Alyssa Phillips: Pepakura

Inspiration: I took my inspiration for my pepakura model from my grandmother and aunt who both passed recently. I had been wanting to do a project for them the whole semester, and I finally decided on a pair of wings. I wanted them to be slightly abstract, and resemble the shape of a heart. I designed them with the idea in mind that they would be a few feet long and hang on a wall. Therefore, I had to make sure that the backs of them would lay flat and be unaffected by the polygon mesh that extrudes forward at certain points. 

Technique: I used a few techniques to get the desired effect of wings. I created a free form curve that I placed a planar mesh over, and then reduced the amount of polygons. From there, I moved around the vertex points and pulled a few of them up on the z axis to give the wings some 3D texture. After I got one wing done, I simply mirrored it on the other side. Slicing the model in Pepakura Designer proved to be a little difficult as far as trying to get the flaps to come out right with no overlapping edges. I finally ended up with the pieces below:

Turnout/Model: I did not extrude the model enough for the depth to be processed, and so my wing parts came out as 2D objects that I had to manipulate and attach to a separate back panel in order to get the desired effect. I rendered the model with some rose colored stone, as well as some glossy, black glass to show the texture a little more. After I finished putting the model together and taping up the edges, I went ahead and painted it with a walnut colored stain with the idea in mind of having a polished piece on the wall with a wooden effect to it. The piece came out with a little more texture and curvature than how it looks in the renderings, but I like the abstract feel that it has. This is what turned out: