Playing with Paper

So, a long time ago now I found this cool website where they give you free designs to make all manner of paper birds. They're lots of fun to make and look at. They're what my Japanese friends would probably call 'kawaii'. Go, make, have fun!

So as I continued playing with the ideas of dragons I thought to myself that it'd be really cool if the dragons came directly from the imagination of the child and the best way to illustrate that would be to have the dragon come to life directly from a child's drawings, ie. you could have a Nani-bird-style dragon where the designs on the dragons are the chidlers pictures and then stop-mo animate the paper dragons running around the room destroying things.

So, last night while watching that His Dark Materials movie (which I really quite like, 'cause I understand it will never be a patch on the books, except for some of the voice direction) I had a go at creating my own little paper dragon. He needs some design changes to his snout and will have to be somewhat bigger to animate properly but I think he worked out really well and is quite cute. With some wire inserts it would be quite animatable in my opinion.

Now, if only I had children's pictures. I guess I could go all out and ask the local supermarket to co-sponsor a colouring competition with me, with the 'winners' being included in the video clip... Hmmm... is that direct advertising to the age group the song is intended for or what?! And we'd probably get at least 20 pictures back to make into Dragons. Hmmm... I'll have to talk to my financial officers (that's Me and Mooncar ;) BTW) and see what we can rustle up as prizes. I like the idea of that.

Of course, It'd mean I'd probably have to finish this project *cough* Easter film still needs some editing *cough*.

So, what do people out there in the big wide world think?

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UPDATE: Paper dragon Mk II - The snout is heaps better now but he still needs a couple of changes.

BURN!