What is the most difficult part of making a pop-up book?
The most difficult part is really the beginning, the engineering. The book begins with a manuscript. I have the words first, and then after that, I decide which of the events in the text (or, in this case, encyclopedia) are going to become three-dimensional. With Star Wars it was easy. I knew there was going to be a Darth Vader helmet, and I knew there would be a Millennium Falcon. I knew there would be a completely 3-D R2-D2 and C3-PO together, because they’re probably my favorite characters in the whole series. It’s the engineering that takes the longest. And everything starts by hand. I work in my studio and I design everything, it’s not done on computer. I use tape and glue and cut out and fold paper. And I make tons of mistakes. Nothing comes out perfectly at first. And with Star Wars, there are so many odd shapes, vehicles, and creatures. It took a year to get the book finished. And the engineering was the hardest part. Making R2-D2’s round domed head, for example, took a lot of
