Pepakura

I spoke to Bert Simons today, who pointed me to Pepakura. These guys seem to have a free download of the program I was going to make. They even have a little dragon as a logo.
It has it's drawbacks with large files, but for now, it will be fine for my first tries. As Bert told me, start building and then learn how to do it.
Also he didn't use purely Blender, so I'll have to figure it out myself as well. I like to mix in every program I can get my hands on aswell :)
We talked about different techniques and materials. I had an idea of using Pur-foam, as it is inexpensive. This will probably not work. Also I'm considering now that I might need more than just paper.
Cardboard might do it, otherwise I can make some kind of ribs..
I like the idea that you can print on paper and that it's light and cheap, but I does dent when touched.
I'll know more, when I make my first model. But first it's off to Barcelona tomorrow to gaze at Gaudi's work.
I even found a Gaudi Dragon on Google Earth.

no time to blog

Oh, no! The beginning of the end..
No worries. I got my robotic horse in the mail this week, so I'm building..
No time to blog..
Also I'm perfecting the animaris draconis' legs. I'm not happy with the hind leg yet, so I won't show you now. SOon.
I'll be going to Barcelona on thursday and next weekend is my wifes' birthday.
So I don't know when soon is..
I'll be speaking to Bert Simons, who is the guy who did those great papercrafts on wednesday evening. Then I'll know more about how heavy, how sturdy and other stuff that might be usefull in the design process.
Also my unfolder is coming along nicely in Flash, I'll be publishing it as a webtool when finised as it is simple to use and gives a lot of control..

Why do I do this?

It just seems you have to have a goal, to have a wonderfull journey..
Allready I found such awesome stuff, that I wouldn't have found out about, if I wasn't heading somewhere.
If this all doesn't work out and I never build a dragon, then I've had these cool things already:

• I've seen dinosaurs come to life..
• I've recreated the steps Theo Jansen took to evolve his Animaris Vulgaris and created my own variant of the species.
• I will own a robotic horse soon..
• I've been to a REAL magic shop.
• I've built and operated a fireball shooter (which is a big deal for a ex-pyromaniac)
• I've found a way to make 3D-models real by folding them in paper.

When I set myself a problem, I start thinking in creative solutions and it's wonderfull to see others having the same mindset. Also it helps to look for it. I was determined to learn exciting things in this project and it's happening.

I'm reminded of a trip to Japan, where I took a gift for every day. Everyday I was determined to give a gift to the person/persons who would help us the most. I've never seen so many helpfull people in such a short time. This may be due to the structure of japanese society and the fact that they are very willing to make your problem their problem. But I will never forget the incredible coincidence, that lead me to speak at length with one of the great Zen-masters of this time Soen Ozeki. I would have never met him, if I wasn't determined to have the best journey ever.
I feel similar things are about to happen.

Now I hope I will reming myself to read this when the moment of despair comes, that must come on any great journey.

More than one way to skin a dragon?

I made a program in flash, which can turn a 3D-program into a papercraft (bouwplaat)..
It's still a bit crude, but I see great potential, as you can actually print scales on the dragon this way.
While looking for the english term for 'bouwplaat' I stumbled upon this site and WOW:
http://www.bertsimons.nl/zenphoto/paperworks/harry/
This really seems to be what I want and it's a Dutch guy doing it. So, I'll email him and see if I can learn anything. He seems to have the same idea but uses textured models scanned from real life as a startingpoint. Also I saw some retextured humans..
I want to start from a model, which only exists in the computer, but the idea is the same.
His results are in one word spectaculair.
The artifacts (folds) that you get from making polygons out of paper are just like I imagined: They look like scales, perfect for dragons!

Modeltime

My father came by and brought the raw material for a knee joint. I had made a cardboard model. We talked about the models and the difference between the animaris leg and the draconis leg..
The animaris vulgaris is what Theo Janssen calls his "strandbeest" in latin. He uses a leg, which can be built in one plane (none of his connections intersect). My version of the leg, however, needs two connected planes to operate, because parts intersect. Now I think my leg is more aesthetic, but I cannot deny, after making the first model, that it is less solid and wobbles a lot.

So we talked about it and experimented a bit with the animaris' legs ratios. If we could make it more slender, it would be better for our dragon. We discovered we could do it, without changing the ideal foot-curve by much.
So now I'm torn. I would like to make something original and not copy TJ's work or even make a version of it. But I'm starting to understand how brilliant his invention is. To have the whole machine operate in one plane, makes it sturdy and easier to build.
I want it to work more, that I want to be original.. I think the whole thing is original enough if I get it to work, but is this the moment to start making concessions... hmmm.

Also to prevent wobblyness we decided to go for narrow beams of wood for now in stead of pvc pipes.
I bought some sewing-machine-box-hinges (triple word value!!)  and other stuff to make a very small model in wood. If that works, it would prove my concept, but maybe I shouldn't try it at all and first re-work the model..

I've decided to sleep on it.

I demonstrated the fireball-thrower.. It's a cool effect and works every time now, we defenitely want it in there.

Sponsor (2)

I just heard, that we do have a sponsor. Ludatic is going to sponsor Joris the Dragon.
So now I have a modest budget..
The latest calculations showed a knee joint to cost about 9 euros at 6 legs at 6 joints each and another 6 in the nek, the joints alone will cost 360,- euro.. That's leaving out the body, the skin, paint and the smokemachine and fireballs, but I hope they will set us back about the same amount.

model of the head

I find that now that I'm building the dragon in 3D, I go back to the classic Dragon look. So the mammal like quality of the drawn sketch has disappeared somewhat. This is a classic European dragon and I think it's kind of fitting, because of the name. The only thing I left out in this 3D sketch is his ears, by the way. Ears are always hard to create in 3D.

Here is the simplified model so I can fold a hollow version in paper or make it from straws. It has no horns yet as I don't know if they will be part of the whole model yet.

New experiments with fireballs.

I MUST HAVE A FIREBALL! I couldn't resist trying a new approach. A slightly wider tube (this time I made it out of cardboard, which seems silly, but works fine).

Also I made new ammo. A VERY small piece of flashcotton, wrapped in a little piece of flashpaper (like a thimble) with a little piece of unattached flashpaper wrapped up in a ball..

So here are a few of my fireballs, the biggest one flew about 1,5 meters. The smallest never left the shooter. The beauty is that if you mount a single fireballshooter in the dragons mouth and prepare the pellets, you could fire it multiple times. I could even pretend to feed the dragon while replacing the pellet. The ignition I would like to feed through the chain, with which I want to pull the dragon. But it needs to be perfectly safe, because there'll be a lot of folks wearing inflammable outfits..