Monthly Design Challenge April 2019

[Nepafarius]

I had a transforming model in mind, but couldn't get the results I wanted, so I decided on the end result.

This is the blobfish



The topic for this month is movement with no limbs, so I figured, what about no skeletons and almost no muscles as well! This model also conforms to the topic of movement in an unusual way: movement due to hydrostatic pressure.

For anyone that doesn't know, the blobfish is basically a normal looking fish underwater, but it's under such immense pressure that holds their jellyfish-like body together. Taken above water however, the loss of pressure causes the fish's body to lose shape, hence its name.

It has been voted the ugliest animal on the planet by the Ugly Animal Society, and with a face like this who can blame them!

[Folderp]

Here is my entry. I was thinking about odd not-wheeled, not-fish, not-snake things I could do when I stumbled across the idea of floating cars. Then I thought, "how about floating chairs?"

Yoda on a chair by Folderp, on Flickr

But how to make it obvious that it was a floating chair, and how to make it an interesting model? Then I remembered the floating Jedi Council Chairs from the prequel Star Wars movies. An thus the idea was born.

The designing itself was pretty simple. I plugged a bird base into the corner of a square an made the body and chair from the long strip left over.

Yoda on a chair by Folderp, on Flickr

Folded from terrible (but, hey, at least it's two colored) paper, 25x25cm.

[jeko]

Results for April 2019:

Thanks a lot for all the great entries!

Grace159 designed a cute flying dragon.
firstfold reinvented the wheel, this is a truly versatile model!
Folderp came up with a very cool idea. I immediately recognized Yoda, the floating took a few seconds longer, brownie points for creativity.

Third place: Nepafarius tried to design an ugly model. If you haven't done so yet, you should really google "blobfish". It's hard to capture such highly organic shapes in origami, this model managed very well to represent a blobfish.

Second place: Baltorigamist whose model of a "flying fish" has not one but two modes of leg-less locomotion. I prefer the second version with the integrated stand that directly shows the flying.

Winner: victorien with a fairly simple and yet detailed model of a snake. I was impressed by the great use of the square paper to give the snake body (and it's cool to read that it holds together just by undulating and twisting)

So congrats again to all participants for their great submissions!

victorien will judge the May 2019 competition and propose the topic for the June 2019 competition.

[Nepafarius]

Nepafarius tried to design an ugly model. If you haven't done so yet, you should really google "blobfish". It's hard to capture such highly organic shapes in origami, this model managed very well to represent a blobfish.

Thanks for the kind words jeko! It was fun trying to make a blobfish, and is difficult to completely portray their "charm" with paper, as they have a jello consistency and appear to be slimy.

Someone on reddit said my model was "the cutest f*cking thing I have ever seen in my life" which means I was probably NOT on the right track!

Congrats to victorien! Your snake is adorable, I like how the pleated thickness was used to give the body its shape particularly around the center, and how organic and smooth the curves look.

Also shout out to folderp yoda model, it reminds me of the buddha models I've seen before, with an sci-fi twist.

I look forward to trying out this month's topic!

[victorien]

Thank you jeko and Nepafarius and congratulations to all the participants!

I really liked the blobfish too, it is such an original idea and it was very well rendered! I think I would have voted for you ^^

It will be my pleasure to judge this month's challenge and I will do my best to find a good topic for June!

[Folderp]

Congrats victorien and well done to all the other participants. Thanks for all your kind words about my model, I think it's one of my best so far.