Categories
Design Haxe Openfl Urban papercraft

Openfl papertoy art project

I love to create projects where you take stuff from the digital world (temporarily, intangible) and drag it into the “real” world. This project is a good example of that. I create a papertoy generated in code and cut by a machine.

Besides filling my blog with new content, I have two other reasons to write this post:

  1. You can use Haxe/Openfl for something else then game-developement! I know I am not the only one, but this group of developers are not as present as the game-defs.
  2. It’s a long and complicated process to get to the end result: it’s difficult to explain this in detail to others, so I wrote down the whole story for interested friend/family/colleagues/fans???

If I ever grow a pair, this post be one of the two talks I would give during wwx2015 just to balance the all tech talks during the event.
But nothing is growing besides my hair, so instead I will write about the process and end-result.

Feedback is always nice, so please don’t hesitate to comment!

Categories
Haxe Open source / Freeware

Pixel Sprite Generator Editor

Recently I ran into this awesome project by Dave Bollinger: Pixel Spaceship (this project is currently not live anymore but still can be viewed via web.archive.org)

And I had to build something with it. And build it in 8 hours.

I knew that wouldn’t be to difficult because I found Dave’s project via a haxe port of a javascript port of the original work of Dave.

My plan is to create a random papertoy based upon the principle Dave explains on his website.
And the first thing I needed was something to test my idea in editor so it would be easier to see the result.

And there it is:
rp_screenshot.png

Pixel-Sprite-Generator-Editor

check the code on github.

Of course it wasn’t exactly 8 hours, and it’s not finished but it works for the purpose I was building it for.
There are probably a lot of issues with it and currently it only exports to Neko.

But it could be a start of an sprite editor for example 🙂 .

Libs used

* Openfl: https://github.com/openfl
* Haxe procedural sprite generator: https://github.com/Zielak/pixel-sprite-generator
* Haxe port of Keith Peters minimalcomps: https://github.com/Beeblerox/MinimalCompsHX

Categories
Custom Design Grumm Urban papercraft

GrummSkull papertoy

It’s been a while … I need to share more papertoys with the world.
So here is another custom papertoy from me: GrummSkull.

GrummSkull GrummSkull

This papertoy is a custom based upon the paper skull from Patrick Pasques.
The paper spring used is really great! Better then the spring I used for Drukks and much simpler!
Check out Patrick’s work, its really amazing (blog is in French, but even without translation the images speak for themself) and support his work and buy his books!

Here is the template:

The .ZIP file contains a .PDF
(You can use freeware like FilZip or 7zip to extract a .ZIP-file and read a .PDF with Acrobat or Foxit)

Social stuff works!

I asked everybody to share/like/retweet, and when the number hits 20 I would put this papertoy online:

tweet:

facebook:

about 50+ reactions… love social!

Categories
Urban papercraft

Paper Robot book

This year I was invited by Nick Knite to design papertoys robots for PAPER ROBOTS published by h.f.ullmann.

Here are my robots (sorry for the poor images, couldn’t find a decent shot of them): BurddBott and Walkrr TXR
BurddBott BurddBott

Walkrr_TXR Walkrr_TXR

Paper Robot
Paper Robot

I’m one of the 15 papertoy artists from all around the world and we produced 25 robots!
The book is ready and its awesome!
It will be in four languages (English, German, French and Spanish) and is already available on amazon for pre-ordering.

Some of the artist in the book also wrote about it:
Sal Azad
Tougui
Marko Zuback
3eyedbear
Nick Knite
but the rest of the artist are too awesome not to mention:
Matt Hawkins, Marshall Alexander, Abz, Shin Tanaka, Castleforte, Dolly Oblong, Jonny Chiba, Scott Schallar and Vinsart.

If you want to see more, here is a link to the product-page on ullmann-publishings website with more details and previews.

Eventually there will be microsite on the Ullmann-website, where you can download free robots, some of them brand new and never released before!!
update
The microsite on the Ullman-website is live! Get your free robots over there!!!

Check more photos here, on HAKUSAI PROJECTS coverage of #up13 where we officially introduced the book to the public.

Categories
Design Urban papercraft

Shove-it

A while back I was asked to participate on a very special project: Shove-it.

Note te self: I love that papertoys take me to different places!

Papertoy artist {bay} {kid} {dead} asked me join a elite team of 30+ artists to design a skateboard deck and customize his papertoy Spyro.
Besides that it is awesome to do that, it will be used to raise funds to build a free outdoor skatepark in Des Moines, Iowa.

[mck] deck design for Shove-it
[mck] deck design for Shove-it

SHOVE IT!
An exhibition like no other. A year in the making, SHOVE IT! will feature the custom designs of over 30 artists presented on skateboard decks and paper toys. Our artist roster features talents from 12 countries, spanning five continents!

SHOVE IT! will be hosted by Thee Eye Gallery and will open June 7, 2013. But here’s your chance to grab hold of a deck and paper toy right now by supporting their Kickstarter campaign.

You can see the (30+) list of amazing artist on the kickstarter page, but Garrison Beau Scott posted the list also on his blog with links to there sites. I was impressed by the skills from my fellow artists.

