Monday, July 20, 2009

Form follows idea of form.

Well.
I have decided not to take the route of actually designing and folding an origami squirrel. as awesome as that would be, it would simply limit options. Grabbil I'm sure doesn't want to be some limited lower-lifeform. Things and "image" are what he exists for.
Instead he will be a drawn creature with an origami aesthetic and will later be imbued with a somewhat neat money texture. All the benefits of origami with the added benefit of unlimited flexibility.

Well. Form follows the idea of form. So here is his current state of evolution:



And then he evolved a little more:





ORIGAMI!!

mmmm beautiful paper forms.

I have looked at the range of origami squirrels and arranged a large selection of them here in rough order of abstraction. Grabbil will be added to the list of awesome soon enough.



Ewwwwww blogger scales images HORRIBLY. (makes mental note to get shit together and change to something better, however click image for not crappy version)

Friday, July 17, 2009

And why is he folded?

Grabbil as previously mentioned is an Origamoid. he is a living (and semi-intelligent) piece of origami. "Why would he be origami?" people might inquire, well the answer to that I suppose lies in the creator of his world's preferences (me.. wow I am pretty much god).

Origami you see requires abstraction, In-fact I would go so far to say that the art of origami IS the art of abstraction. Yes you need to fold, and be good at making nice folds, however that is secondary and merely technical. a machine can make nice folds.
You see abstraction requires thought, when you ask the question: "what is a squirrel" you are faced with almost unlimited answers: face, paws, claws, legs, bigass tail, fur, grey and white (colour), eyes, hungry, scared, fast, nimble, eats nuts, skeleton, muscle, produces waste, climbs things, doesn't like bigger things that may eat it, internal organs (heart, liver, intestines etc etc...), jumps high......................... the list can go on ..and on.. and on.

So why is all this information necessary? Well the complete list is all a squirrel IS. the squirrel is merely all this information being communicated to you through your five senses (well I suppose usually just sight, unless you are a really fast runner and manage to catch one and touch it, smell it, eat it and listen to the screechy noises it makes whilst you are trying to eat it).

There is no way however that you can fold ALL this information out of paper (unless you are some sort of freak-genius-guru-god guy) so you must shorten the list to the essentials.
You must ask the question what do I absolutely need (and am capable of folding) to make people see it's a squirrel, then fill in the rest of the information for themselves? Because sight is the usual way of experiencing a squirrel, sight is really all you need to display a squirrel.

My new squirrel would probably consist of (in order of importance) a bigass bushy tail, head, ears, legs and a body.

It's the same "art" as computer programming. Pull out relevant information... display relevant information in new medium. YAY.

END OF RANT.



Cant read the teensy words? well thats ok! they don't really say much.
(click image for bigger version if you REALLY must see the goings on of a babbling mind)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Grabbil

yes Grabbil.

An odd name for a person indeed, however Grabbil is no person. He is a highly modern and evolved form of squirrel-guy who simply likes "things". Why does he like things? Well to be honest he never really thought about it. he has simply horded, collected and grabbed his way through a somewhat long and hopefully meaningful life merely because that is all he knows is possible. How could he POSSIBLY live happily if he didn't have all his stuff?! out of the question.
Grabbil grabs, and his parents obviously knew he would, why on earth else would they give him such a stupid name? Maybe it was his upbringing that makes him want stuff...
He has grabbed so much stuff in his lifetime, he is literally made of money (well its questionable whether him being made of money came before or after collecting a heap of things but hey I suppose we will never know if it is all just money-surgery or not).

he is quite the fun Origamoid (no not from origamitron, that's just a stupid made up planet with a dumb name). As a paper creature, he is considered to be in the upper class of origamoids, a moneyfold. Huh what more could you possibly want?

Well more stuff of course.

yes Grabbil.