Our first step was to research pop up books, mechanisms, origami, and other methods related to paper manipulation. We decided to focus on mechanisms that use only one piece of paper and use cuts in that paper to create pop ups. We made this choice because although the mechanisms are relatively simple, the possibility space is vast.  Although there are many types of pop ups, we chose to work with just one, the simple V Fold.

Once we were comfortable with our choice and after doing research in to the mathematics and geometry of the one sheet one cut pop up, we wanted to simulate it in the computer.