MATTHEW REINHART: There is something
amazing about taking something that's just paper,
it's just like this 2D thing, and sort
of rearranging it and cutting it up and making it into something
that you can't believe happens.
My name is Matthew Reinhart and I am a pop-up book artist.
The background that I have in zoology and anatomy and all
those sort of things-- that comes in a lot to the way
that I engineer because you look at the way things
come together, the way things move.
If the body goes outward like this,
you don't want the folds be going inwards on something.
All these things work together so that it feels natural.
The other one that I think made the biggest impact on me
were Transformers, just the actual toys.
There was something about the way
that they went together and became something else,
this transformation is changing.
That aspect, I think, really stayed with me.
And I think that that's why I still collect Transformers
and have thousands.
I'll write out an outline, just a basic idea
of what the pop will be-- T. rex head bites reader.
That's it.
I don't know how it's going to happen,
with all the engineering.
I just know that that's what I want it to happen.
The next step is actually engineering by hand.
There isn't a computer program that does this stuff.
It's like low-tech engineering.
We're using really simple stuff, me cutting up paper and folding
and taping it.
I use an artist tape, that makes a nice hinge.
There's another way that you can attach paper
so that one piece will go through another.
It's a really loose hinge.
There are really two main mechanisms-- V-fold is probably
the most important.
It causes things to move in an arc.
Some of my pop-ups may use 20 of them all
working in different directions to make one thing happen.
The second one is something called a layer-- basically,
a box that's flat and then opening up.
So that usually is used for structure.
You have to first get the base structure and how that's
going to fit on the page.
You get the core built, and then the arms can work around it.
The V-folds that are moving directly off of the base page--
those are the first ones that are really going to activate.
Opening the page is a chain reaction event.
That's where the energy is coming from
to make these pieces work.
That energy is distributing out to the first mechanisms
that are built off of it.
As you continue to open, there continues to be power,
and that is moving further outward.
You can build a V-fold, and then you
can build a V-fold off a V-fold.
I mean, it can go on indefinitely.
And the further I work away from the base page,
it's going to happen later.
Sometimes, people only open it maybe 90 degrees,
just to get a peek in there, because you want something
to happen in that first bit that will get them excited.
And there's certain ways that you can adjust things
so that something happens within that short amount of time.
Narrow V-folds-- they open completely, very quickly,
because there's not a huge arc that they have to move across.
But they also don't move very much.
There's also very wide V-folds that move like this huge arc.
So you may not see any of that action until those last moments
before you open the book completely flat.
But usually, if you're working close enough to the center
fold, then you're getting all that happening relatively soon.
There are rules with some of this engineering,
and I'll bend the rules to make those mechanisms work.
I've used different types of paper and things.
There's one pop-up from my dragons book
that actually uses tissue paper garlands to build its body.
Usually when you make a pyramid on a pop-up,
structurally, it just sits there.
I didn't like the size that I could get from doing that.
So the pyramid actually flips.
Later, I started making pops that there
was some way of affecting that three-dimensional object
to turn into something else.
It's like I cheat and get an extra pop in.
In LEGO, there's I think it's the tallest one I've ever done,
almost pokes you in the face.
Everyone who has seen it is freaked out
that that thing can get this high within the book.
But most of what I do, I don't know how I did it.
I mean, I do, but I don't.
It's like, what were you thinking about that, come on.
You have to rebuild things over and over
and over again, make sure they work right.
One little thing can go wrong and you
have to figure out things to counter that.
I built the Optimus Prime from my Transformer pop-up
probably about 25 times because there
were so many different moving pieces that have to work.
Making pop-ups is something a kid can do.
You've got the material and you've
got the tools, like scissors, and you've got some tape.
I do it for them, I do it for, of course, myself.
I want to wow me.
I want to wow any reader, any age.
Hopefully, it gets them excited about how is this done,
can I do this, and I want to make this
and I want to be creative.
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