Show HN: Meet your cardboard buddy.

http://foldable.me

by hakkasan • 14 years ago

240 107 14 years ago

foldable.me

Our new mass-customisation service, inc a legitimate use for 3D CSS.

EwanToo• 14 years ago

Love it, would be even better if you could upload a photo and have that as the face

d0de• 14 years ago

When I first saw the site, I was hoping there would be a way to upload a picture, perhaps do some kind of feature-tagging (similar to the way you point out your pupils on photos on those try-on-glasses apps[1]) and have the site spit back a suggested face based on the features they had that most closely resembled yours.

Of course, this is complete spitballing, I have no idea if it's feasible.

[1]http://www.coastal.com/glasses/frames/derek-cardigan-7016-br... (click Try It On View)

pooriaazimi• 14 years ago

They can also hire someone to do the matching manually (or do it themselves). It's a Show HN, which means they don't have a million users (yet)!

corwinstephen• 14 years ago

I'm jealous of all the people that can come up with ideas so incredibly trivial that they're awesome and everyone buys into them.

kamaal• 14 years ago

You will be surprised how much effort goes into executing 'trivial ideas'.

davidw2• 14 years ago

Sometimes they're just trivial: see "Pet Rock".

Not to say that this particular project is, although it does look a bit faddish to me.

amikazmi• 14 years ago

I think he meant to say that the idea is trivial, not the execution.

Just like twitter "idea" of publicly broadcasting 140 chars is trivial to make, but the whole "twitter" isn't.

citricsquid• 14 years ago

These sort of things discriminate against those of us who have no idea how to describe appearance! If only I could upload a photo and it would make a "closest match".

Tichy• 14 years ago

There must be "automated caricature" software available?

Karunamon• 14 years ago

I've seen those mall photo booths that supposedly do something like this - takes a snapshot of you and caricature-izes it. I can't for the life of me think of what they're called or who makes them.. Only other thing I remember is it's adorned with a picture of a girl who wearing a beret who looks like an artist.

SudarshanP• 14 years ago

Maybe this could be a crowd sourceable feature. Someone on mechanical turk or crowdflower or 99 designs could take a photo and create your character and send the design back to you which you can print later.

slig• 14 years ago

For instance, there're several people doing drawings and caricatures on fiverr[1] for 5 bucks.

[1] http://fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design/create-cartoon-...

ed209• 14 years ago

here you go http://cl.ly/image/0j3i3C2q003U :)

marquis2• 14 years ago

On another note, I went to make a pair of them for a friend and her husband's anniversary, but he has very little hair and there is no kind way to not put hair on something like this.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Hi there, does this option work for you? http://cl.ly/image/160y3e3j2Z0y

gadders• 14 years ago

Oh man, I thought that was just me!

"Hmm, have I got a round face or a square face? What shape are my ears?" I HAVE NO IDEA.

notlisted• 14 years ago

My kid knows perfectly well what she looks like. The developers however don't seem to know anyone that is of the non-peachy variety...(!)

Only smooth & silky hairstyles.

All girls have dainty little noses.

All eyes have folds.

My (interracial) kid felt very welcome...

Try again.

(!)Edit: I was wrong, skin tone selection is there. Hair/nose remarks stand.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks for your feedback. We've just added some more unisex noses. Let me know if those work for you.

As for the hair, we're aware there are some styles missing and we have more options in the pipeline.

If you want you can send through a photo of the styles you have in mind and I'll pass it onto our illustrator.

Hope that helps.

liedra• 14 years ago

Really cute! It'd be nice to be able to share a mockup with friends somehow.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks, thats on the roadmap. We'll be able to turn the 3D css to pngs soon.

kinlan• 14 years ago

I had a lot of fun with it, and the only way I could share myy creation was to screenshot.... Personally I look at it as another revenue model. Make a model of Keene Reeves and sell it to his fans etc.

https://plus.google.com/116059998563577101552/posts/Up1kKojQ...

indiecore• 14 years ago

This is a best thing I've seen all day.

Axsuul• 14 years ago

It's great to see a Kickstarter project deliver! This is some really good execution. Best of luck to you guys.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks. Kickstarter's been a massive help. I think they'll get through the current backlash in a much stronger place.

tonymarks2• 14 years ago

Great work guys. Liked the video(s), the instructions are clear, you also set expectations well for shipping, etc. Plus, building your audience (and funding) through a kickstarter campaign is brilliant. I wouldn't worry about the "photo" style characters yet; scale first, excel at customer service, and then if needed, release a 2.0 foldable.me.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks Tony. There's loads we want to do with it in the coming months. As always though, better shipped than perfect.

tonymarks2• 14 years ago

Yep. I agree. Folks seem caught up on "face images", but you may want to consider gaining licensing rights to work with professional and collegiate sports. Dropping a New York Yankees pin-striped-uni on a foldable.me would sell pretty well as an add-on price. (And you wouldn't have to give up quality control) Good luck!

