The Origami Forum

Hello everyone!

This subject/post is going to be about whether or not there is enough interest and or talent out there to do a movie/video using only origami.

Lately I have been doing 3-D animations and Claymation for fun and to amuse friends and that made me think of Origami. I spent about three weeks looking for a video or movie that someone has done using just Origami and have been unable to do so. If any of you out there do know of one or know of a group/studio/club that is currently doing one I would greatly like to know.

What I am picturing as a begining end result (if that's not an oxymoron) is a five to ten minute trailer or bit piece using nothing but Origami as the art medium to portray the story/idea (yeah I love my slashed/mashed words (and my parenthesis)). I personally dont care what the story/idea is about but I have an inclination that it will be fantasy based, lots of dragons and other mythical and/or real creatures being a big part of the art seen lately in regards to Origami.

Some ideas just to get the topic rolling...

1) Distinguishing background from foreground can be done via flat models vs three dimensional models, or wet folding vs straight folding.

2) More than likely most models that are used and do a lot of movement in and of themselves will probably need to be wired (to hold the pose for each individual picture), this can be done internally or from the side not appearing on camera.

3) Part of the plot could be to have the protaganists be square folded traditional Origami and the antagonist be odd shaped or maybe even modular Origami.

4) It's three thirty in the AM where I am at right now and I just had a brain freeze...

...which means I will let this sit out there for a few days or so and see what happens. Just thought I would throw this out there and see if it garnered any interests or if I am just having wild delusions of what and where Origami could go. Until next time have fun and try to avoid the paper cuts (they sting worse than a well placed insult)

Sipho Mabona has been doing some origami clips. He used the same claymotion techique you mentioned.

I think his homepage is http://www.mabonaorigami.com

So I went and checked out his site and he has some great stuff there. Thanks for finding this for me, Max.

The first video ( http://www.mabonaorigami.com/en/videos/ ... ction.html "In September 2007 the advertising company Nordpol Hamburg+ (which is currently listed in the top ten advertising agencies world wide) asked me to help them make an origami movie. I spent the following four weeks designing around twenty origami models for the video and consulting the computer animators. The world wide corporate movie which tells the story of the Japanese sports brand ASICS has won numerous awards.") is a well blended mix of computer generated graphics and Origami that as an end product almost seems to be entirely folded paper. About the only point that you can obviously tell its not paper is about a third of the way into the clip is a scene with an octopus swimming in water and you can tell at that point that it is CGI. But still a VERY admirable end product. What I most especially liked about that clip is how transition from background to foreground was done, buildings and scenery for the most part 'pop/fold' into appearance right before interaction which was very well done.

The second video ( http://www.mabonaorigami.com/en/videos/ ... -love.html "Winner of the King or the Fool video contest. All origami models were specifically designed and folded for this video.") is what I have seen a little of going through youtube.com and other sites like that. The scene starts with a square of paper that folds itself into shape and each new object comes into play the same way with little to no background or other objects present.

His third and final video ( http://www.mabonaorigami.com/en/videos/ ... i-koi.html "Originally made for the application of the Yoshino Issei Fund this video went on to be a finalist at the International One Minute Film & Video Festival") is a well done claymation technique used to show how to fold a a Koi fish.


Now with that said and done and out of the way I am going to go into more detail of my 'vision'...
...I am seeing a ten minute clip where we are out in space and the camera pans down and to the right and along comes Earth (folded from paper of course). The camera falls down to earth and on its way it passes the moon and a space station and a few satellites. As we fall through the stratosphere we see clouds and as we get closer and closer to earths surface we might pass through a flock of geese or a bunch of wandering albatrosses. We come swooping down to surface level and zoom along the ocean right along the wave crests and pass a couple of small fishing boats, maybe even an ocean going freighter. After a few seconds of this we pass below the surface and down into the frigid deep where we see all sorts of marine life, maybe even up close to a coral reef area (that would give us an excellent opportunity to show of some super complex tesselations). The camera passes and then is passed by a school of dolphins and follows as one jumps out of the water. Now we are air born again and from there we could go almost anywhere...

Do you see what I am trying to do here?

I would love to see if there are others interested in something along these lines, or any real serious group effort along the lines of an actual production for no other real reason then the artistic idea.

Something of this caliber would also really get Origami into more of a mainstream consciousness and could possibly lead to a series type production (think Gumby).

Thanks for your time and patience reading my long post and until next time...
...Smile! It makes your butt tingle.

Another example of a sort of claymation use of origami is in the music video "The Compromise" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2ZrnsDAkQ . There is also the short film by Jason Ku and Brian Chan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47ZTc3lSvk .

I'd love to see something like that happen.

Edit: This project was posted to the O-List today, http://design.origami.free.fr/commissio ... rigami.htm

Robert Lang and Linda Mihara made a whole Origami world for a commercial. You should be able to find it on YouTube. Here is a making of: http://langorigami.com/art/commercial/m ... ng_of.php4