Technical and Aesthetic Criteria

Students are to complete a six-spread book with six volumetrically and artistically complex pop-up structures that incorporate a range of mechanics, and produce a full, volumetric experience. They need to close completely flat, and open with ease. Each structure is to be strongly built, and if opened 90º reveals a stage view. If opened completely to 180º, it should be in-the-round with art on all visible surfaces.

This entails making original artwork, seamlessly integrated into functional mechanics. If you wish to include text, it too must become an aesthetic element in your composition. Each pop-up sculpture is a part of a larger whole, and must create a cohesive story or collection around a central theme. See the Storyline Defined page for more details.

Technical

  1. Make a six-spread pop up book
  2. Include a minimum of three mechanisms per spread that compound on each other. Three is the bare minimum; ideally you should be doing more, especially if you're doing something simple like V-folds or scenery flats. If you have a strong aesthetic reason (that isn't just a lack of time) to use fewer, you may argue that point, so long as you make up the number of mechanisms on another page.
  3. You may repeat a type of mechanism as many times as you like, even constructing multiple spreads using a single type of mechanism, but there should be six unique types of mechanism in total. For example, you may make five of your spreads entirely out of V-folds, so long as the sixth spread has five other unique types of mechanism.
  4. The sculptures must be able to open and close fully without damaging the mechanisms. You must be able to demonstrate that it will withstand opening and closing multiple times. The degree to which the mechanism opens must be intentional. If it is 180º it must be able to fully open flat. If it is 90º that must be an aesthetic decision. If you make an automatic tunnel book mechanism like the Bicyclist on a Trail by Jordan Blandino (see: The Page as Individual Pop-Up Sculpture) which opens to less than 180º by restricting the page from opening fully, it must be to an intentional degree.
  5. The mechanisms should all fit within the boundaries of your page when closed. Breaking that boundary when open is part of popping up, but being contained when closed protects the mechanisms from being damaged.

Aesthetic

Your pop-ups must be artistic and visually interesting, taking the following into account:

  1. Silhouette - what are the shapes of your mechanisms? If you look only at the cut out shape of the paper, is it identifiable, or is it a lumpy, amorphous shape? If you're making a bush, lumpy and amorphous might be fine, but if you're making a person, the position of the limbs should make the silhouette recognizable.
  2. Pattern - For your art, are you using flat planes of color? Drawing or painting your own art? Collaging photographs, origami paper, or sheet music? Do you have a balance of small patterns, large patterns, and flat colors? What about the mechanisms themselves? Do you have repetitive elements to create a certain visual tone? Think about what repetition, symmetry, and asymmetry did to the visual impact in the lamp project.
  3. Color - If you've taken color theory or 2D design, you will have a working knowledge of different styles of color scheme. If you're unsure where to start, watch the video on the Color page, and do a quick google images search for "color theory schemes." It is not required that you follow a scheme or even that you use any color at all, but it must be cohesive and consistent in a logical way.
  4. Volume and Scale - How big is it? Do your mechanisms and art fill the entire page effectively? Is it sufficiently three dimensional, or does the page feel kind of empty?
  5. Motion - How do the mechanisms move? Do they move swiftly or slowly? Does the motion reinforce the story of your illustration? For example, if you're making a butterfly, does the motion reflect the flapping of the wings? Or if you're making a creature with an open mouth, are you using opposing v-folds so it looks like the jaw is closing?
  6. In-The -Round - If the page opens to 180º, all visible surfaces must have art on them. When working in three dimensions, you must take into account that it can and will be viewed from all angles. This is what it means to create something in-the-round.