Origami Insects

Yellow origami bug side view — Yellow Bug 1 (side view)

Yellow origami bug front view — Yellow Bug 1 (front view)

A different yellow origami bug top — Yellow Bug 2 (top view)

A different yellow origami bug underside — Yellow Bug 2 (bottom view)

I designed and folded these origami insects as part of my mathematics senior thesis at Vassar.

Tech

Treemaker 5
Pencil + Paper
12"x12" origami paper
Adobe Illustrator

Process

I attempted to design and fold a few models without any tech at all and quickly discovered that artistry alone would not be enough to accomplish my vision. Having followed and bought many of his books, I knew that TreeMaker 5 was available and free to use via Robert J Lang. TreeMaker allowed me to quickly sketch out how many vertices I wanted the final product to have (4-6 legs, 1 head, 1 "tail") and determine the ratios of each section.

Treemaker nodes — Establishing the number of nodes in TreeMaker

Once I knew roughly how many nodes the model had, I could start adjusting the ratios and determining how the square paper would be used.

Treemaker creases — Adding more detail, specific ratios for how the paper is used

TreeMaker has an option for "fold-only" view to see the mountain and valley folds. This image was then taken into Illustrator and printed on a 12"x12" paper.

Treemaker creaseview — Looking at the crease-only view to see the fold pattern

The initial model from TreeMaker included very little detail; I used the mathematical portion of this process to determine ratios only and folded/sculpted the rest of the design by hand. This is a true origami model in that no cutting, no glue and only a single square sheet of paper was used for each insect!

Origami bug crease — The base as designed in TreeMaker!

Thank you to Robert J Lang for making TreeMaker available and free to use! Special thanks also to my advisors for allowing me a significant amount of leeway on the definition of "thesis."