CeraCera Design Notes

Star behind the KOI model

2009-01-18T02:25:00.000-08:00

Idea & star behind the KOI Model

There was a pond next to our studio which has been a source of inspiration of our KOI model. The pond has quite a number of Koi fish and it is really a joy just to watch them swimming around. We decided to design a KOI model after observing them for a number a days making sure the movment /automata mechanism are similar. We also need to be sure that we can design a paper model/sculpture that show the beauty of a KOI.

Designing a beautiful and realistic looking KOI paper model was the difficult part compare to the automata mechanism (but we prefer to have a real-looking model rather than a sketch model of a KOI). About 5 to 6 revision change on the paper model itself to achieve that.

We have been coming back to the pond several time to observe the head, body, tail, dimension ration, scale, color of the Koi. Thanks to this pond !

This is the pond and can you recognise the star behind our model?

This is one of the discarded earlier Koi paper model:

KOI

2009-01-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

We have just completed a new automata model : KOI . It has been quite a while as we received feedback and suggestion to have a Koi Fish automata after we released our goldfish. We are fascinated by this very graceful fish that symbolish courage, wealth & prosperity in some countries. After observing this fish , we modified the existing goldfish to creat this KOI model. We have since made about 5 revision change in order to create a realistic anf beautiful KOI fish.

The earlier models either look too fat or not graceful enough.
We love this koi and we hope you like it too.

More images at our website www.ceracera.com

CeraCera NEW Models ....Almost ready.

2008-12-27T05:16:00.001-08:00

We having been working on about 6 ~ 7 new models concurrently in the past few mths..... It has never been so fun before as all the new design /concept/ideas were floating in our minds all day long...... intoxicated with Automata Magic. Nevertheless, we sincerely hope our automata will make people happy .... especially during this financial crisis .

These are three of the models that were completed and undering final checking. We have re-designed the cover pages .

GoldFish - We re-design the popular GoldFish and is currently designing another one for Koi-lover (Koi model ).

KungFu Mei - "Mei" in Chinese mean young sister and we love this model. Turn the handle, the KungFu Mei will start practicing .

Dream Butterfly - This is the butterfly that appears in our dream. We completed this model quite some time back and finally done up the final version.

We will be publishing design notes of these models in the next few blog entries and hopefully adding some animation and pictures in the blog.

Happy New Year!

Happy Automata - Dream Butterfly part II

2008-08-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

After doing some www search on butterfly, we have eventually found the one that we like and and the look alike of our dream butterfly.

The concept of the mechanism drawing was completed and prototype building started. Modified and redrawn the various pieces along the way, the photo show the 3rd revision of the draft and mock up. The star mark on the box is the location that we plan to have the flowers & leaves.

These 2 images give you the idea of the movement when the butterfly flapping her wings.

Some fine tuning needed to smoothen the movement and depict the graceful butterfly flap.

Summer break

2008-05-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Just realise the animation of the Aquashark did not work in the previous post. Thus, we post it here again and hope it works.

Looks like we might not be able to complete the Aquashar instruction on time before the planned summer holiday break. We will be away for 2 wks for holiday and probably continue our work after we are back. Hope to capture more automata ideas along the way.

Enjoy.

CeraCera - the Automata People
We simply love designing Automata and can never have enough of it!
We even dream Automata!

Dream Butterfly

2008-05-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

In a hot summer afternoon last week, I dozed off while working on the instruction manual for the AquaShark ZZZ, zzz, ZZZ, zzz...... In a dreamy state, I saw a beautiful butterfly resting on a huge chrysanthemum. The butterfly was flapping her wings and I could feel the cool breeze in this hot afternoon. It was a blissful experience.

Butterfly is beautiful. Eureka!

We will love to have a butterfly Automata and this will be our next project. The challenge is on the mechanism because the wings are simply a thin sheet of paper and there is not room to house the mechanism. But we have figured out the concept and will probably put it into drawing shortly.
We love it and I think we will really enjoy designing this butterfly in the dream.

We call this model " DREAM BUTTERFLY ".

Do you love Butterfly?
Do you love Paper Automata?
Then you will love a Butterfly Automata.

CeraCera - the Automata People
We simply love designing Automata and can never have enough of it!
We even dream Automata!

AquaShark is coming!

