The Origami Forum

Inventing Models - tips:

Invent an irregular base.
Make it loads
Change it every time you make it until you are happy
once you are happy, carry on making it loads.
Memorise it.
Try and teach someone else. You could post a photo tutorial onto this fourum in reply to this!
Make some record of it e.g. Diagrams, crease pattern, video, picture or if you are brave, a voice recording of how to make it, sometimes called "Over-the-phone-Origami".
(i will not be typical, boring and thick and say"most of all enjoy it!!) do have fun but not like that.

I'm gonna share some tips to:
Be creative with your bases! Don't fold one thing with them and then ignore them. Fiddle around with em and see if you can make something else from them.
For example, I have 4 designs (a cyclommatus imperator, a swallow-tail butterfly, a eupatorus gracilligornis and a grashopper) from the same base!
Right now I'm trying to turn it into a samurai-helmet beetle.
And ignore the "one square, no cuts" thing. One of the coolest folders out there, Halle, uses at least 6 squares of different sizes and colours in most of his models.

Also, this is my 200th post. 1.72 posts a day, 0.23% of all posts.

ok yeah i put "invent an irregular base because i don't know how to myself! how 2 invent an irregular base somebody post please!

An irregular base is one that isen't one of the traditional bases (waterbomb, bird, fish and so on).
For example:

One of my bases:


A bunch of cp's for Langs bases:

http://langorigami.com/art/creasepatter ... allery.php

I have also one hint: Use existing base. It is very challenging. did you designed anything from f.e. turtle base?

When I invent origami I don't think necessarily in terms of bases. Rather, I focus on the number and length of flaps I want then formulate a crease pattern based on that, usually using box-pleating, sometimes using tiles. I feel like setting out to invent a new base without using box pleating or circle packing won't necessarily get you anywhere, unless you are lucky and it happens to correlate with what you are aiming for.

I made an (In order) "armoured centaur" an "Action chomping vampire mouth" "A hell dragon" and I am inventing a base (I hate inventing bases without being able to turn it into something first) for that irritating problem of getting humanoid figures reliably with also having extra flaps to turn it into something worth turning it into. My freind helped me with that one because it uses loads of open sinks and it is very basic but not without being unconvincing. Anyway, I made all those from tips on this topic. Thank you!

What's a turtle base?

Can anyone make an Origami Hydra? Is there a good base for it? (9 flaps worthy of making heads, 2 or 4 flaps worthy of making legs and 2 flaps worthy of making claws or arms(optional))

I'm stuck!

It really stumped me, as flaps have got to be able to make convincing versions of the things that they are in the right place for. You can move them but I hate making things insymmetrical which usually comes as a freebie in swapping or moving 2 flaps around.

Oh yeah, the Hydra Already exists. oh well.

Recently i invented a batmobile, which i am having trouble sharing on neorigami, but i may draw my first crease pattern for the batmobile, as i'm quite proud of it.

when i am having trouble invention a model i just take one of my existing models and do a strip graft or make it out of a 2x1 rectangle and use the other half for something

I shared the Batmobile, and lots of other stuff as well, link in signature. The batmobile uses pleated 8ths with waterbomb bases at the ends and sticking up in the middle. When i do a cp for it, don't use kami or tissue foil. It fails in the batmobile, as it goes weirdly floppilly wet.

I think it's rather a bad habit to get into designing models by pure chance (ie. folding a piece of paper until it turns into something) and I think it shows much more understanding and expertise in origami to fold a model in an ordered manner to get a model you thought about before (that is, one you have planned before hand).

But heck. I can barely do it. Although I do enjoy the maths involved in paper folding and I try to exercise that part of origami most.

Actually, several of my designs occur about 30-40% by chance. I decide what kind of model I want to create (flower, insect, fish, etc.) and decide paper allocations based on the category. Then I just start folding until the tree begins to resemble something. Then I take the tree and CP and develop them into a refined model.
For example, I was in school today when I decided I wanted to design some kind of complex flow. I chose a base to work with , and folded until it started to slightly resemble a ghost orchid. I just need to improve the proportions, though, and the model should be just about done.

Razzmatazz wrote:I think it's rather a bad habit to get into designing models by pure chance (ie. folding a piece of paper until it turns into something) and I think it shows much more understanding and expertise in origami to fold a model in an ordered manner to get a model you thought about before (that is, one you have planned before hand).

I can agree and disagree with this statement. I do think it takes some expertise and understanding to plan and design a model first. So many great folders create a crease pattern before even picking up a piece of paper.

However, I strongly disagree that designing by chance is a "bad habit." Folding without a definite purpose can lead you into areas you may not have thought of and further experimentation can result in some fantastic models. Personally I can relate to Baltorigamist's comments. I usually start with an idea that needs developing, and sometimes in the process I end up with something completely different. I'm generally pleased when I discover a new model that I wouldn't have come up with by planning alone .