The origami crabs have arrived safely, after a delay because the British customs office was closed for the weekend. Which reminds me: When I started telling a friend what I was doing, he asked, "What is origami?" So when I was filling out the export form to describe what I was exporting to the UK, I first wrote "two origami crabs", and then added "(paper, folded)" in case the export agent might think that origami is a species of crab.
I didn't quote from my email responding to Dave McKean, because I wanted to keep the story short and not boring to non-folders. But since many folders are reading this blog, I'll quote most of it here:
I have helped people with origami projects before, but not with such a time constraint! I think I can do it, though, but the requirement for white is a small concern, which I will explain.
Folding an object with many appendages, such as a crab, from a single square of paper without cutting is a complex process with many folds (424 steps for John Montroll's crab), which builds up many layers. To prevent bulkyness and a tendancy to unfold and look fluffy, such models need to be folded from a thin foil/paper composite. (On the Origami Database web page where you saw my model in gold foil/paper, there is a photo of a crab done in thin paper, which is not as crisp.) The malleability of soft metal and crispness of the paper combine for a good result.
I don't have access to white foil/paper, but the model can folded so that the white paper 'back' can be the 'front', and the foil side in back. I have 12 3/4 inch squares of silver foil/paper that I can use. (The foil side is actually a light-grey/silver speckle pattern.) My guess is that the model will be about 3 or 4 inches wide.
If you carefully examine the photo of the crab that I folded, you will see that a little white shows at edges at the legs. When I reverse the foil/paper, a little grey/silver will show in these places. From my experience in photographing origami, I predict that depending on the angle of the light, these edges will either look like grey shadow or silver highlights. I hope that this will be satisfactory. (You can daub these edges with thin white paint, if you prefer. I can include some extra paper to experiment with.)
If I learn anything more, I'll post it here. And if you find something, post a comment here. Details are often found in blog comments.
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Here's a link to the page in the Origami Database where Dave McKan found an origami crab that I had folded.
Dave McKean wrote me that "We are not making the film to a schedule, so there is no release date
deadline."
He also said that "we are not shouting about it, or even whispering at the moment. It's ... the sort of film that I hope people will discover and talk about rather than being pre-sold... Personally, I like to see films without first having seen the teaser, the trailer, the on-set report, the script, the reviews of the script, etc. etc."
Oh -- and he also said "We shoot your crabs on Monday." (That's November 12.)
I heard that the 'shooting' for the Luna film is complete, and the 'cutting' phase, where selected segments are pieced together, is proceeding.
On Dave McKean's twitter page, he recently (March 20, 2010) said:
"First fx sequence of Luna cut. Should work well when all the cg is layered in, bit hard to tell at the moment."
FX = special effects, and CG = computer graphics, which I think is the animation part, which includes scenes where the origami crabs come to life, I was told.
The Luna film is in its final stages, wuth a "90% veersion" being reviewed by producers and second edits bing done.
Dave McKean tells me via Twitter that "the crab performed beautifully."
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