9k9• 14 years ago

Who needs this junk?

antidoh• 14 years ago

Who needs the different colored shirts in your closet?

rikf• 14 years ago

This is freaking awesome well done guys. Would love to get these for our team and stick them on our kanban board instead of 2d south park characters!

EDIT: You should also make some animal shapes for pets!

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Sweet! Send us a picture when you get them.

snogglethorpe2• 14 years ago

> stick them on our kanban board

note~ "kanban" already includes the notion of a board, so "kanban board" is sort of like "PIN number".

mortenjorck• 14 years ago

This may be pedantic, but I learned something.

bruceboughton• 14 years ago

No.

borplk• 14 years ago

It's a great idea. Impressed.

Peroni• 14 years ago

Love it. Surprisingly cheap too. I've ordered three and can't wait to see them!

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks. Let us know what you think of them.

aabbaabb• 14 years ago

Should buy the .com

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

http://FoldableMe.com :-)

flixic2• 14 years ago

Very nice. But your preview visualization uses what I assume to be close to final art, including all the flaps and all. With web inspector (and some curl) I was able to extract all the layers, combine them together, and get a printable file: http://cl.ly/JprN

I'm sure most of HN visitors would be able to do the same. Not sure if you should patch it, though: your target audience will surely won't do things like that, and visualization is already a complex beast.

Anyway, thanks for the free foldable design (:

marcelfalliere• 14 years ago

Same. Took me 15 minutes to figure it out and assemble the thing. I used webkit console and gimp.

And since I have a hand down on the image, I can personnalize it to be me even more. Heisenberg is my go-to t-shirt http://i.imgur.com/BwQU9.png

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Nice! User designed t-shirts would be a rad idea. Try this on for size: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7brn6w9t11qk6saio1_1280.j...

whalesalad• 14 years ago

Did you pirate that copy of Photoshop too? Show us your /etc/hosts file!

Hah I tease, I tease. But seriously though.

flixic2• 14 years ago

Proudly showing how I paid a few thousand dollars to corporation that showed total disregard to its users[1][2] http://cl.ly/JspZ

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3952263

[2] https://getsatisfaction.com/adobe/topics/why_are_uk_prices_n...

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

And the point is? So you can pirate one, so what?

The concept doesn't live or die on the everyone coming in contact with it having enough integrity to either pay for it or pass, if nobody paid for it that would be a problem of course but the fact that you, flixic, figured out how to not pay isn't really much more of an issue than someone jumping the gate at the subway, or sneaking into the back of a movie theater.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Oh wow. We never expected someone to go to those lengths. If you send us an image of your assembled Foldable we'd be happy to send you, free of charge, our version printed on laminated, high stock card, precision cut and pre-creased so there's no gluing or cutting needed. Just want to make sure you have something to compare against ;-)

Chaotic• 14 years ago

What a refreshing attitude - someone finds a way around the paywall and your response is - "oh yeah!? well our execution is better! And we'll prove it too!" I would love if it all companies took this approach instead of DRM/litigation. Hats off to you.

chopsueyar• 14 years ago

You could always buy one of these from Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Y1CPSU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

I know it is not a laser cutter (it uses a miniature blade), but you can take existing artwork or printouts and get really nice cuts with the software and USB. It can also score, for the folding portions.

I've used it for similar projects (kirigami - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirigami) and glass etching (making stencils). Not bad for less than $300.

Anyways, awesome site and a cool idea. I wish you guys much success!

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

That looks pretty rad. Would be great for prototyping.

BklynJay• 14 years ago

Great work guys. Easy to use website with a clear design. Love the product and will be ordering at least one.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks Jay! Let us know what you think of the little fella

e03179• 14 years ago

XBOX 360 avatars can be extremely customizable and are stored in a 3D format on MS servers (and likely on the console itself). The recognize many friends online because of their avatar.

I'd pay $$ to have a 3d printout of my XBOX 360 avatar...perhaps even with articulating appendages.

micheljansen• 14 years ago

You know, I personally wouldn't spend $11.99 on this, but I have no doubt that plenty of people will fork that out with ease. I love how you can create genuine value from virtually nothing. This makes people happy and doesn't waste tons of stuff in the process.

topbanana• 14 years ago

Nice, but needs face recognition. I can't be bothered to draw myself!

engtech• 14 years ago

Next step: create a Facebook app that lets you export your foldable.me to a facebook profile picture, maybe with something that lets you do a nice integration of profile picture + timeline cover photo.

foldable.me goes viral as friends see their friends use the site. You end up with tons of people using the site who would never consider paying $12 for a piece of coloured cardboard...

but once they get an emotional attachment to their avatar you can follow up with some lifecycle emails to convert them into a purchasing customer.

