
All and all not very productive year.

2012

My live (and this blog) is more than just one specialty. So here a short list:

Flash / Development

This is my job, this is how I make a living… and Flash is Dead! (again). I’m not worried so I will keep learning even more about that subject. But I need more! I have made a small CMS in 4 weeks in PHP (what an ugly language is that!) but that didn’t excited me much.
So I want to learn haXe! I’m quite excited about this language so I will be writing about that soon.
I would love to lead a team… or join a group of flash/geek-superstars (whatever moves me forward)
I want to finish what I have started in 2011:

• finalize (and improve) my project setup.
• automate the stuff that I have to do over-and-over-again

Find out how a senior finds his “what’s next”
Start having coffee-meeting with the industry tech-directors/tech-team leaders/etc to answer BIG question
Will be joining the after-work-drink-on-friday with my colleagues more often (once a month)

Urban Papercraft / papertoy

I really have no plans for papertoys: I used to do this to relax, but last year I relaxed by sleeping.
There is still two books I wanted to write…. but I can’t promise that it will be finished this year.
You can always ask me for a workshop or lecture about papertoys: just let me know!

The graffiti inspired papertoys I do will not be downloadable: that will be my art and art can’t be given away
So what can the fans download? I have created a toy based upon 3A vinyl toy: Brummble. That will be released very soon.
And more perhaps? Not really a plan for that but sometimes I get a tickle and that needs to be scratched… and the product of that scratching (now this metaphor is getting dirty) will be downloadable.
Can you ask me for exhibitions? Yes, please do. I like the idea that my work is art and not only a (paper)-toy.
That is also the reason that I have titled this paragraph “Urban”: urban-art, urban-toy, urban-paper that’s what I will be making.
Can you ask me for a papertoy book? Yes, please do. I have worked on two books with much pleasure and would be honored to asked for another.
Can you ask me for a custom? Yes you can… but time is very precious right now. So your project must be VERY interesting.
I have promised to finish a custom Zealot Guard from Abz, and that is what I will do. Why do this custom? This is a VERY exciting project by a (perhaps the only) female papertoy designer.
There are some plans to visit Germany for some workshops, but other than that I have no idea.
2012 will reveal itself to me as it goes towards 2013

Blog

Now I have some energy back in the evening I will be writing again on this blog, but not as often as I did before 2011. I used to write every week. That will change to once a month: a ‘big’ post. The ‘big’ post will be a tutorial or something else that needs more explaining. That will mean that there will be at least 12 more posts. Between these ‘big’ posts there will be some papertoy related images (minimal writing).
I will be writing about haXe, so that will be exciting (for programmers). I think I can be of some help making haXe more accessible for the ‘normal’ programmer.

That is not the only way to follow me: I have a twitter account. here I talk about everything that interests me (design/development/sneakers/games/video/whatever)

Misc

When my daughter was born I quit the gym (it was too expensive). I wanted to find something cheaper… It turned out to be very cheap: I didn’t join a gym but I also didn’t do something else. This year I will be joining a gym…. and to be very specific: I want to try Kickboxing!
Another thing that I will do, or stop doing… Is doing things for free. And that goes also for friends and family; they will pay (not necessarily with money, but for free doesn’t work for me anymore)

I’m looking forward to 2012!

I recently started my own company (eMCeeKay.nl) and I need to make a website for it…. Not really a problem besides that I don’t have any time to create a design.

So I was thinking about a easy way to update this website without spending extra time on that.

Because the main focus of the company is papertoys (urban papertoys), I need design or papertoy related info in my my new website ().

And I came with two ways to update it without extra effort: twitter (I tweet about a lot of stuff but primarily about papertoys) and this the content on this blog (category: urban-papercraft).

I started with the Twitter part.
There are two Twitter AS3 libraries that “speak” to the Twitter API: twitterscript/ and tweetr/.
But after reading the source I concluded that it was a little bit to much: I don’t want to tweet from emceekay.nl or do searches, so that was not the way to go.

A little google search gave me the solution: http://www.theflashlogs.org/flash/displaying-twitter-feeds-in-flash-with-rss/, simple using the standard rss from Twitter (in my case: Matthijs Kamstra – Twitter – rss).

