Concept: When we first began trying to come up with
ideas for a successful pepakura project, we knew we wanted to do something from
nature. We researched different possibilities like trees, mountains, even
rainbows. We ended up deciding on a raincloud. We then decided to model a
lightning bolt as well as rai
Modeling: The modeling was pretty basic. We used Maya
for most of our modeling, and Rhino for scaling. For the cloud, we created a
sphere, extruded it and pulled it into the general shape we wanted. Then we
used the sculpt geometry tool to pull out the bumps of the cloud. We used rhino
to create the lightning bolt. For that, we simply created the main body shape
using the curve tool, I then extruded that curve, and capped off the open
faces. The rain drops were created in Maya by simply extruding a box multiple
times, and merging the vertices on each side to one point. We then used Rhino
to scale three different sizes of the raindrops to create some interest using
size.
Materials: For the materials, we used eflute
cardboard, as it is best for pepakura. We then went over the seams of the cloud
with white duct tape to give the cloud a more uniform shape and feel. For the
raindrops, we decided to coat them in purple glitter to commemorate Prince
after his tragic passing. From there, I used an exacto knife to cut organic
lightning shapes into the lightning bolt, and lined the inside of the bolt with
LED lights. This created a really nice effect when the LEDs would reflect off
the purple glitter on the raindrops. I then used a thing white masking tape around the edges of
the lightning bolt to hold everything together. We attached the rain drops and
the lightning bolt to the bottom of the cloud with fishing line and super glue.
Then used fishing line and a metal ring attached to the top of the cloud to
create an apparatus to hang the cloud from. Overall, we are very pleased with
how the project turned out and think it’s a beautiful homage to one of the
greatest and most influential musical artists of our time.
