3D Modeling Archives

Prop Building with Pepakura and Papercraft

I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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November 9th, 2012November 7th, 2016 21

It’s hard to imagine a number of Shawn Thorsson’s amazing props and costume parts, which look so otherworldly and industrial as finished product, start out as papercraft models. The process starts with a 3D model of the prop and the Japanese shareware program Pepakura Designer, which translates 3D data into a 2D printable format. Thorsson […]

Maker Faire New York: Sean Charlesworth’s “Octopod”

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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@seanragan

September 30th, 2012 2

Meet Sean Charlesworth. Sean has painstakingly designed, printed, and assembled what is certainly the biggest, most complex, and most beautiful 3D-printed sci-fi model I have ever seen. He calls it the “OctoPod Underwater Salvage Vehicle 5”, or OPUS V, for short.