Sunday, August 22, 2010

A New Challenge

Its been a long time since I folded anything for a challenge, maybe as far back as the Spectacled Bear War. On the french origami forum this month the challenge is "Avatar", the movie by James Cameron of course. This month, Argil (the moderator of the challenges) introduced personal challenges. Until seconds ago, I figured there wasn't one directed at me because I haven't participated in so long. I just found out that I was challenged to fold the Thanator, the giant angry six-legged panther with frills. However, because I didn't read that before I decided to try folding a Hammerhead Titanothere, an elephantine creature with six legs and a giant head like a hammerhead shark. I really wanted to incorporate a color-changed fan on his back too, so I got to designing. I spent days trying to fold simple models, and eventually I caved in and used some good ol' techniques. Here is the crease pattern:
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The top isn't as complicated as it looks, the creases are mostly hinge folds. Its based on a 20:20 grid, but I wouldn't suggest folding the whole grid. The top middle is the hammerhead part, and on either side there are flaps to make the color changed fan. The legs are the oddest part. The front pair of legs is made from the top and bottom of the diamond shapes in the middle by pulling them apart, and the back pair is made by folding the whole back section forward. Hopefully the pictures will help to clear some things up. Now it looks like I have to fold a panther with six legs!
Hammerhead Titanothere, Ryan MacDonell
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