Crafting 3D paper pop-ups can yield complex, expressive geometries, and can help develop spatial reasoning skills. However, designing the cuts and folds is often a frustrating process due to the strict geometric constraints. Foldlings is a tool that assists in this exploratory process, allowing a user to draw lines and be guided in creating well-defined pop-ups. We simulate the pop-up in 3D, allowing users to quickly preview their design before printing or laser cutting. We created an iOS app written in Swift, and performed informal user tests with 23 undergraduate students.
This was a class project that I built along with Marissa Allen and Nook Harqual for CS189 F14 Computational Fabrication.
Learned Swift! Codes here: https://github.com/timofei7/foldlings
This is the version we had at the end of the class.
Laser cutting a design!
And of course folding it!