K-2SO Silicon Valley Comic Con

A wonderful continuation of our exciting collaborative adventures with Owen Gildersleeve and team. After the hugely positive response to our Iron Man build in 2016, the organisers of the Silicon Valley Comic Con asked us back for a second year, to develop a new paper sculpture to wow the crowds in 2017. With the recent release of the new Star Wars film Rogue One, we all decided that it had to be the incredible new humanoid robot K-2SO!

We used a selection of CAD programs to design and create a usable "life-size" model (measuring in at 2160mm tall) and then to break it down into it's paper net parts, so that Owen and team could set about cutting and assembling this insanely complex jigsaw puzzle of a sculpture.

Due to the robots slim joints, we also needed to devise a new type of framework that could not only hold the paper shell of the model firmly in place, but that could also be dissembled for shipping to the event in San José, California.

To add some life to the model, we also set about prototyping a bespoke mechanism and 3D printed parts, which could be attached and screwed to the paper head form of K2SO, all carefully designed so that the sculpture can also be dissembled and serviced.

We fitted custom-built electronic lights into the head for eyes and a pan/tilt servo motor mechanism into the neck so that the whole head could move, which we then wrote a uniquely coded computer program for, to give it uncanny and unpredictable animation.

Huge thanks go to the wonderful folk at Silicon Valley Comic Con for commissioning the piece and to Adam Williams and Poppy Lawman for their assistance and muscle on this project... Many labourious hours were spent folding and sticking paper.