The code on theflashlogs.org is pritty simple, and very easy to use.
So my code is a little addition to that, I need some stuff done to the rss feed:

• remove “MatthijsKamstra:” form the title
• convert @paperkraft to a link
• convert #Mecha6 to a link
• convert http:// to a link

Here is my code:
[as light="false" wraplines="false"]
package nl.emceekay.twttr
{
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.net.URLLoader;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.text.TextField;
/**
* // nl.emceekay.twttr.TwttrExample
* …
* @author Matthijs Kamstra aka [mck]
*/
public class TwttrExample extends MovieClip
{
//default: http://twitter.com/matthijskamstra
private var url:String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/27657030.rss";

private var _txt:TextField;

public function TwttrExample()
{
stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
stage.align = "TL";

// generate textfield
_txt = new TextField()
_txt.x = 10;
_txt.y = 10;
_txt.width = stage.stageWidth – 20;
_txt.height = stage.stageHeight – 20;
_txt.wordWrap = true;
_txt.multiline = true;
_txt.autoSize = "left";
addChild(_txt);

// start
getFeed(url);
}

//////////////////////////////////////// loading rss / show rss ////////////////////////////////////////

private function getFeed (inURL:String) : void
{
_txt.htmlText = "getting tweets";

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onFeedHandler);
loader.load(new URLRequest(inURL));
}

private function onFeedHandler (e:Event):void
{
_txt.htmlText = "";
var _feed:XML = new XML(e.target.data);
var _item:XMLList = _feed.channel.item;
for each (var feedItem:XML in _item){
var _title :String = feedItem.title;
var _pubDate :String = feedItem.pubDate;
var _link :String = feedItem.link;

_title = convertTweet(_title);

_txt.htmlText += _title + "<br><i>" + _pubDate + "</i><br><br>";
}
}

//////////////////////////////////////// twitter specific ////////////////////////////////////////

// one place to convert the tweet
private function convertTweet (inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
_str = twttrStripName(_str);
_str = twttrConvertHTTP(_str);
_str = twttrConvertMention(_str);
_str = twttrConvertHashtag(_str);
_str = twttrConvertSmileys(_str);
return _str;
}

// remove the writers name from the tweet
private function twttrStripName (inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
var _charNumber:Number = _str.indexOf(":");
return _str.substr(_charNumber + 2);
}

// convert http-strings to links
private function twttrConvertHTTP(inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
var _array:Array = _str.split(" ");
for (var i:int = 0; i < _array.length; i++)
{
var _str2:String = twttrStripChar(_array[i]);
if (_array[i].indexOf("http") != -1)
{
_array[i] = "<u><a href=’" + _str2 + "’ target=’_blank’>" +_array[i] + "</a></u>";
}
}
return _array.join(" ");
}

// convert mentions (@) to links
private function twttrConvertMention(inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
var _array:Array = _str.split(" ");
for (var i:int = 0; i < _array.length; i++)
{
var _str2:String = twttrStripChar(_array[i]);
if (_array[i].substr(0, 1) == "@")
{
_array[i] = "<u><a href=’http://www.twitter.com/" + _str2.split("@")[1] + "’ target=’_blank’>" +_array[i] + "</a></u>";
}
}
return _array.join(" ");
}

// convert hashtags (#) to links
private function twttrConvertHashtag(inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
var _array:Array = _str.split(" ");
for (var i:int = 0; i < _array.length; i++)
{
var _str2:String = twttrStripChar(_array[i]);
if (_array[i].substr(0, 1) == "#")
{
_array[i] = "<u><a href=’http://twitter.com/search?q=%23" + _str2.split("#")[1] + "’ target=’_blank’>" +_array[i] + "</a></u>";
}
}
return _array.join(" ");
}

// TODO: [mck] convert to a smiley image
private function twttrConvertSmileys(inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
return _str;
}

// remove "strange" characters from the end of the string
private function twttrStripChar(inString:String):String
{
var _str:String = inString;
var _charArray:Array = [',', ';', ':', ' ', '-', '_'];
for (var i:int = 0; i < _charArray.length; i++)
{
if (_str.charAt(_str.length – 1) == _charArray[i]) {
_str = _str.substr(0, _str.length – 1);
}
}
return _str;
}

} // end class

} // end package
[/as]

Currently I have only this proof of concept, but soon I will post the example on emceekay.nl…

Because this is part one of what I want to do, and don’t want to search for every link again, I’m posting also the WordPress link here (it’s just because I’m lazy).

So here the feeds I will be using:

• Matthijs Kamstra – Twitter – rss
• All Urban papercraft posts

In this issue we will remain on the first phase of creation, the form. Here the accent is put on the sculptural aspect of denuded paper toys, giving an impression that each one of them represents it’s own species.
Here is shown a selection of more than 50 paper toys, but of course, there are lot of other different kinds of paper toys out there. Many great designs are left out because of various reasons and I feel really sorry for some of them.

by Marko Zubak, creator of II LOVE magazine

Download II LOVE magazine from YEBOMAYCU.

It’s an article in Dutch: AD.nl – Cultuur en media – Liefdewerk ‘Oud Papier’.
(a rude and crude translation by Google to English: click here)

Some free publicity for the exhibit in Subwalk (Arnhem – the Netherlands).

