#FanArtFriday - Papercraft gifts from Alexander

A little while ago, we invited our good friend Alexander (who some of you may know on twitter as DJCHIMP) and his family over to the studio to have a look around and see what goes into making games! Along with his lovely mum Angela and little sister Stella, they got to see all round the studio and meet a few of the Molecules on the team. It was such a pleasure having them visit us :)

Since the tour, we've kept in touch with Alex and his family and (to our surprise and delight) Alex made us a few gifts to say thank you for the tour! Upon opening his gifts, we saw that Alex had lovingly made us a whole collection of papercrafts! They are so wonderfully made with such detail that we just had to share them with the world, for all to see!

I got in touch with Alex and asked him to write a little post about all his different characters so we could find out more about these amazing creations. Take it away Alex...

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"When I was kindly invited to visit the studio at Mm, I was blown away! There are so many talented people in one place and I got to meet them all! Jenny and Spaff made me feel very welcome as soon as I met them. Really nice guys. (: I got to see how they make games there and the work that goes into them. One of the things that I thought was brilliant was the work that went into Tearaway! The music, the design and the levels are beautiful, especially on the PS4. I couldn't wait to play it!

It was so beautiful with everything made out of paper and even the soundtrack was generated using paper! So much thought and artistry had gone into making it. It is truly something.

When I got home, I thought I'd have a go at some papercraft myself. I have never done any before in my life, so I was not sure how it would turn out.

One day I was clearing up some loo roll tubes and I thought I could make something out of them. I got two tubes and cut a mouth shape on both of them, I then stuck them together, made some eyes and some eye brows and stuck them on as well. It turned out lookin' great! I made it so you could lift the loo roll up and down as well so that his mouth would move as though opening and shutting. He was the first character I made out of material and he wasn't too shabby ether. I named him, Scuff's the Unrolling!
I found some bits of coloured card and a scalpel blade cutting knife to cut out shapes so I could make some more characters!

The next character I made was also created using an old loo roll tube. Though this time, for his head. I visualised him and drew some ideas of what he could look like as a charcter. I finally came up with a nice design and got started! I curled up some of the pieces of left over loo roll for his arms to give him a sense of movement. He's a totally different kind of character to the first crazy and slightly unsettling Scuff's, but this chap looks like a happy, friendly character with more detail and he has an interesting waistcoat, which made him my favourite. I named him Thomas Sales, as I thought he looked like a merchant who might sell pieces of card and material. I'm sure whatever he sells will be at a good price!

The next character I made was a dragon. Again, I drew ideas of what he could look like and finally settled on one. My idea for him would be to make him like one of those Chinese Dragon puppets! I always thought they looked really interesting. To give him a sense of movement, I made his body by making a concertina shape, folding the card back'n'forth, attaching each end of the body to a stick so you could move him and make him bend!
Making his jaws and teeth were fiddly though, as I said before, I have never done any papercraft stuff at all! But I was happy with how it turned out. I think he looks quite fierce, so I named him Fearsome the Dragon. But that doesn't mean he's a bad guy. I'm sure he has a soft heart. <3

The next thing I made was inspired just by eating an ice lolly and having the lolly stick left. Aha... So I decided to make a cardboard lolly with Mm on it. Implying that it's both creative and delicous! YUM!
Once I had finished that, I thought I would make a thank you card for all the molecules at Mm for letting me visit and making it a day I would always remember. It needed an envelope so I thought it would be fun to make it look like Iota, which I did. I also made a Sackboy mask as I have been a huge fan of LittleBigPlanet since day one.
Crafting and making stuff is great and anyone can do it. Thank you Mm. If it weren't for your games, I wouldn't be the person that I am today. You guys are amazing and I thank you."

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We were completely blown away by Alex's generosity and talent, and his creations now live in pride of place in our studio along with all the other fantastic fan arts we've been sent over the years. We really do have the nicest community in all the land, it's the best!

Biggest of thank You's to Alex for taking the time to craft us such a special gift, we will treasure it forever! <3