Good news everybody

I've ordered a second design P.C. so I'll be back up and running like never before. I'm planning to do a 24 hour design sitting once it's all hooked up to get 10 new toys ready to release, then I just need the site to put them on.

I'll be talking to the web guy on Monday.

This blog has hit all all new low in views so I'm going to make sure that the new site has papertoys popping up like mad.

A day of adventure

Today I did a lot of paper related stuff, however none of this involved designing toys, I had a meeting with the business side of A.G.papertoys, and later on in the day a lot of opportunity appeared.
I'm so tired I might fall to sleep at my desk, but it was worth it.

Win a lucky Claw from the Monster Workshop

Two new paper toy's have been added to the freebies page for Monster Workshop. So go download them, make em and then send us a pic of and you could be lucky enough to win a mini claw for your efforts!

Entries will be posted on our blog as well as our facebook and flikr pages.

P.S I'm aware of the problems with scale with one of the paper toys, I hope to get it fixed in the future, but for now you'll just have to make do.

I really never posted this?!

Here's a picture of myself (before I looked so scruffy) and the meter tall globe head toy I created for doodle day 2011. This was a picture taken by photographer turned papertoy designer Peter Fox in the middle of Leeds. On the way to transport this toy back to the safety of the car, he was bombarded with wind, crowds and rain. He has since been resting in a collage display, he's melted and deformed a lot since this picture, but that's just a reason to make a new one.

Stitches and Glue toys out tomorrow

I'm sure some of you remember the Tonk toys and competition I ran with the amazing plush designer Paul Vincent over at Stitches and Glue and Monster Workshop, well here come a bunch more craft-able critters for you to cut, fold, glue and enjoy.

 I especial enjoyed designing the stitched together toy, I think the clash of colours and movement creates a real character. This was also the first project I used my new style rules on... I decided not to limit myself to having just 1 style that I would use on all projects but toy change the style for each set or batch of toys.

These toys will be available on the freebie page on the Stitches and Glue site tomorrow.


Here's a picture of Tonk just in case you've forgotten. Or buy a real plush from Paul here.

(Image source)

Jurassic Park

I was looking at the stats section of blogger today, it lets me see how many views the blog’s had and where people came from. For example if some one clicked a link on Paperkraft.net to find my site, it would let me know. The strange part is I had a whole bucket load of views from people searching for “Jurassic Park” on google, and some how finding my site. I don’t recall ever mentioning “Jurassic Park” and the only dinosaur toys I’ve done where “Candy the magic dinosaur”, and a few Cutzila customs.

Thinking about it, making a blog post called ”Jurassic Park” and mentioning ”Jurassic Park” a whole load of times isn’t going to help the situation is it?

Also here is a failed graphic for the blog, this is one of many concepts I've decided against for the new site.

Free toys on the way,

I spent the weekend sketching out paper toys, a lot of paper toys 20 or more paper toys. Some of these are for books and prints etc. But 15 of these toys will be free for download once they are designed. The toys I have been working on are a darker tone but just as playful as I wanted them to be, there’s everything from drug dealers, hobos, hookers and beggars. The first bunch of these toys is called “Starving Artists – Begging For Change” with artists begging for money, as the name might suggest.

So there’s at least 10 free toys to look forward to, and 5 no not look forward to.  

I also designed some controversial toys I doubt I will release, when ever I design a toy with themes of religion they get very offensive, very fast. (My bad.)

The detail void.

I usually do the majority of my design work between 1 and 3 in the morning, it means I am tired enough that I don’t obsess over details and get stuck in the “detail void” but I’m still awake enough to get the measurements right. However I can’t design toys at the moment meaning I’ve had to find something else to fill this time, so I’ve been doing a lot research into art and religion etc etc instead.

I finally think I know where I stand on most of the issues facing artists today.

(wondering what I meant by the “detail void”? If I add to much detail to a toy I find that the detail makes the shape look simplistic, so I either have to make the shape more detailed and make it more of a papercraft than a papertoy or make the graphics simpler. The void is when I get stuck between it looking to realistic and to cartoony. I have to pick one style or another, mixing the two doesn’t work.)

Thoughts on a fund raiser

Thinking about it, if I can’t do what I want with office 2003 and 2010’s compatability issues, I’ll need a new design P.C. This isn’t all bad, it will just be awkward to get a P.C. that’s old enogh for office 2003 but new enough to handle the huge about of work I’ll be doing on it (my design files are huge, 2,3 GB).

                It will also cost more money so I’m thinking of doing a fund raiser, selling a sets of pre-printed by a (professional printing service) paper toys. I’ve doodled up the designs I’ll probably get the opinions of the people on NPT first.

Re-desighning

Before the death of my old design P.C. I was re-designing some old toys, toys like Skelatoon, Werewolf and Hockey Mask Murderer. I plan to re-design all my old toys to make them one piece toys I’ve already made Werewolf and Hockey Mask Murderer one piece where they were once two pieces.  I’m also giving them the same banner at the bottom of the page saying A.G. paper toys and such. This way they look better when they’re printed out next to each other and they now look more professional.

Also here's a preview of a project I'm working on (a book) It's still got a long way to go but you get to see my attempt at more professional photos. I'll use a different camera  to avoid bur in future. 

Almost in the clear

We’re almost there, I’ve now got a new P.C. with a touch screen and windows 2010. Now I just need to find a solution to the windows office 2003 problem and the P.C. upgrade is done. I have some fan art toys to give away as a free download including Tetris, Minecraft and Deadspace. I’m also working on at least 5 toys for a fund raiser and a bucket load of toys for a book. I’m also working with a great designer on joins and articulation (more on that soon).

 However, I can’t do any of this until the P.C. upgrade is done.  So close and yet so far.

Upgrade almost done!

That's right, soon the upgrade will be done and that means free downloadable paper toys for everyone!

Making the day a little brighter

This is a picture posted my Mr.Walkietalkie on the Nice Paper Toy photo section. It made my day (still upgrading).

Sigh, upgrade.

I'm currently upgrading a.g.papertoy's equipment... it turns out that new computers and printers etc cost money. But once the upgrade is done the office will be running at twice the speed.   Sorry for the lack of updates.

Here's a sideways picture