Skip to main content

Origami Crocodile


A simple crocodile foldable with any regular paper in 15 minutes.

Design

A friend was moving away to another city, so I wanted to make origami as a little gift.

I had only one day. During lunch I thought about how to make a crocodile. There is a structure suitable for 4 legged critter with long tail and snout: blintzed pig base. Once home, I tried it out and came up with this arrangement.
Blintzed pig base

The extra flaps in front are made into color changed angry-eyes. The whole structure works, but I wished to have all the legs to be the exact same length. This can be achieved by altering the ratio of the pig base. So what's the ratio? Either formulate the equation and solve it, or just draw it on Oriedita and calculate later. I did the latter.
The reference is based on \(1 + \sqrt{2} : 2\)

Unfortunately this makes the snout and tail much shorter. I had a wacky idea to swap the ratio and see what happened. The snout and tail are now longer, but the forelegs are shorter than the hind legs.
Same reference, just swapped the width and height of the pig base

Actually I liked it. With some simple shaping, this can pass as a simple crocodile. I proceed to grab a 15 cm kami and finished the final fold. As finishing touch, we can sink one edge in the bottom, form a slot, and insert the other edge there to lock the model.
Lock on the belly

The next day I drew the crease pattern and realized that the reference is not fully nice. There is a tiny misalignment on the connection between eyes and forelegs, which wasn't noticeable on physical paper. To fully eliminate it, the reference should be based on \(2 + \sqrt{2} : 4\) like what is shown on top of this post.
Circled region shows misalignment


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Origami Pukeko Chick

Pukeko, or Australasian swamphen, is endemic bird in New Zealand and its surrounding region. Their large legs with disproportionately long toes are useful to traverse swamps and marshes without sinking. What I made here is the chick version, infamous as "the damn bird" meme.
Post a Comment
Read more

Origami Common Wildebeest

Common wildebeest (or gnu) is a type of large antelope with flat face, big & striped shoulder, mane on the back, and shaggy beard. Often featured in African savannah wildlife documentary, shown in massive herds that migrate in search of grazing area. Usually the next scene would be their death; eaten by lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, crocodiles -- you name it.
Post a Comment
Read more

Origami Indonesian Crane

Red and white on both side This is my participation on a contest by Indonesian Origami Community called " Kompetisi Origami Merah Putih " (Red and White Origami Competition). The color red and white is reference to the flag of Indonesia, as the country will have its independence day celebration on 17th August.
Post a Comment
Read more

Origami Proboscis Monkey

Adult male proboscis monkey has a large nose that dangle below the mouth. It's like Squidward. Apparently it's used for producing sound and natural selection prefer the louder one. Image credit:  https://eol.org/pages/310436 It is endemic to Borneo and is critically endangered. Coincidentally a comrade in Origami Dan, Naoki , asked me to join force for raising awareness on endangered species. From now on, my every design with endangered species will have the red stamp with tarsier face.
Post a Comment
Read more