2008-05-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Final adjustment done and we have just finished the animation of the aquashark model. Show here for yore review and hope you like it. Turn the handle , see the shark swimming in the ocean looking for its food. Shark !Shark!

New model - JAW!

2008-05-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

We have finally completed the shark . Putting the final model together and it works just fine. Turn the handle , the shark start swimming swiftly looking for it's food deep in the ocean. We will need to put together the instruction , arranging all the pieces into a package.... Hi, stopping looking at the shark swimming, get back to work on the instruction manual.......

New Automata Design in the pipeline - SHARK!

2008-04-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

We have started a new automata design on a swimming Shark. Just completed some initial draft and working on modifying and smoothening the mechanism. It has been a struggle between whether to have a more realistic shark look or a more cartoon/funny look. Any way, we prefer the more realistic look . By the way , we were just wondering whether JAWs is a copy-right name or we can also use it to name our automata?

Re-launch of Ancient Official model as 2-in-1 kit

2008-02-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

We have fixed one bug in the lenth of the arm pusher and put this model back for release. At the same time, re-introducing it as a 2-in-1 model. Beside the standard full-color kit, it come with additional blank model kit that allow self-coloring with your own choice of color. It saves on color printing ink and allows creativity. You can also add wording etc on to the model. Hope this will make paper automata more fun and enjoyable!

2-in-1 Model

2008-02-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

As we received feedback from some users about their wish to have the models with their own choice of color as well as to save on color printing ink, we would like to try the new 2-in-1 model which include additional un-colored model. We sincerely hope this effort will help to meet some of the requirement and bring more fun to paper automata making.

This is the picture of our hand-colored Ancient Official model that we planned to re-release after we have fixed one of the bug in the design. Color pencils were used. Hope you like it.

Preview on our new model II

2007-11-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

We have put up the image and page on this model pianist. http://www.ceracera.com/pianist.html. Have not decided whether to release this model for download as it might not be suitable for beginner, we will see.

These are some of the images,

Preview of our new model Pianist

2007-11-10T23:03:00.000-08:00

Finally, we finished this new model and put together the pianist as show in the picture here.
Added support to the base box to make the model easier to hold & turn the handle. Just 2 wonderful bars make the whole model fell very much more robust. We love the motion of the Pianist playing the piano when we turn the handle. It will be perfect if it can actually play sound as well. We will post more picture of this model in the later post. The picture below shows the support bar attached to the base box and an angle view of the cams inside the base box. Hope you like this MoonLight Sonata..........

We are back to designing Automata ....

2007-06-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been a long time since we last release the model SwimMata. We are back to the drawing board again....... Hurray! Designing Automata is our passion and we are just simply addicted and can never let go...... We were once ready to drop the whole thing about designing and releasing Paper Automata due to some reasons. But the postive feedback and msg from people fascinated with our automata simply keep us going. ...... Until the day we realise designing automata itself is a FUN process (some time painful) that is both exciting and challenging.

We started prototyping our next model named The Pianist. The picture show the 4th revision which did not work too well. We wanted the wave-like motion when one's fingers moving on the keyboard while playing MoonLight Sonata.

After chaning the entire mechanism, we managed to get some right moment and is now fine tuning the postion. Should be able to make it work with the 5th revision. Enjoy........

YogaMata - One of our failed automata model

2006-12-31T05:24:00.000-08:00

Just like there is daylight and night, we have good design and failed design. Actually, there are many designs that we have discarded since day one but have decided to capture them in our blog. This is a model that we named YoGaMata that is a paper model that did yoga pose. We spent 3 weeks in the past month on this design. The picture show the mechanism has a problem of tilting the model to one side. This is because the pivot was designed to lift the model on one side instead of in the center of the body. Any way, we are not really happy with this one and have decided to KIV our orginally planned YogaMata series.

Desiging SwimMata

2006-12-08T08:00:00.001-08:00

As we were slowly picking up automata design, it took us about 3-4wks and 6 revision before coming out with a satisfactory model. The pictures show some of the parts that we put together during rev 3 and 4.
Paper clips , pins and any other simple parts as weight to fine tune the mechanism. This was about 2 revisions before the final model.

