I enjoyed this portrait of pop-up book artist Matthew Reinhart because, well, pop-up books are awesome and will never stop being amazing no matter how old I am, or how far technology advances. But also because he explains the technical aspects that go into making a pop-up book, like the v-folds he uses to make something lunge out, the layers he builds to establish structure, and the different hinges he puts in to make objects move around.


The v-fold is the most important part in a pop-up book because it’s the mechanism that makes something actually pop up. It makes the thing move in an arc, so the wider you open the book, the more the page unfolds. You can build v-folds on top of v-folds to make the movements more complex, which will make the pop-up effect even more pronounced. It can get pretty wild.

[SciFri via Digg]