You could also have a feature where friends could gift their foldable.me to other friends.

samstave• 14 years ago

Recreate people's pics from pics in their gallery.

mapster• 14 years ago

I was hoping to upload my mugshot and convert it to a caricature. next iteration? Creating these of FB friends would be great gift items.

vividmind• 14 years ago

Very nice and cute. I'd definitely use for gifts.

Bug report: the rotation and bottom scrolling buttons for lists didn't work for me in Chrome.

bellan• 14 years ago

Here's an article on how the avatar creation tool was built using 3D CSS: http://logicalfriday.com/2012/03/28/finally-a-legitimate-use...

famousactress• 14 years ago

Most of the comments here are a bum-out. Firstly, I don't think this is as trivial an idea to execute as a number of folks are saying. If you haven't launched something close to this complicated, you should refrain from suggesting this isn't much of an effort. It's clear that a lot of thought and work went into the concept, site, video, and product.

Second, this is rad! Maybe we're getting cynical or a bit lost in history, but the idea that for about what lunch costs lately a kid (chronological or spiritual) can get a website to send them something totally custom is pretty awesome. Think hard about how long this has even been practical to do at all, much less as a tiny upstart.

Oh, and it appears to be a successful Kickstarter project... so it's nice to see evidence of those.

duck• 14 years ago

Here is the Kickstarter link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kzhu/foldableme

felideon• 14 years ago

Seems like a nice way to create your own Cardboard Programmer[1] (for Rubber ducky debugging[2]) of anyone you like.

Edit: Maybe remote teams can print out all your coworkers so they keep you company.

[1] http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?CardboardProgrammer

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

[3] Suggestion from [1]: "Uma Thurman's analytical, diagnostic, and motivational skills were amazing."

adrianhoward• 14 years ago

Edit: Maybe remote teams can print out all your coworkers so they keep you company.

That was almost my first thought on seeing this :-)

diasks2• 14 years ago

If you want some awesome downloadable freebies, the artist Patrick Washburn from Tokyo has been doing these types of foldable designs for awhile now:

Spock: http://blog.patokon.com/2011/08/spock-wobblehead-papercraft....

Spidey 50th Wobblehead and Old 52: http://blog.patokon.com/2012/06/spidey-50th-wobblehead-and-o...

Captain America and Conan: http://blog.patokon.com/2011/09/marvel-comics-wobbleheads-ca...

Yoda: http://blog.patokon.com/2011/07/yoda-papercraft.html

Putter King: http://www.slideshare.net/putterking/putter-king-wobblehead

stevewilhelm• 14 years ago

Clever idea. Would be nice to have a digital delivery method that sends a PDF so one can print them immediately. Americans are all about immediate gratification.

Might also consider a family pack. Don't know if these family stickers are popular in the UK, but they are everywhere here in the states. http://www.familystickers.com/

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks for the heads up Steve. That's an interesting idea.

flyinglizard• 14 years ago

Your execution is brilliant. Very well made site.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thanks, that's kind of you to say

kazuya• 14 years ago

Splendid!

However I prefer http://facemakr.com/ when it comes to the variations of facial parts.

rbellio• 14 years ago

Being 6'6" tall and built like an NFL lineman, I have never been accused of being cute, light or portable. If I didn't feel buying one for myself would be somewhat narcissistic, I'd totally get one. If anyone wanted to buy me one as a present, I'd display it proudly on my desk though.

bking3• 14 years ago

Would it be possible to make two sizes? I could see some mom buying a whole family. Followup could be pets. Maybe make some car decals that follow the same realm as the stickers you see on soccer mom vans

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Thats a cool suggestion. Thanks

alan57• 14 years ago

Novel and entertaining. Reminds me of creating a Mii on the Wii, only they arrive at your door.

It would be cool if you could get super mini versions that you could hand out as business cards. It's the kind of thing that recipients would definitely show around, and hold on to.

bking3• 14 years ago

Oh, and can you make a zombie setup? I would totally pay for a mini-zombie-me

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Ace. Halloween is around the corner!

hnriot• 14 years ago

Nice execution, great website, but a total waste of time and resources.

veridies• 14 years ago

Really cool concept. I'd love to get a couple of these as gifts. Only problem is that I suck at selecting the right features, so facial recognition or Mechanical Turk usage would really help.