New Automata model - SwimMata

2006-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a long time since we stopped designing automata due to the various problems that we faced. We received many msgs telling us the models we design are fascinating and impressive. There are also people sending encouraging msgs to us. We have since picked up fr where we left and completed the swimmer model. That was after about 5-6 revision before we have the model working.
Turn the handle and enjoy swimming in the blue ocean.
We are at the final stage of writing instruction manual and will release the model soon.
We would also like to thank all the people that send us very encouraging msgs, thank you.

New model swimming

2005-09-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Back to the drawing board after delaying new design for quite a while. In the process, we discard (or put a side a few new design due to unsatisfactory result & movement. We enjoy each design process and failed models will continue staying in our heart. We will come back and fine tune these models again one day. This is the fascinating part of designing Automata models.

One of the models that we put aside some time ago is the swimmer. Swimming movement has always been an automata that we love to design. The coordination and rhythmic movement of hands & legs when swimming is just so fascinating.
We are glad to come back to this model and managed to fine tune and make the parts work. currently doing modification and hope to be release this new model soon. Happy swimming !
The picture show the swimming legs that we are trying to improve!

Happy Automata Series

2005-05-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

We set out to design a new series of automata that make people happy. The first model is Happy Tune which is at the final stage of packaging design. We hope to design automata that will help to make any one turning the handle to feel happy. Any Yes, we are delighted to say we feel happy designing happy tune and the moment we turn the handel........ If you happy and you clap your handes....... If you happy and you nob your head...... If you happy and you sing a song (when was the last time you actually sing?)

Happy Automata serier - New Model Happy Tune

2005-05-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

After launching our new printed kit site, we are now back to the drawing board. Work has begun on our next automata series - HAPPY AUTOMATA . (thanks for the very warm response on our Auspicious Automata Series, Thanks!). We hope to design and release a new series of Happy Automata that will make you feel..... Happy!
Currently working on the first Happy Automata- Happy tune. A cute little girl clapping hands while singing a happy tune!
The model has been completed and we are working on the animatin as well as the introduction manaul. Hope to release it soon.
The picture show the completed new model in our studio. Enjoy!

New website Automata Magic and printed kit

2005-04-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

We have been working on our new site and has released it under the Automata Magic slogan. The new site also offer printed kit instead of digital download. We hope this will help to reach out to more people who would prefer to receive via air post the printed automata kit.
Finally, the new site go live!

Another Lucky ---- Dog

2005-02-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Every one likes the auspicious Automata and we received request from Dog lover to have a lucky dog automata. We would like to make your wish come true. CeraCera is now putting together a lucky dog automata as a companion to our lucky cat. Hope to release this model in the next new product introduction.

Another Auspicious Automata - GoldFish

2005-01-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

We love goldfish and has been working on automata model to bring this beautiful goldfish into the model.
Finally, we are completing our new auspicious automata model of goldfish and will introduce it soon. Currently working on instruction manual and testing the model.
Goldfish is considered to be a symbol of Good fortune, Prosperity, Wealth and Harmony. The brilliant golden-red-orange color , the gracefully beautiful fins and as a symbol of good luck, goldfish has been one of the most popular and commonly seen pet in most household and office space. Its presence and sight is believed to bring happiness and harmony.

This auspicius automata model will let you have a goldfish (or many) displayed any where you once. Turn the handle, the goldfish will swim & start to wiggle its tail. We hope its presence and sight will bring you happiness and harmony!
Hope you enjoy making CeraCera Automata Model and bring you happiness,enjoyment and joy!

New models - Auspicious Automata Lucky Star & Lucky Cat

2005-01-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

We completed introduced our new range of auspicious paper Automata models. These models are good for display any where you like and believe to bring happiness & fortune to you. We can never get enough of auspicious symbols and objects. Thus, you can download the models now and have them displayed. Turn the handle and we hope our models will bring you the happiness and fortune !

Lucky Star

2004-12-29T23:24:00.000-08:00

We started to work on the next series of paper automata models based on the chinese character lucky star or god of fortune. We plan to design a series of automata based on lucky figures so that when you turn the handle, hopefully it bestow and bring good luck and fortune for you.
The picture show one of the new model Lucky Star based on chinese belief. All family welcome this Lucky star's (God of Fortune and Wealth) visit during the new year that bring good luck and wealth for the whole year.
The lucky star hold an treasure bag with never ending fortune while distributing gold ingots.