Anyone used papercraft programs for patterning?

[practicecactus]

I'm talking about the type of computer programs people use to make 3D paper models, papercraft, where people convert a 3D computer model to be flattened out and can be printed out, cut out, and folded into a papercraft model.
Replica prop makers often use them as a guide with their fibreglass projects and whatnot, so I was thinking they could be used to make soft rounded shapes as the foam and materials on muppet style puppets would easily soften the polygon shapes.

I know this is more a high end sort of thing seeing as you would need to be adept at making a 3D model first, with something like zbrush, then convert it to be flattened, or only really be used to work something out like, super angular with jaged pieces or something and most patternable shapes could be nutted out through some trial and error anyway but I've seen some rather complicated patterns, as spied in this video, on the bench. But they're not one to talk, in detail, how they made it. [I'm sorry, I don't know their name, thus the pronoun game]

I'm not actually terribly keen on using this method myself, I'd rather sculp or build up shapes as I go, rather than spend time making a pattern and only really see patterning for a puppet as something done for exact multiples of the one puppet anyway. I mostly just wanted to hear if anyone has done this and what results they had but if not, just throwing it out there as an idea.

 

[SesameKermie]

dunno about papercraft, but that sounds like it might be interesting. (However I would need some MAJOR training before I could do it myself.) As far as the artist in the video, that's Project Puppet's Pasha Romanowski. I think he posts here as Bezalel.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I played with some of this software a few years ago and it was OK, but not terribly useful. In my experience you end up with patterns that are way more complicated than they need to be. If you want to learn how to make patterns I think you would do much better buying the Playsoup "From Sketch To Show" DVDs.