Matthew Reinhart is the paper engineer and creator of some of the ultimate amazing classic pop up books. Everyone loves pop up books and everyone loves Matthew's intricate and ingenious pop up mechanisms.
In this brilliant video, Matthew Reinhart superbly describes the amazing joy of folding and moving paper, of how to create pop up books, a magic that works for children and adults alike. I know just what he means, I share that joy!
Matthew looks behind the pages and shows you how to make pop up books and just how those amazing pop up paper mechanisms work.
Some fantastic tips for aspiring pop up paper engineers from a master of this arcane art on how to achieve the pop up wow factor!
Taking our simplest, most common material, paper, and transforming it into an unexpected surprise is something I share with Matthew. I runpop up book workshops for childrenin schools and libraries all over the UK and abroad at Children's Book Festivals. It's great fun, as literally everybody in the world loves pop up books. We make amazing pop up monsters or dinosaurs, bugs or funny animals, it's silly creative fun but so stimulating for he children. Apart from enhancing their motor skills, it hugely encourages storytelling and literacy, even maths and geometry! Children, their teachers and parents never fail to be amazed by the magic of pop up paper. That gasp of awe and amazement is totally addictive!
If you would like a fun and creative pop up workshop, please do contact me on my contact form here.
The Pangea Pop Up by Educator Michael Molina and animated by the Ted-Ed Team.
I love the simple and elegant integration of sound geological science with great pop up book tecnology. Paper Engineering does seem to have a magical ability to engage with children's imaginations and learning.
I have spent the last 20 years working with children of all ages and abilites, exploring their creativity through the medium of children's picture and pop up books. There is something about pop up books that really engages with children's creativity.
I have found that they are a great medium to engage with children's creativity and learning through what feels like play. I see the most wonderful creations on my school visits and I am always delighted when a child, not normally known for their creativity, or lacking in self confidence, creates something really unexpected and amazing! I have had some fun, let me tell you!
It's well worth visiting the Ted-Ed lesson that accompanies this great pop up science book. You will learn more about the geology and have that information presented in a simple and clear fashion. I learnt a lot!
The paper engineering was created by Yevgeniya Yeretskaya, who has some more great pop up books and pop up paper card ideas, as well as more great pop up book videos on her website yaypapercuts.com
Top paper engineer, Helen Friel, incollaboration with photographer, Chris Turner and animator, Jess Deacon have created this short video depicting the water cycle using Helen's excellent pop up book designs.
Nearly a year in the making and shot in a continuous take, Revolution follows the cyclical journey of a single water droplet. So many brilliant ideas in one short film with a great message.
I love this clever use of pop up technology and paper engineering. We all love pop up books and the revelations they bring with each successive spread. There is something about the pop up that reaches into us and affects us.
Clever use of our sense of wonder and awe can really help get an idea or message home.
Helen has put together the most wonderful stop frame animation showing the making of Revolution. You can see all the stages in the creation of a pop up book and the paper engineering mechanisms behind them. Some of the very best pop up book and cards mechanisms and ideas shown here for your inspiration!
These are some of the stages that went into the production of the final pop up spread for the children's pop up book, Big Bug Little Bug by children's author, illustrator and pop up book designer, Paul Stickland.
I knew I wanted to create a splash for the final pop up spread in this children's book about bugs.
A flower seemed like a great solution, so I set about creating a pop up mechanism that would be both dramatic and allow me a lot of space to place all the pop up bugs in the book.
I had a lot of pop up bugs to place too!
Oh and some text!
It took a lot of attempts to get them all to play nicely!
This is the finished result. Created after many, many different design versions.
If you want to create your own wonderful pop up cards or pop up books, then these templates are free to download and use.
So here is a link to a great set of japanese free pop up card templates which you simply download and print onto a suitable card. They are then ready to make or modify to craft your own unique pop up card designs. You can use these pop up mechanisms to create your own pop up books too.
Great use of paper engineering to get an idea across, a great way to get engaged with the subject of the video, carrying the 'Opening the page, open your life' message.
THis is a fantastic rotating pop up mechanism. Tricky to cut out and fold, so do try the easy version first! Here are the free pop up templates for the two rotating paper mechanisms shown in the video above.
This amazing A-Z of paper engineers and paper artists from all disciplines is courtesy of the wonderful paper blogupon a fold which features the most fabulous view of the world of paper art of all kinds. They have the most fabulous uponafold shop too!
Incredible paper sculpture, origamic architecture and paper engineering from Prof. Yoshinobu Miyamoto, architect, and teacher of architecture at the Aichi Institute of Technology (AIT) in Japan. There is a good article about his work on the wonderful uponafold.com.au There are many more exquisite examples on his Prof.Ym Flickr Pages. Free Torus Template to download and make below.
Difficult to know where to start with this amazing website from pop up paper folding genius and paper engineer, Elod Beregszaszi.
His really complex paper sculptures, cut out of a single sheet are really impressive, click on the image below to see a gallery full.
Popupology is an amazing source for beautiful handmade cards, inspiration and wonderful free paper folding templates! Do check out his Popupology Shop.
Free paper folding template from popupology below!
Pop Up Workshop at St. Edmunds School in Salisbury.
One of the greatest pleasures of working in the children's book world, are the Author Events and Pop Up Workshops that I am asked to do all round the UK.
The enthusiasm and ingenuity of the children (and teachers!) I meet is always inspiring!
I will post photos of some of the great work I have seen.
This is just one girl's work, from a workshop at St.Edmunds, Salisbury UK.
Love this first spread!
Jun Mitani: I’m an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Tsukuba. My specialty is geometric modeling in the field of computer graphics. I have been studying algorithms and user interfaces for generating 3D shapes on a computer. When did your fascination with origami begin? Did you fold a lot of origami when you were a child? When I was a kid, I didn’t have much interest in folding origami, but in papercraft. I fabricated a lot of paper models, such as cars, ships, buildings, and animals, etc. by cutting and gluing pieces of paper. I felt that origami, just folding, was too restricted. On the other hand, I was enthusiastic about the computer, which my father bought when I was a first-year student in elementary school. As a fusion of two objects of interest, papercraft and computer, the theme of my Ph.D. thesis became a method for designing paper models with the computer.
