Mechanisms Introduction

A beautifully produced video of THIS BOOK IS A PLANETARIUM by Kelli Anderson.

There are so many different things that a pop-up mechanism can be and do! So many different kinds of mechanisms that will pop up, spin, twist, flip, turn, make noise, and perform all sorts of surprising actions before folding back up neatly to fit between the pages of a book. In this class we will talk about some of them, but there are many more than we can cover in an entire semester, let alone over the course of this project. It takes a lot of time to compile an in-depth look at each type of mechanism, so the pages you will find on canvas only discuss a fraction of the types of mechanisms you can make.

You will find a long list of resources in the Books on the Subject of Paper Engineering page as well as on the Web Links on the Subject of Pop-Ups page. I highly recommend you check them out——especially the YouTube videos, since a lot of professional paper-engineers post how-to videos, and the Best Pop-Up Books Channel. shows examples of real books. If you are excited by this project and think you will make more pop-ups in future, The Elements of Pop-Up by David Carter and James Diaz is an invaluable resource. Below is a brief video of some of the mechanisms you can find in the book, and there is more information about it if you follow the link above to the page about books on the subject of paper engineering.