Marshall Alexander is, like me, one of the designers that are invited to contribute to the book made by Matt Hawkins (read more) and proud and active member of Nice Paper Toys!

Marshall is one of the most modest people that I know, but I don’t have to be….
He thought that he needed some practice, so before he launched his own papertoy series (Foldskool heroes) he created a series of custom:
A Hedkase by NiceBunny:

A SIZZA by Nick Knite:

A Speakerdog by Ben the Illustrator

And some of his own papermodels:

And after that I found his thing: the one piece papertoy…
I like this one very much:projectfatchunk

and it’s on a postcard!!!

And then he decided that he had practiced enough: and started with the amazing Foldskool heroes series:

I must confess that I didn’t took the time to download the Foldskool template when Marshall published it…. But when I did, I wanted to create one: the template is really very smartly constructed.

A little quote from Marshall’s site:

… aiming to make money doing what I liked to do best: graphic design and illustration. So currently I work as a graphic designer at a small company in The Netherlands and spend my spare time illustrating my childhood memories and designing papertoys. Enjoy!

I’m glad that I’m created a beautiful Foldskool heroes Batmobile, because his reaction was Nukk:
Marshall did a Drukk-custom, which I really love:

Nukk is really the bomb.

slideshow

Macula = Christopher Bonnette and he has a fascination for mythology and folklore.
Inspired by these myths/folklore, he create some paintings:

But he created not only paintings but also a paperToy series named: Squealer
This model is called Krampus:

There are different kind of skins:

(you can’t click on these images and download: visit the site yourself)

But has created some other models to:

You can see the complete Squealer series in the Squealer gallery (of view Krampus directly).

And there is also a blank version to customize:

Just visit the site and click on the blank squealer, or follow this link.
There are also some building instruction.

Ric pointed out to me that there is an update on the SPIKY BABY DELUXE SERIES from Shin Tanaka:

This is a special one, you don’t want to mis this series: the master himself is giving some new models away in this download.
Of course the SPIKY BABY are designed by some very talented designers, and you should check them out (see the links below), but I’m a fan, and the models Shin makes are really cool.

So lets take a look at this SPIKE BABY custom:

Don’t know how they are called but the link is called “SMN” and the image “SNKR” (sneaker?)

Link and image is called “TTB”

As other SPIKY BABY series you can download all models at random, but I don’t have the patience to download them all that way.
So I hacked it a little and give you all the links at once:

1. 460 374
2. akira 385
3. Akishi Nishida 376
4. BARON UEDA 126
5. BOUNCE 965
6. BOX 026
7. David Horvath 279
8. DavidFlores 396
9. eshimasa 854
10. gumliens 553
11. HARIKEN 525
12. HYPER CORE 128
13. KAIJIN 339
14. KAZUHIRO HINO 944
15. KIMA 962
16. koraters 204
17. MOCHIWO 541
18. mori chack 559
19. mori chack heavy blood 195
20. mori chack instinctive 519
21. NO23 Tomohiro 391
22. REACH2 828
23. REACH 609
24. SHIN 813
25. T9G 394
26. Terry 207
27. TOUMA2 924
28. TOUMA 107
29. NEKONOKO 546
30. CUPCO 1 864
31. CUPCO 2 956
32. CUPCO 3 128
33. CUPCO 4 454
34. devilrobots 246
35. MAD 697
36. DavidFlores blue 769
37. DavidFlores green 857
38. MAD BARBARIANS 465
39. VFDR
40. TTB
41. SMN G
42. SMN P
43. SMN M
44. BSHITT 754

Jerom is a French artist, which makes it very hard for me to follow his blog: it’s in French which I don’t speak….
But Google is nice to help me a little: translate Jerom’s blog.

Jerom uses his blog not only for papercraft (as I do: Flash and Papertoys), so here a link to separate the paperToy on the blog from the rest: papertoy.

Oke but why am I writing about Jerom? I “promised” to feature all the participating artists of the book by Matt Hawkins on my blog! But Jerom is also part of the Nice Paper Toys social network where I also can be found.

The first time I saw work from Jerom I noticed that the template he created where very simple, with cool designs.
For example:

But recently he started a experiment with Google Sketchup and Pepakura (read my tutorial about creating papermodels with these 2) which are very cool.

Technical I’m cheating: there are no download templates, or blank templates of these models (at the time of writing this post), but I’m guessing that there will be (in the nearby future).

There are 3 models which can be found here (or read the Nice Paper Toys post from Jerom).

And I’m only showing the coolest:
Diabolito

Just check the rest on Jerom’s blog