The Origami Forum

So, how do you make a cape?
I mean a good cape, that is very ragged and detailed.

Specifically, I want to make a cape for the Vincent Valentine model I am working on, but I don't have any good ideas yet.

The rules are that the cape has to be folded out of a square (any size), and the raggedness cannot come from the ragged edge of a piece of ripped paper.

My cape-less model:
(Ignore the picture in the background with the clean-edged cape)

Random Vincent Valentine pics with the type of cape I want:



Any help?

I have never done a cape like that, but one idea comes to mind: you could start with a row of pleats and do small Elias stretches at the bottom (perhaps sink them at an angle so they are not so blocky) and then flatten the newly created points out as you spread out the pleats.

Here is a simple example of what I mean:





My cape looks pretty cheesy, but if you used smaller pleats there would also be more and smaller ripples in the cape, and the ragged parts could be thinned. Good luck with the cape, but perhaps you should work on your model a bit too? The legs look pretty short and the torso pretty long.

I think the proportions are fine. I think it only looked funky because of the angle of the picture. Here is two pics of him laying down.


I was thinking about using elias stretches for a cape, although my first try didn't come out very good. I'll try again.

I wouldn't go with Elias stretches (in the purest sense), but I do think a box-pleated approach would be easiest. You know those little rectangular unit flaps you like to make for details? Make some fairly long Elias-stretched points, and then incorporate those--these will shorten it, and give that ragged look. You might want to swallow up a lot of paper in flat pleats to keep the cape flat-looking and not pleated looking. Also, make a bunch of thin flaps to "tie together" the front of the cloak.

You might want to swallow up a lot of paper in flat pleats to keep the cape flat-looking and not pleated looking.

What do you mean?

Nathan wrote:I think the proportions are fine. I think it only looked funky because of the angle of the picture. Here is two pics of him laying down.

The proportions do look better with a straight on shot, but I still think you should shorten the torso a little bit. That doesn't have to be an entire design change, though.

did u design that yourself?

Yes, it is my design.

About the box-pleated design, I just don't like the results I'm getting. I don't like all the lines running down from top to bottom like a fan...

Well, it is going to be very hard to design a cape by another means. I think it would be hard to get a cape to fan out how you want it to without fanning out pleats. That is not to say it is impossible-it might be impractical, though. Good luck with your efforts, and I certainly hope you find what you are looking for, box-pleated or not.

Somehow I feel as if I cheated...
Well, at least I didn't use more than one sheet of paper .

Dude, his arms...and his gun are 2 times shorter than they really should be. You might want to fix that...

Yeah, his arms are really short. I think that in the picture they look longer than they really are (so they are really, really short). But I don't want to fold him again.
I'm working on some really cool stuff right now...

nathan are you going to make a cp for vincent