The Origami Forum

Hi! I'm new to the forum but I read it a lot before and I have a little problem. I created a bug with box pleating with 6 legs and 3 horns, it is this:


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I think its abdomen is thicker than needed and that is due to the flaps on the back whose were made with the legs. Here is a picture of the box pleated base:


If anyone can help me how to put those 'other abdomens' away or inside, or can tell me that they cannot be modified, please do so.

Unfortunately, as is, you won't be able to make the «other» abdomens vanish just like that.
What you want to do, though, is to use them to make additionnal details Try a separation between the abdomen and thorax, pleats on the abdomen... you have enough paper for that. Another thing would be to use the paper to make longer front legs (it looks like grasshoper legs to me). Try not using the corners for the legs.

Thank you for advice!
I've examined a lot of CPs especially from Lang and I saw that he makes legs from edge. The hind legs are 5 units long the others are 3 thats why it looks like a grasshopper but I didn't know where to put the legs. The front 4 are edge flaps, should I make the hinds edges or middles? I guess that the separation between thorax and abdomen should be done by addig boxes for thorax. I've tried another version with longer front legs but it failed because I haven't planned the abdomen in the CP.

Typically bugs have some wasted paper in the center of the sheet. It typically isn't a big deal to just hide the paper under the top abdomen flap. They can of course be modified with some shaping folds to hide them better-curving the top abdomen flap downward around the waste flaps can work. Sunburst's suggestion of adding abdomen details is great advice. That will eat up some of the wasted paper. Any other structural modifications done to minimize waste would be dependent on your flap layout.

Thank you too, I made some other versions for the model, with pleats on abdomen, abdomen planned in CP so its exactly the base I wanted to fold but because I'm using a 30cm copy paper the abdomen at the pleats are extremely thick and don't hold together. Your tip to curve the top abdomen looks great but the paper is thick to make it lokk good. I made another version with a huge, 6 unit long top horn planned as a middle flap and it's thick too. Today I'm trying to make tissue foil and make this bug from it.

Twelynn wrote:Thank you for advice!
I've examined a lot of CPs especially from Lang and I saw that he makes legs from edge. The hind legs are 5 units long the others are 3 thats why it looks like a grasshopper but I didn't know where to put the legs. The front 4 are edge flaps, should I make the hinds edges or middles? I guess that the separation between thorax and abdomen should be done by addig boxes for thorax. I've tried another version with longer front legs but it failed because I haven't planned the abdomen in the CP.

Just use a larger grid, so then you won't need to make some legs shorter than the others. Also I have some experience in boxpleating. Can you show me the cp?

I will put it in this topic at the weekend when I will be at home but it is not a fully planned CP, only the legs and horns are scribed down, I will try to draw the other parts too.

Here is the CP with blue lines as mountain folds and reds for valley folds. There can be some mistakes in the middle right part but that was formed after I foded the appendages.


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Hmm... Why use a rectangle? It could be easily packed into a square. Those extra abdomens are kind of something you must deal with in a BP design. Just use some thinner paper

The rectangle is because first I used a 16x16 grid which is easy to handle and I made a "bug" with only 4 legs. Then added the last leg with 5 lines and a river and it came out 16x22. Tomorrow I'll try to make it from a 24x24 grid but my last tries for it failed because something I dont know. It occurred only when I used both odd and even squares for legs: I draw the lines on paper and a line which starts as a valley fold returns into itself as a mountain fold, making the first fold change parity so it can't be folded. If I'll have this problem I will show it here to make it clear.

If you have Robert Lang's Origami Design Secrets book, then you should find the uniaxial boxpleating section, there is a small section in there which tells you how to solve that problem.

I made one from a 24x24 square but it is quite inefficient packing I think, there are a lot of rectangles. Here's the CP(sry for quality):
It can be folded easily and finally, it has only one abdomen but the only abdomen has a strip on its end:
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2803/abdomen2.jpg
Please if you have any ideas about it, feel free to tell me

If you find that you have ended up with a lot of gaps being filled in your packing then try to get them into a smaller grid

Rickygami wrote:try to get them into a smaller grid

Or you could just make the legs longer.

I don't know exactly what kind of stick figure you want but maybe something along this. It lies on a 20x20 grid.
Red=Packing
Blue= Final Square


I think you should be able to play around with this a bit. You can even make the horns 6 squares long or add some extra details to the horns like this due to the extra paper.