Popup: Automatic Paper Architectures from 3D Models

¹Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing

²Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis

Paper architectures are 3D paper buildings created by folding and cutting. The creation process of paper architecture is often labor intensive and highly skill-demanding, even with the aid of existing computer-aided design tools. We propose an automatic algorithm for generating paper architectures given a user-specified 3D model. The algorithm is grounded on geometric formulation of planar layout for paper architectures that can be popped-up in a rigid and stable manner, and sufficient conditions for a 3D surface to be popped up from such a planar layout. Based on these conditions, our algorithm computes a class of paper architectures containing two sets of parallel patches that approximate the input geometry while guaranteed to be physically realizable. The method is demonstrated on a number of architectural examples, and physically engineered results are presented.

Popup: Automatic Paper Architectures from 3D Models [32.5M Paper] [1.6M Paper] [7.0M Video] [12.0M Slides]

Xian-Ying Li, Chao-Hui Shen, Shi-Sheng Huang, Tao Ju, and Shi-Min Hu.

ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2010), 29(4): article 111.

@article {li2010popup,
  author = {Li, Xian-Ying and Shen, Chao-Hui and Huang, Shi-Sheng and Ju, Tao and Hu, Shi-Min},
  title = {Popup: automatic paper architectures from 3D models},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics},
  year = {2010},
  volume = {29},
  number = {4},
  pages = {111:1--9},
}

Paper architectures, also called origamic architectures, are paper buildings created by folding combined with paper cutting. Originated in Japan by Masahiro Chatani in the 1980's, the craft has been popularized by artists around the world, in particular Bianchini, Siliakus and Aysta. Paper architecture appears in many forms, such as greeting cards and desktop decorations, and can be "startling realistic".