So go check that out, by decks.. or two… or three. It impossible NOT to find a board that you like.

A little selection from the 30+ designers

Categories
Design Urban papercraft

Kunstsommer Arnsberg

This weekend (11/12 Augustus) I will be at the KunstSommer in Arnsberg, Germany.

Urban Paper 11 & 12 Augustus Kunstsommer Arnsberg

So fans (especially my German fans) if you want to meet me…. or Maarten aka 3eyedbear, Marshall Alexander and Nick Knite (yes, they will also be there).

Besides meeting us in person, seeing our papertoys, there will be an urban paper exhibition with amazing artists like Ryan Hall, ABZ, Merrci, Matt Hawkins, Sal azad and many more!
There will be a workshop, loads of cardboard and colored paper!

Update #1: 3Eyedbear will introduce a brand new model, the Snorfs, so keep coming back to his blog, they will be released right after this show is over.

So if you are in the area of Arnsberg visit us and drink a (German) beer with us! 😛

Categories
Design Urban papercraft

Tribute to Heavy Bramble: papertoy Brummble

Updates: I moved them to the bottom of this post, just click here to jump to the updates!

This is my first of my monthly “big” – post (read more about the changes I will make this year).

I had this lying around for some time (made it before Christmas), but didn’t take the time to finish it.
For the first time I had a WIP test builder (Jason Bolt) and that helped a lot.
Especially because I had some pressure to finish it!!

And as promised it will be down-loadable; I present:

Brummble

Brummble side front

Brummble is a papertoy tribute to the awesome vinyl from ThreeA: Heavy Bramble.
I wanted to see how fast I could “papertoy” a vinyl (about 3 nights (3*4hours) and some extra hours for ‘bugfixing some ‘lite’ instructions and photos). The instructions are very minimal, so some it’s not a beginners project. You will need 5 pages, my advice is to use 120/160 gram paper (heavier than the usual printing-/copy-paper). It will take about 4 hours to cut out and build.

Blank template

Not a print this time? No I don’t think it needs more, but you may always surprise me with a custom!

5 pages

Yes it’s not a small papertoy, but the result will be very close to the original!
and show me/the world the pictures!!

The .ZIP file contains a .PDF
(You can use freeware like FilZip or 7zip to extract a .ZIP-file and read a .PDF with Acrobat or Foxit)

Update #1: Everybody is as excited as I am: 400 downloads in 5 days (300+ in the weekend; normally the time that the visits to this blog is the lowest)
Update #2: Check the trackback links at the bottom: 3 blogs posted about Brummble: THX
Update #3: The first prove that someone has built Brammble: Josh Buczynski build https://twitter.com/#!/Sergenth/status/161100136280358912/photo/1 (also check out his website paperposeables.com and especially the poplock; I will be doing something with that system in the future! )
Update #4: Another build: check out https://twitter.com/#!/ario_fitrianto/status/162202275434086401 by Ario Fitrianto. Thx for the build! And customizing
Update #5: A French papertoy blog has a post about Brummble: check out paper-toy.fr (perhaps use google translate)
Update #6: A documented build by Jared R Delo, visit his google+ photo gallery: Brammble build in 8 staps
Update #7: A custom by Marko Zubak. Check my tweet about this AWESOME Brammble custom
Categories
Design Flash

2011 vs 2012

Update #1: I joint a gym to learn how to KickBoxing and Muay Thai! Here is the link to the site: http://www.samuraisports.nl/ (little warning: this website is not a beauty)
Update #2: Brummble the papertoy tribute to ThreeA vinyl: Heavy Bramble is online and ready for downloading: here.

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!

Categories
Custom Design Urban papercraft

Introduction of Squeezzrr a C-Myk papertoy

Finally I join the papertoy world again and enter a contest….

Pop'Set Colours attack logo
(popsetpaper.com, Happy Colours’ Attack)

But for I can’t finish the papertoy in time 🙁 (my live is changed a lot!)
(participate)

Damn I just couldn’t get more time in the design/build… I wanted to compete but there are more important things to do…

I could be sad, but I’m not, so instead of winning a contest
Ishare the end result with you (this is my blog so why not):

I introduce to you:

Squeezzrr

a C-Myk papertoy
(and my first Shin Tanaka custom)

Squeezzrr front-shot

Squeezzrr front

Squeezzrr side-shot

Squeezzrr side

My creation is based upon the fact that Shin got inspired by a drop of water. The (head-) shape he created made me think of an orange squeezer and I decided to make a character based upon that.
Some minor changes to the original design: shortened the ‘head’ and removed/replaced the arms with my own design. And of course an orange!

Hope you like it.

Update #1: I have added Squeezzrr also to the gallery of Pop’set. It will be visible in 48 hours :D. To bad that there is no like button anymore 🙁
Update #2: I was missing the possibility to “like” this! So now you can do that here: like me on facebook. So like me alot 😀
Update #3: Yes!! added to the Pop’set Colours’ attack contest – gallery: http://www.popsetpaper.com/layers-node/519 to bad no “like” so I have created my own like!