(Also, a ponytail hairstyle would be nice.)

Evbn• 14 years ago

You want to get really rich? Integrate with the Flat Stanley industry.

Poiesis• 14 years ago

In line with the people talking about giving these as gifts: what about the new Facebook gift platform?

I'm not totally sure I'd trust myself to give one of these as a gift, though, as I'd end up either creating a likeness of someone that they didn't like, or a completely narcissistic gift of my own likeness. But, hey, best of luck--I bet there are plenty of people who think otherwise!

mhb• 14 years ago

It would be interesting/challenging to also offer the figure in a 3D illusion version. (http://www.moillusions.com/2006/03/dragon-illusion.html)

danielhughes• 14 years ago

You should consider offering an option to scale these up to life size.

404error• 14 years ago

These guys provide free pop culture cutouts

http://www.cubeecraft.com/

lancefisher• 14 years ago

I've done one of those before. The biggest pain was cutting all the little lines out. It's probably worth $12 just for a pre-cut version, plus you can customize it!

jazzychad• 14 years ago

No option for mutton chops? Lost a sale :(

siculars• 14 years ago

Just ordered one. I'm literally sitting on an L couch with my friend across from me while going through the options. Trying to look intently at her face without her noticing. Thankfully, she is lost in her own laptop.

For all the people saying you could download the files and do it yourself, I say sure. You could do that. But you could also send something nice to someone in the mail at some point in the future as a surprise. People like getting mail. Real mail. Ya you could put it in the mail yourself, but will you? $12 is cheeper than a movie in NYC. Totally worth it.

For the team at foldable.me: Great product. I would work on:

-expanding the selections and options

-adding high heel shoes

-allowing someone to upload a head shot and "cartoonize" it. There are some sites that do this... partner with them?

-add different sizes to your cutouts... s/m/l

-animals like dogs, cats, horses, sheep, cows, etc.

lallysingh3• 14 years ago

White people only? I only discovered while trying to make one. Still, count me as a fan, just not a customer (yet).

Lovely 3D animation. Really lovely. I'm always happy to see 3D native on the web.

I think siculars's comment for adding animals is brilliant. I think a lot of people would like a desktop version of their favorite cat or dog :-)

lallysingh3• 14 years ago

Oh, and a halloween voodoo-doll variant could be a lot of fun :-)

anigbrowl• 14 years ago

You can set skin color on the head shape - there's only one head, but lots of colors.

lallysingh3• 14 years ago

Ah, ok thanks. I just ordered one.

jamesbritt2• 14 years ago

If you want to make your own you can grab the Cubee template from here: http://www.cubeecraft.com/template.html

There's PDF and PSD; load it into Photoshop or Illustrator (or whatever works) and have at it.

I've built lots of papercraft toys, and designed a few. Half the fun is in downloading a file, printing it out, cutting it up, and ending up with something tangible.

BTW there's a copyright on this template, too. It looks identical to the Foldable.me figure.

hakkasan18• 14 years ago

Yes, we are working with the creator of CubeeCraft, Chris Beaumont. We're big fans of his work.

tripzilch• 14 years ago

... but what if I want one with a frown?

;-)

just kidding. awesome work, guys!

orangethirty• 14 years ago

This is just out of the box thinking. Beautiful product. Ordering three.

Sales tip: this would make great Christmass Tree ornaments. I imagine a Chrsitmass tree with my whole family represneted as little carboard figures. Lovely.

GarethX• 14 years ago

I bought two from their Kickstarter for the girlfriend and I. I liked mine, but the girlfriend not so much - something about me telling her this stumpy little box was modelled on her didn't go down so well :)

qq66• 14 years ago

Neat! I am having a lot of trouble making a character that resembles me though. I'll suggest the genetic algorithm used by the Nintendo Wii and also by some police departments to create composite sketches.

This mechanism gives you an array of 9 random faces to choose from, and asks you to pick the closest one. Using that information, it generates 9 more random faces, but guided towards the features that you've selected. After 10 or 15 rounds of this, you have converged on a near-perfect likeness.

It relies on the fact that I can often tell that a face doesn't quite look like me, but I'm not sure along what parameters. However, when presented with a variant with slightly larger eyes and a variant with slightly smaller eyes, I can immediately select the correct one.

frozenport• 14 years ago

I would like to see a metal version. Paper does not seem like a durable material, and for the price of 3 Subway footlongs, I demand satisfaction.

tled• 14 years ago

Can't wait to see Maru cat version

Show HN: Meet your cardboard buddy.

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